AUGUSTA

It had been a long time since Sam Farrell and his Brunswick High School girls basketball team celebrated a win at the Augusta Civic Center in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament.

Facing defending Eastern A Regional champ and thirdseeded Oxford Hills on Friday, the Dragons faced an uphill battle, having notched just 60 points in two lowscoring losses to the Vikings during the regular season. And, in the first half on Friday, Brunswick leading scorer Julia Champagne, averaging north of 22 points a game this year, failed to score a point.

But, there was no denying Farrell’s team this time around, as his Dragons (12-7) played a solid second half to rally for a 37-32 quarterfinal win, Brunswick’s first tournament victory since 2010.

“It has been five long years, and this team really worked hard for this today and deserved to win,” said Farrell, whose sixth-seeded Dragons will meet No. 2 Lawrence (18-1), which rolled to a 65-44 win over seventh seeded Messalonskee on Friday. The teams met Feb. 6, with the Bulldogs winning, 71-50 at Fairfield.

A key for Brunswick was the second-half play of Champagne, who had 14 points, including nine in the third quarter when the Dragons turned a 21-16 deficit into a 28-24 lead through 24 minutes. Also, Oxford Hills standout Anna Winslow was in foul trouble throughout, spending long stretches on the Vikings bench and finishing with just five points.

“Anna Winslow has scorched us for four years, so to get her into foul trouble was big for us,” said Farrell.

Expected

The first half played out like the two regular season matchups had gone. The teams combined for just 29 points, with Mikayla Morin hitting a 3-pointer with 14 seconds until halftime for a 15-14 Oxford Hills lead.

Tiana Sugars led the Vikings with six points, while Winslow managed four, all coming in the first quarter when Oxford Hills jumped out to a 10-4 lead.

Madeline Suhr was a force in the first half for Brunswick, scoring eight points and picking up three steals, while guards Emily Black and Gillian Doehring did a good job defending the perimeter.

“How many balls did Gillian Doehring get her hands on today?” asked Farrell of his junior guard, who had six assists and four steals.

Sugars and Jayden Colby scored to start the second half, sandwiching Champagne’s first bucket for a 21- 16 Vikings lead.

But, Suhr nailed her second trey, and after Morin answered for Oxford Hills (15-4), Brunswick closed the quarter on a 7-0 run. Sabrina Armstrong scored two points, and Champagne gave her team the lead for good with two free throws for a 25- 24 edge. Champagne tacked on three more points to close the quarter, and took a pass from Doehring and scored to open the fourth for a 30-24 edge.

“We were able to do the things that we wanted to do, especially in the second half,” said Farrell, whose team grabbed their largest lead, 32-25, with 6:31 remaining.

“In the first half, we didn’t push our speed, mostly because they like to pack it in,” said Black, who made two key fourth-quarter free throws and dished out three assists. “The second half, we played the way we wanted to play. We wanted to work inside and get them into foul trouble. Our speed helped us.”

Twice Oxford Hills closed to within two points down the stretch, the final time when Morin, who had a team-high 10 points, made two at the line to get the Vikings to 34-32 with 1:51 remaining.

But, Black answered at the free-throw line with 38 ticks on the clock, and Champagne made 1-of-2 to finish of her 14-point second half on Brunswick’s next trip down the court.

“This was so exciting, because none of us have won a game in the Civic Center,” said Doehring.

Suhr finished with 11 points, six rebounds, five steals and two assists, while Armstrong came off the bench to chip in six points. Brunswick was 9-for-17 from the field in the second half (52 percent) to finish 13-of-40 (32 percent). The Dragons made 9-of-16 at the freethrow line.

Sugars had nine points and seven boards for Oxford Hills, which made 11-of-40 from the floor (27 percent), including just 4-of-24 in the second half (16 percent).

No. 6 Brunswick 37,
No. 3 Oxford Hills 32

Eastern Maine Class A Quarterfinal
At the Augusta Civic Center
Brunswick — 4 10 14 9 — 37
OxfordHills—10 598—32
Brunswick — Madeline Suhr 4-1-11,
Adrianna White 2-0-4, Emily Black 0-
2-2, Gillian Doehring 0-0-0, Julia
Champagne 6-2-14, Kolby Levesque
0-0-0, Sabrina Armstrong 1-4-6,
Aiden Sachs 0-0-0. Totals — 13-9-
37.
Oxford Hills — Jayden Colby 1-2-4,
Anna Winslow 2-1-5, Tiana Sugars 4-
1-9, Mikayla Morin 3-2-10, Alyssa
Hanley 0-2-2, Erin Morton 1-0-2,
Shannon Kriger 0-0-0, Erin Eastman
0-0-0. Totals — 11-8-32.
3-point field goals — (B) Suhr 2;
(OH) Morin 2.
Records — Brunswick 12-7, Oxford
Hills 15-4.
Up next for the Dragons — Wednesday in the Eastern A quarterfinals at
the Augusta Civic Center against No.
2 Lawrence (18-1), 2:30 p.m.