By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – The time may be different, but the Dirigo girls’ basketball team hopes everything else remains the same today.

Because of the change in the Western C and D championship schedule, Dirigo’s regional final with Hall-Dale is being played at 1 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center. All of the Cougars previous 10 consecutive Western C titles have come in the evening session.

“I’m not sure if that necessarily is a bad thing because it’s such a long wait on Saturday,” said Dirigo coach Gavin Kane. “I think the kids get quite anxious waiting all day for that night-time ballgame.”

That is the only change in the Cougars championship routine. Dirigo went out to the same restaurant Thursday after beating Jay in the semifinal. The Cougars will go through their typical detailed preparations for today’s rematch and hope to produce the same results.

“It’s exciting because I think we’re both really good teams,” said senior guard Mallory Child. “So it should be a pretty good match. If we just play how we have been playing, we should be okay.”

Top-ranked Dirigo (20-0) beat Hall-Dale twice this season. The Cougars won at Hall-Dale in the season opener, 58-38, as Hall-Dale’s tendency to get in foul trouble hindered its cause again. Dirigo then won the MVC championship game decisively, 50-31. Trailing by seven at the half, the Bulldogs (18-2) were held to six points in the third quarter and 11 overall in the second half. Alexa Kaubris had 42 points total in the two games while Michelle Holmquist had 26.

Though the Cougars thoroughly frustrated the Bulldogs in that MVC showdown, the Cougars are taking nothing for granted.

“They might be thinking that the third time’s the charm for them,” said Child. “They’re always a team that comes out and plays their hardest, and us being Dirigo, everyone wants to beat us.”

The Bulldogs feature forwards Caitlyn Laflin and Chelsey Dionne. Both were MVC first-team All-Stars and have averaged more than 20 points in the playoffs. Though Hall-Dale struggled to fend off Boothbay in the quarterfinal, it handled Wiscasset quite easily Thursday. The Redskins had beaten Hall-Dale just two weeks ago.

So with a string of 10 straight regional titles and 138 consecutive wins against MVC teams, the Cougars have plenty to play for. Dirigo has also won 36 of its last 37 games at Augusta, including last year’s 40-33 win over Hall-Dale in the regional final.

“We’ve developed a nice little rivalry with them,” said Kane. “So I don’t think there will be a problem with our kids getting back up for the game despite the final score of the MVC championship game. We know they’re a very good team, and that we’ll have to play at a very high level to move on to the state game.”

That’s exactly what the Cougars will take from the MVC final. Dirigo produced a tenacious effort and mixed fine execution with an intense will to win. The Cougars know another effort like that could get them to the Bangor Auditorium the following week.

“We played really good defense on Laflin and kept Dionne off the boards,” said Holmquist, a junior forward.

The Cougars have played some of their best basketball of late. They won their last 10 regular-season games by a margin of 34 points. In the last three games, Holmquist and Kaubris have averaged in double figures while Holly Knight and Brooke Weston have chipped in about eight points apiece.

“We just want to come out and play our hardest,” said Child. “Our emphasis has always been defense. If we can stop them defensively, we can let our offense happen.”

Over the last 13 games, including eight against playoff teams, Dirigo has averaged more than 60 points per game and allowed 32.

“It’ll be fun to play them again and show them how we can play,” said Holmquist.