AUGUSTA – Offense? Who needs offense?

Any points the teams in a well-balanced Western Class B girls’ division produce in this week’s tournament at the Augusta Civic Center will be considered a bonus.

Top-seeded Greely shot less than 30 percent from the floor in the first half but sputtered past York on Friday night. As usual, the Rangers were buoyed by a defense that permitted fewer than 30 points per game in the Western Maine Conference.

For several long stretches of its quarterfinal encounter with Fryeburg, Gray-New Gloucester might have had trouble hitting the rim with a 10-foot broom.

The Patriots summoned the collective strength of five senior starters and won, however, scoring more points (45) than they have in a regional tournament game in two years.

Gorham failed to crack 40 and still dispatched Mountain Valley by double digits.

And it took a late flurry of free throws to push Yarmouth to the high-water mark of 52 in its mild upset of Lake Region.

The defenses are likely to tighten the clamps even more as the matchups get tougher in the semifinal and final rounds. In last year’s championship game, Greely held off Gray-New Gloucester by the football score of 34-30.

Schedule change

The Maine Principals’ Association shuffled the Class D quarterfinal schedule in order to allow the boys’ team from Pine Tree Academy in Freeport to participate.

PTA is affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which observes the Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.

That would preclude the Breakers from participating in the quarterfinal round, with all four games originally scheduled for Saturday morning.

In deference to the school’s situation, the MPA continued its recent custom of allowing Pine Tree to play on Monday.

Two Class D girls’ games — Greater Portland Christian vs. Hyde and Waynflete vs. NYA — were moved ahead two days and will be played at noon and 1:30 p.m. today.

Pine Tree will play Vinalhaven at noon Monday, followed by Hyde and Rangeley.

This is Pine Tree’s third trip to the civic center, and the tournament committee has accommodated the Breakers with the Saturday-to-Monday switch each time.

Appetite for seconds?

For the first time in their seven-year domination of Class D, the Valley Memorial High School boys of Bingham must navigate their way through the Western Maine bracket as a No. 2 seed.

While the Cavaliers finished the regular season with a spotless 17-0 mark, completing their third straight unbeaten campaign, they trailed Hyde in the final Heal Point tabulations.

Hyde lost the Western Class C final to Winthrop last year before returning to Class D, where it won multiple state championships in the 1990s.

On the surface, Valley’s seed shouldn’t matter much, as the Cavaliers wouldn’t see the Phoenix until the finals. However, the statistical quirk puts Valley on the same side of the bracket as No. 3 North Yarmouth Academy, whom it trailed by 18 points early in the fourth quarter before roaring back to win in the regular-season finale.

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