Things are shaping up differently in Class AA girls’ basketball this year.

A season ago, the North region was noticeably stronger than the South, a notion proven with emphasis when Oxford Hills walloped Gorham, 62-25, in the state final. The North had five tested teams with winning records, while the South had only two above .500. The North final between Cheverus and Oxford Hills was a double-overtime thriller, while the state championship game was over just after halftime.

Nine months later, it’s apparent going into the new season that things have changed, and the gap between the regions has shrunk – if not disappeared altogether. Several star players in the North region have graduated. Young teams in the South have grown and improved. And then there was a headline-grabbing offseason move, one that helped change the balance of power.

It’s an open race to the finish, and the winner could come from either side.

“(The top) five teams in the South could compete with anybody in the North this year, and last year I thought the North, almost top to bottom, was really good,” Scarborough Coach Mike Giordano said. “I think the North comes back to us, for sure.”

The move in tipping the competitive scales came in August, when senior center Emma Lizotte, a two-time Varsity Maine All-State selection who will play next season for Quinnipiac University, transferred from Cheverus to Thornton Academy in her hometown of Saco. The move took a core player away from the Stags, who have reached the last two AA North finals and would have been a prohibitive favorite to make a third.

Instead, Lizotte joins fellow Varsity Maine All-State pick Addisen Sulikowski and rising star point guard Kylie Lamson on a Thornton Academy team that went 18-2 last season and reached the AA South final. Losing three starters was going to sting the Golden Trojans; instead, with Lizotte on board, they might be the favorite to win the state title in March.

“There is pressure that comes with it, but I think it’s up to us to tune it out,” Lizotte said. “We just listen to each other on the court and don’t let outside pressures get to us. We lift each other up.”

The games haven’t begun, but Lizotte’s arrival has already brought a buzz to the team.

“She’s the best big in the state, hands down,” Sulikowski said. “If you get blown by because you’re late on a rotation, Emma’s right there to block the rim. She’s an amazing asset on this team, and we’re going to go far places.”

The Trojans know that the spotlight that was on Oxford Hills and Cheverus last year is now on them.

“There’s a lot of pressure. You see a lot of news headlines,” Sulikowski said. “We’re not letting it get in our way. … Everyone used to look down on us. Yeah, TA’s never won a Gold Ball. This is kind of our year to show everyone and prove to everyone that TA is a Gold Ball team.”

Thornton, however, likely won’t be in for the same regular-season runaway as last season, when its record was five games better than any other team in the region. The rest of the South is stronger, too. Gorham, which went 9-9 in the regular season before heating up in the playoffs and reaching the state final, returns its entire starting lineup as well as Vanessa Walker, who averaged 14 points before tearing her ACL.

There are other contenders. Sanford, 13-7 last season, returns key scorer Julissa McBarron and most of its lineup. Scarborough, 10-10 a season ago, has Caroline Hartley and three other starters back. South Portland, 9-10, has top-four aspirations.

“I certainly don’t think our side is a two-team race,” Gorham Coach Laughn Berthiaume said. “I still see our side being extremely competitive, and it may come down to our depth factor. If it does come down to depth, I like the group that we have.”

In the North, the departures of Lizotte, Oxford Hills’ Sierra Carson, and Bangor’s Emmie Streams and Abbey Quinn, as well as the reclassification of Hampden Academy to Class A, have given the teams looking to catch up some hope.

“The league is much more open than it has been in years,” said Portland Coach Abby Hasson, whose team will look to make a jump in the North region.

That’s not to say the North won’t be formidable. Cheverus Coach Billy Goodman doesn’t see Oxford Hills, which returns Ella Pelletier, Gabbie Tibbetts and Tristen Derenburger, slipping much.

“They will always have players,” he said. “They’re always going to be good. They’re just consistently good, the last 15 years.”

The same could be said about Goodman’s Stags. The transfers of Lizotte and sophomores Jenna and Jaelyn Jensen deprived Cheverus of three players who would have played key roles, but with Maddie Fitzpatrick, Ruth Boles and Megan Dearborn back, as well as Anna Goodman and Rachel Feeley ready to step up, there’s still an excitement to start the season.

“One hundred percent, it’s still there,” Fitzpatrick said. “(It’s the) same goals. … We feel like we have a chip on our shoulder, definitely, and that people are going to underestimate us. That only motivates us. I think it’s brought us closer together and made us more focused.”

Billy Goodman didn’t sugarcoat the work that Cheverus needs to do to reach that level again, namely playing team defense, avoiding turnovers and handling pressure. But he also thinks the Stags will get there.

“There’s a big difference in knowing where to be, the intensity you need to play at, so we really need these weeks of practice,” he said. “With the girls we have coming back, people are considering us a good team. But we have to practice hard to get to that level.”

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