This one was over quickly.

And again, it was Brunswick High’s suffocating defense that determined the outcome.

The second-seeded Dragons scored the game’s first 12 points, held sixth-seeded Greely to one basket in the first half and ran away to a 58-21 victory in a Class A South girls’ basketball semifinal Wednesday afternoon at the Portland Expo.

“I thought we moved so well and anticipated, I don’t think (Greely) got a lot of good looks,” said Sam Farrell, who got his 200th win as the Dragons’ head coach in the quarterfinals. “When five players out there are moving, and subs come in and we don’t miss a beat, you’re going to have a good game. We could feel it.”

Brunswick (18-2) will play top-seeded Mt. Ararat, which beat Fryeburg Academy 36-30, for the regional title at 7 p.m. Friday. It will be the Dragons’ seventh appearance in the regional championship game in 14 years.

Greely (9-11) missed its first 16 shots. Its lone field goal in the first half was a 3-pointer by Lauren Hester with 1:34 remaining. Combined with 15 first-half turnovers, it was a disastrous first two quarters for the Rangers.

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“Today was not our best,” said Greely Coach Todd Flaherty, “but Brunswick had something to do with that.

“We lost to a better team today. It’s hard to mimic that defense in practice. It’s one of those things that you can talk about it all you want but until you see it … It’s a suffocating defense.”

Brunswick used its defensive quickness and tenacity to hound each dribble and pass.

Dakota Shipley, who led Brunswick with 21 points, said the Dragons’ defensive effort comes down to communication.

“It’s just talking, really,” she said. “Everybody’s always talking. We play a really good zone, and man, too. And we try not to give up any second opportunities.”

The Dragons’ offense was rolling as well, again clicking with an inside-outside game that was difficult to defend.

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Five Brunswick players hit 3-pointers, led by Shipley’s four. That was intriguing to Farrell because the game plan was to get the ball inside.

“It was inside out, they took open shots,” he said. “Greely was sagging inside and when you hit shots early, especially when you’re a bigger team, it just opens everything up. And the big thing is, we’re so unselfish. I don’t think we took a bad shot.”

Lexi Morin, who scored 15 points, got it going with a 3-pointer from the right wing. Shipley hit another 3, this time from the left wing, and it was 6-0.

“We have a lot of great scorers on the team,” said Shipley. “And we kind of just played basketball. We really didn’t run plays because they were pressing us. We just gave the ball to whoever was open.”

Maddy Werner scored the next six points, all on inside power moves, to make it 12-0.

Hester hit a foul shot with 1:57 left in the first to stop that run, but Shipley followed with an inside basket and another 3-pointer to make it 17-1 after the first quarter.

It was 28-2 before Hester hit her 3-pointer. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just inside half-court by Eva Harvie gave the Dragons a 31-5 halftime lead.


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