AUGUSTA — Rangeley’s journey to a Western Class D girls’ basketball final date with Greenville began with a three-point loss to the same team.

Followed by a defeat at eventual tournament top seed Richmond.

Piggybacked by a weekend sweep at the hands of Vinalhaven: Two verdicts by a total of three points in a span of 16 hours that included an overnight stay.

Maybe you are what your record says you are, as has been attributed to the no-nonsense likes of Bill Parcells and Bob Knight. But the Lakers were smart enough to realize that not all 0-4 starts are created equal.

“We had a slow start, but we played the top three teams and those were our first four losses,” said Rangeley junior guard Allie Hammond. “We took a while to get into it. We have no seniors. It’s confidence, believing and teamwork.”

Each of those three phases has worked in tandem and in abundance this week, in No. 4 Rangeley’s one-sided wins over first No. 5 Kents Hill, then Richmond.

Rangeley coach Heidi Deery believed Richmond experienced all the pressure in the semifinal after sweeping the rivals’ East-West Conference season series.

She’s counting on No. 3 Greenville to know that same, gnawing feeling in today’s title game (1:05 p.m., Augusta Civic Center) after Moosehead’s Lakers dispatched Mooselookmeguntic’s Lakers 31-28 and 38-28 during the regular campaign.

“They should come up and win,“ Deery said. “We’re just going to try everything we can to put a kink in those plans, for sure.”

Greenville (16-2) actually faced more resistance than Rangeley during vacation week, surviving Hebron 52-45 in Monday’s quarterfinals before rallying from an early double-digit deficit to vanquish Vinalhaven 46-41 on Thursday.

Seniors McKenna Peat, a 5-foot-5 guard, and Saige Weeks, a 5-8 center, lead Greenville’s hopes of their first regional title since back-to-back Eastern crowns in 1984 and ‘85.

Weeks averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds during the season and has chalked up 11 points per game in the tourney. Peat put up 17 and 15 in the first two games.

Her sister, sophomore Carli Peat, is a multi-dimensional threat in the backcourt, while Gretel Breton complements Weeks in the paint.

“They’re quick, quick, quick. They have Saige Weeks inside, and they’ve got a lot of heart,” Deery said. “We’ve got to understand that the game might go back-and-forth. It might go one way for a while and then the other, and we’ve just got to play the game and not give up and not question ourselves.”

Hammond’s steadying hand leads Rangeley(14-6). Her defense (10 steals) and free-throw shooting were key elements against Kents Hill.

Two days later, it was Hammond dribbling through Richmond’s pressure and working the ball inside to Chantal Carrier, Jenney Abbott and Sierra Machacos that spelled foul trouble and doom for the Bobcats.

“If one of us isn’t having a good night, someone makes up for it somewhere else,” Hammond said.

Emily Carrier, a 5-foot-11 guard, also is a major inside-out threat for Rangeley.

Rangeley overcame injuries to Hammond last year and Emily Carrier this season to make stirring, second-half runs and emerge from the 4 vs. 5 limb of the bracket.

Hammond and Machacos are juniors. The Carriers are sophomores, and Abbott is a freshman.

“We had such a young group this season (that) I just hoped we could get into the tournament,” Deery said. “We lost the first four games of the season and I said, ‘Oh. God, c’mon, we’ve got to at least get there.’ But we knew with our young bunch it was going to take the season for us to really come together and for people to really step up and understand their roles.”

Rangeley has won five regional titles under Deery’s direction, the last in 2004. Many of Greenville’s players were instrumental in winning a Western Class D soccer championship last fall.

The teams also have a championship game history with each other. Rangeley defeated Greenville, 45-43, in the 1984 state final on a shot by Deery in the closing seconds.

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