The Rangeley girls cruise to another Class D regional title.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – A year is a long time to wait for redemption, but the Rangeley girls’ basketball made it worthwhile Saturday.

The Lakers captured their third Western Maine Class D championship in the last four years with a convincing 59-41 win over Waynflete. The Lakers built the early lead and then shrugged off a Flyer charge in the second half to advance to next Saturday’s state championship game against Lee.

“It’s an amazing feeling right now,” said junior center Krysteen Romero. “I’d kind of forgotten how the whole process worked and what went on because it was two years ago. It’s all coming back real quick, and it’s real nice.”

One reason the Lakers may not remember their Western D title from two years ago is because of the disappointment of last year’s semifinal loss to Valley. It’s a defeat that has driven the Lakers ever since and helped carry them to Saturday’s reward.

“Ever since that loss in the semifinals, we’ve just been determined and we wanted to go home with nothing but our best,” said junior guard Sarah Schrader. “We wanted to put it all out on the floor.”

Top-ranked Rangeley (20-0) dictated play from the start Saturday and had a double-digit lead in the first half. Second-seeded Waynflete (17-2) managed to regroup and get within three, but the Lakers delivered the knockout with 18 straight points in the third. Sabrina Clark had nine points during that stretch, with a trio of 3’s that rained down on the Flyers hopes.

“It really got us going, it always does,” said Schrader. “When she and Justine (Frost-Kolva) light up at the three-point line, we get pumped and everybody feels good.”

Schrader led the Lakers Saturday with 21 points and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. She also had eight assists and six steals. Romero added 19 points and 10 rebounds while Clark finished with 14.

As balanced as the offense was, it was Rangeley’s defense that played a significant role. Waynflete’s tandem of Khalilah Ummah and Noelle Surette were thoroughly frustrated. The two had combined for 32 of the Flyer’s 33 points in a 52-33 loss in the regular season. By halftime Saturday, those two had just seven points combined as the Flyers trailed by 27-18. Coach Heidi Deery had put Romero on Ummah and Schrader on Surette in the regular season but chose to protect Romero from potential foul trouble. She put Schrader on Ummah and Rosie LaPointe on Surette instead.

“They looked at me like “What?”,” said Deery. “I said maybe we’ll just do it for two minutes but let’s give it a look and see what happens and it worked.”

Ummah finished with 12 and Surette had 10.

Rangeley built the first half lead, establishing the tempo early as they had hoped.

“We wanted to take them out of their game and make them play a halfcourt game,” said Waynflete coach Jan Veinot. “The first two minutes no one scored but you could tell they were a little quicker and a little more aggressive, and they were better prepared.”

In the third quarter, Waynflete made its run. A three-point play by Surette and a rebound by Desiree Lester cut the lead to 27-23, but it was lights out from there.

“We just had to keep playing our game,” said Romero. “That’s what we did. On Thursday (against Valley), we knew we just had to keep doing it and know that we were in it the whole time.”

Clark answered with back-to-back 3-pointers and the rout was on.

“We didn’t expect that,” said Veinot. “She did a good job.”

Schrader followed with a basket off a Romero pass, and Clark hit another trifecta. After a Romero basket, Schrader turned a steal into a three-point play for a 45-23 lead.

“You just have to believe,” said Romero. “That’s our whole motto. We worked really hard on that. Last year in the semifinals, we know we didn’t believe the whole time. Thursday, we believed the whole time and today we believed the whole time.”