Rangeley coach Heidi Deery was masterful in bringing a young Rangeley team all the way to the regional finals at the Civic Center last week. Here she calls a timeout to discuss some strategy. (Heidi Murphy photo) Quarter Finals

Playing a 10 a.m. game did not slow down the Rangeley offense or stop their tenacious defensive tactics in the third match-up between these two teams. In fact, it gave the Lakers the chance to put away the Huskies early and win by the largest margin of the season.

Hammond’s 19 points was complimented by sophomore sisters Chantal and Emily Carrier who had 12 and 11 points respectively.

Hammond said after the game that it’s important to use all of their offensive threats and put up numbers by a wide range of players.

The Lakers took the lead early with the only two threepointers of the game coming from Emily Carrier and Hammond who hit back-to-back shots in the first quarter.

Rangeley kept the defensive heat on with skillful traps and full court pressure throughout the game. The Lakers hit the lockers at the midpoint out-scoring their opponents 10-6 in each quarter for an eight-point 20-12 advantage.

“This was a big game for us, Deery said after the game. “This is a good team and we knew we had only beaten them by a small margin in the regular season. We knew we had to come out and play an aggressive 32 minutes.”

Down the stretch, Hammond’s 6-for-6 second half foul line shooting was impressive, not to forget to mention her eight steals.

The Lakers out-shot the Huskies 20-6 in the final quarter. Emily Carrier ended the morning with seven rebounds and six steals and Chantal was credited with nine grabs off the boards. Freshman Jenney Abbott was also credited with a solid performance in the paint.

Deery said they came out with a specific game plan that her team stuck with throughout and it worked well. She mentioned that she wanted to watch the following game where top seeded Richmond was playing Greater Portland. Richmond gave the Lakers two of their six losses on the season.