AUGUSTA – One-dimensional players don’t need to bother buying a pair of sneakers and packing a duffel bag to try out for Heidi Deery’s basketball team. Better not to waste everyone’s time and simply become a manager, statistician, fan or mascot.

Deery knew she would welcome only one senior girl to camp last summer and to preseason workouts at Rangeley this winter. And whether or not Sabrina Clark would accumulate floor burns or have ample time to chew her fingernails at the end of the bench, essentially, was her own decision.

“She always could shoot the ball, but her (lack of) foot speed hurt us at times last year, and she knew that,” Deery said. “We weren’t able to use her in a lot of defensive situations. I told her what she needed to do if she wanted to be in that top five.”

Guess she listened.

Clark wasn’t the MVP of the Western Class D tournament at Augusta Civic Center.

That honor went to junior co-captain Sarah Schrader. At 5-foot-4, Clark isn’t nearly the Lakers’ most intimidating physical presence. That distinction belongs to Krysteen Romero.

But while other players scored and rebounded more, and yes, made more noise defensively than Clark, nobody’s shots in the regional playoffs were more timely.

Clark canned four 3-pointers Saturday afternoon. Three were gigantic makes in a two-minute span that triggered an 18-0 run early in the third quarter and hit the cruise control switch in a 59-41 walloping of Waynflete for Rangeley’s third regional crown in four years.

Clark finished with 14 points, topped only by Schrader with 21 and Romero with 19.

Forget Clark’s regular-season average of nine points per game and relatively quiet persona while surrounded by four high-profile juniors. To anyone who watched her exploits in the semifinals against Valley, Clark simply picked up where she left off.

Clark scored 16 in that emotional 63-60 victory, punctuated by two titanic fourth-quarter buckets. One sliced a four-point deficit in half. The other put the Lakers ahead to stay.

Against Waynflete, Clark’s contribution righted Rangeley after the Lakers went scoreless for nearly five minutes of game time and saw a 14-point advantage whittled to four.

“I knew that I’d be open and that I had to make a contribution to help the team,” Clark said. “This is the best thing that’s happened to me so far.”

Clark’s former footwork wasn’t entirely her fault. Her sophomore season was a washout thanks to a serious knee injury, and she had little chance to find the spotlight on last year’s veteran squad.

“The whole team went through the AAU program this spring on its own accord,” Deery said. “That was a big help to her, and she worked on her foot speed on her own. The girl obviously can shoot. Today, on the last 3-pointer, the girl had a hand right in her face. If teams want to concentrate on shutting down Schrader and Romero, we think they’re making a mistake.”

Once the source of all that constructive criticism, Deery is now one of the biggest believers in Clark.

“I’m sort of a disciplinarian. I’m strict about how we act, how we look, how we dress, how our team is perceived,” Deery said. “Sabrina is a great kid off the court. When you look at her, you don’t immediately say, ‘Hey, there’s a basketball player.’ She is the epitome of someone who has a lot of heart and wants to be a basketball player.”

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