AUBURN — Every college basketball season is long enough for a team to reinvent itself.

The Central Maine Community College women took starting over to an unthinkable level this winter.

To watch the Mustangs lose by 19 points to the University of Maine at Augusta in December and see them beat the same rival by 23 in February’s Yankee Conference tournament was to observe a perfect chemistry experiment.

“I really like this team,” said Ariel McConkey of Fryeburg. “Each game we’ve gotten better and better and learned how to work with each other.”

CM celebrated the fruit of that labor with its fourth league championship and an automatic trip to the USCAA nationals in Uniontown, Pa.

If a rags-to-riches story isn’t enough to warm the heart, how about an underdog tale?

Seeded last in the 16-team field, CM (17-9) confronts No. 1 Rochester College (20-13) of Rochester Hills, Mich., in a first-round game at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday.

“They played two NCAA Division I teams, Oakland and Grand Valley State,” first-year CM coach Andrew Morong said of Rochester. “Whatever their record is, you’ve got to figure a few of their losses are to NCAA Division I, II and III teams. They beat our rival (Southern Maine CC) by 40.”

Simply having a chance to slay the giant is an opportunity the Mustangs never would have imagined before Christmas.

CM played those early games with a roster of eight and at least two starters fighting chronic injuries.

“The first half (of the season) we couldn’t press because we didn’t have enough substitutes,” said Danielle McCusker of South Portland. “Second semester we got the girls and we could press the whole game.”

McConkey played the first semester of the 2010-11 season at CM before transferring to Lyndon State in Vermont, then New England College in New Hampshire.

Point guard Kayla Ellis came back to the team for a fourth season.

“I missed playing. I wasn’t going to school and I was just working full time,” said Ellis, from Dover, N.H. “We lost in the (conference) championship game. I wanted to go back to nationals. I wanted to come back and try again.”

In addition to the veterans, CM picked up rookie Maggie Sabine of Litchfield, a 1,000-point scorer at Oak Hill, where she played for Morong’s father, Tom.

The changes pervade every area of the Mustangs’ game.

Pressure produces layups. More of an inside presence leads to kick-outs for open 3-pointers. Balance and unselfishness lead to an exorbitant number of assists and a difficult scouting report for all opponents.

“It’s a new season. It was challenging and fun as a coaching staff to basically start over in the middle of the season with barely any time to get the kids playing together,” Morong said. “We’ve played 13 games with the new kids and I think they’re finally getting what it takes to play at a high level. When a couple of them try to win it for us, it doesn’t work. That’s what they had to do first semester. Now they can just play basketball. Just go have fun, play your game, and everything else will take care of itself.”

As the anchor from beginning to end, McCusker was named a league all-star.

Sabine was MVP of the conference tourney, where CM tore through in-state foes SMCC, UMA and UMaine-Machias to claim the crown. McConkey racked up 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals in the clinching 70-64 win.

“The first game together was tough because you don’t know how people play,” McConkey said. “Now we know how to read people. Our offense has come together really well and our defense has improved a lot since the first game.”

Ellis and Teira Durgin of Hebron are the only four-year players who were around for CM’s most recent journey to nationals in 2009.

“We get treated like we’re Division I basketball players,” Ellis said. “We stay at a five-star resort. The competition is incredible.”

CM and Rochester have one common opponent.

Each team beat No. 2 Briarcliffe, and the Mustangs sprang that upset with its abbreviated roster early in the season.

“We’re going to press them for 40 minutes, and if they’re better at that game than we are then they deserve to win,” said Morong, a former coach at Poland Regional High School who inherited the program this season from founder Mike Bridges. “We’re just excited to be able to carry on the tradition CM has established over the past 15 years. Just to have a shot at winning a national championship is very special.”

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