By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

MONMOUTH – There may be no such thing as easing into the regular season for the Dirigo Cougars.

After facing Wiscasset and Hall-Dale respectively in the last two regular season openers, the Cougars have become accustomed to hitting the court running. Saturday night was no different.

The defending Class C state champs jumped on a star-struck Monmouth team and built a 13-2 lead in the opening quarter and never looked back in a 53-34 win.

“We wanted to come out and prove ourselves,” said Dirigo forward Michelle Holmquist. “People have been doubting us this year. So we wanted to come out and play as hard as we could and prove that we’re just as good as we’ve always been.”

The Cougars forced turnovers on seven of Monmouth’s first nine possessions in building an 8-0 lead. The Mustangs went 11:52 between their first two field goals while seven of their 14 points in the opening half came from free throws.

“We obviously came out very, very tentative,” said Monmouth coach Rick Amero. “I think we were playing scared. When we adjusted after the first quarter, it was like 13-12 in the second. I thought the middle quarters, we played much better. We still never got into our offense like we wanted to. I think in the middle quarters we did a pretty good job, defensively.”

Holmquist led the Cougars with a career-high 29 points and 11 rebounds. Holly Knight and Shannon Daley each added six points. Jenn Lola led Monmouth with 12 points while Brittany Scirica had eight.

“We had some outstanding entry passes into the post from our guards,” said Dirigo coach Gavin Kane. “I thought we did a very good job being patient when we needed to and broke their defense down to give Michelle, Shannon and Holly some good scoring opportunities in the paint.”

Monmouth had 10 turnovers in the first quarter and managed just three shots in the first eight minutes. Dirigo took full advantage, hitting its first four shots and five of its first seven.

“We knew they had a lot of potential,” said Holmquist. “They’re really good in the post and in the guards. We just knew we had to come out hard at the beginning and take it from there.”

Dirigo graduated its starting guards but got nice performances from starters Abby Fenstermacher, Katherine Gagne and Katie Hutchinson while Megan Russell and Nicole Kaulback chipped in nicely off the bench.

“Our guards have all stepped it up,” said Holmquist. “They’re really improving on our passes. They know when to get the ball inside. They’re really good at open looks and stuff.”

The Cougars had the lead up to 15 in the second quarter as Holmquist had 15 of Dirigo’s 26 points in the first half.

“She was pretty much unstoppable inside,” said Kane.

Monmouth got some momentum in the third quarter and used an 11-2 run to get within 34-25, but the Cougars got a pair of Holmquist baskets to pad the lead. Knight added a hoop and Fenstermacher hit a free throw to end the quarter up 41-26.

“They came out and did what they wanted to do to us,” said Amero. “We weren’t able to execute early in the game.”