AUGUSTA — It took top-seeded Richmond a half to get untracked against Seacoast Christian in Thursday’s Western Class D girls’ basketball semifinal.
But once the Bobcats got rolling, they just had too much for the fourth-seeded Guardians. Too much depth, too much defense, too much height and too much Jamie Plummer.
Plummer finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bobcats to a 52-28 victory that put them in the regional final for the second year in a row. Richmond (18-1) will face No. 2 Rangeley at 1:05 p.m. Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Bobcats beat the Guardians twice during the regular season, but like Thursday’s game, those victories came harder than the score made them appear.
“At halftime today we were like, ‘What’s our problem?’ ” Plummer said. “Then we’re like, ‘This happened the first two times. We’re going to come out, fire it up and be ready to go in the second half.’ “
The Bobcats had problems solving Seacoast’s 1-2-2 zone in the first half and couldn’t pull away despite forcing 18 turnovers. Then Ciarra Lancaster came off the bench late in the half to spell Plummer, and contributed a free throw and a baseline jumper at the buzzer to give Richmond a 21-13 lead.
The Bobcats settled the outcome by scoring the first 11 points of the second half. Alyssa Pearson — who finished with eight points and nine rebounds — scored twice off rebounds, Plummer converted a three-point play off an assist from Danica Hurley, and Bri Snedeker drilled a 3-pointer.
“At first I started to play outside a little bit to see if that was going to open the middle,” Plummer said. “I needed to be underneath and rebound, so me and Alyssa just tried to set some screens for each other and work it in.”
The Bobcats used an effective 1-3-1 half-court trap that caused the Guardians problems all day and forced most of their 35 turnovers.
Nor could Seacoast contend with the 6-foot Plummer, 5-11 Pearson and 5-10 Lancaster. Three starters fouled out, including senior Ruth Towne, who scored 26 points in the quarterfinals. Towne’s five-point flurry spanning the third and fourth quarters drew the Guardians within 40-28, but she fouled out trying to contain Plummer on an offensive rebound with 5:44 left.
Towne finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and provided most of Seacoast’s offense. Snedeker finished with nine points for the Bobcats, while Lancaster scored seven and Hurley had six to go with four assists.
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