FARMINGDALE — The Hall-Dale High School girls basketball team will enter the Western C tournament as the top seed and with plenty of momentum.
The Bulldogs closed out the regular season Thursday night with a 58-32 win against Winthrop before a large crowd at Penny Gym.
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“It was a good game,” said Hall-Dale junior Carylanne Wolfington, who scored a game-high 17 points. “We played a lot harder than the last time we played them. It feels good. I’ve never been on a team that has been No. 1 before. It’s exciting.”
Added Hall-Dale coach Brandon Terrill: “There’s always a bull’s-eye on you when you are the No. 1 seed. But we won’t change our routine. We’ll try to stay level-headed.”
Taylor Massey scored 12 points and played an all-around complete game. She grabbed eight rebounds, blocked three shots and had two steals. Natasha Brown scored eight points for Hall-Dale off the bench.
“We were prepared,” Massey said. “We played a good game and the crowd got us going.”
Nikki Scott scored a team-high seven points and Kelsey Nason added six for the Ramblers (6-12).
Hall-Dale (17-1) won its last seven games of the regular season and will now shift its attention to the postseason.
The Bulldogs will play Livermore Falls (15-3) in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game at 8 p.m. Monday at the Augusta Civic Center. From there, the Bulldogs will shift their attention to the Western C tournament, also at the Augusta Civic Center.
Hall-Dale needed two late free throws to sink Winthrop 39-37 in early January. This time around, the Bulldogs didn’t need any late-game heroics to prevail.
Hall-Dale led just 13-8 after the first quarter but a 12-0 run to open the second quickly turned this one into a rout. The Bulldogs turned four turnovers into easy baskets during the run. Wolfington and Natasha Brown each scored four points to spark the outburst.
Hall-Dale took a 30-12 lead into halftime, and it didn’t slow down in the second half.
Massey was dominant from the get-go Thursday, disrupting Winthrop’s offense and providing a strong inside scoring presence at the other end of the floor.
“We came out really aggressive,” Terrill said. “We did what we wanted to do. We used the energy of senior night to come out aggressive and to come out with intensity.”
Bill Stewart — 623-3811, ext. 515
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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