Class AA girls’ basketball state championship preview: Edward Little relishes the moment

AUBURN — It’s been a whirlwind week for the Edward Little girls since last weekend’s milestone Class AA regional championship victory.

Since then, the Red Eddies have balanced time celebrating their accomplishment and preparing for Saturday’s first Class AA state final.

“It’s been really distracting,” sophomore guard Piper Norcross said. “I know I’ve had a tough time in school. I just want to play already. It feels like we’ve been practicing forever, but I know everybody is excited.”

Last Saturday’s victory was the first regional championship win for the EL girls’ program after six previous tries, and the Eddies have tried to enjoy the moment while also preparing to face unbeaten Gorham on Saturday at 6 p.m.

“I must have had 175 messages on Twitter and Facebook, and I answered every single one of them,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “The community has been great. I think it’s neat that these girls can say that they were the first to play in the state finals in basketball and being the first to have a chance to win an AA state championship. Forty years from now, if there’s still five classes, we’ll be the first to have played in an AA state championship.

“We’ve had some great, great players in this program, and it says a lot about this team that they are the first to win that regional title.”

EL won’t have an easy task Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. The Red Eddies face 21-0 Gorham, a preseason favorite. The Rams went unbeaten in a tough AA South and hope to add to its impressive girls’ basketball history of six state championships in eight tries. Their most recent state title came in 1999 in Class B.

The Rams feature junior guard Emily Esposito, who scored 10 points and had eight rebounds in a 37-30 win over South Portland in the south regional final. She was the AA South tourney MVP and is a 1,000-point scorer. Junior point guard Kaylea Lundin had eight points in the final quarter in the regional final win while 6-f00t-2 freshman Mackenzie Holmes scored 12 points and had nine rebounds. The Rams boast more size, with junior forward Danasia Fennie and senior forward Molly Merrifield. Fennie is a transfer from Westbrook and is the Rams’ go-to defender on a team that allowed just 36.6 points during the regular season.

“They’re absolutely loaded,” Jipson said. “Everybody knew coming into the season that Esposito is one of the best players in Maine. The Holmes kid really blows me away. She has such great hands and she catches everything.The Fennie kid is such an athlete and their other two starters (Lundin and Kristen Curley) would be the best players on a lot of other teams. Their starting five is just so good.”

The Rams will create a challenging matchup for EL. Gorham is the tallest team EL has faced and the Rams have some depth at guard. Curley provides a deadly outside shot as well.

“It will be the first time that we’re smaller than somebody,” Jipson said.

EL (17-4) does have size in senior guard Emily Jacques (15.6 ppg, 6.1 rpb) and junior forward Jordyn Reynolds (10.8 ppg, 11.6 rpg). Senior forward Karli Stubbs (10.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg) can play inside and outside. Norcross (6.2 ppg, 3.6 apt) can shoot from the outside and penetrate, as well.

EL lost to Gorham in the preseason, but both squads used all their players. It wasn’t a true matchup of talent on talent, but it gave each team a look at the other.

“It’s nice to know what kind of players they’re like,” Norcross said. “Playing them in preseason gave us the eye-opening moment that (Holmes and Esposito) are the two girls we really need to guard. I think we can do it if we work together as a team. I think it will be hard, but we have a really good chance.”

A number of the Red Eddies have experienced a similar state championship run in a different sport. Norcross, Jacques, Grace Beaudet, Kaylee Jipson and Francesca-Beth Haines were all on the girls’ soccer team that won the regional crown in 2014 and lost to a powerful Windham club in the state game.

“I think it helps a lot, knowing what it’s going to be like,” said Kaylee Jipson, a junior guard. “Last year, we were so nervous going into that soccer state game. We didn’t know what to expect. This year, we’ll still be nervous, but we know how it’s going to be.”

The school threw the Red Eddies a Friday pep rally.

“It’s nice to know our whole community is behind us and supporting us,” Norcross said. “Everybody is going to be there to cheer us on. It’s nice knowing we’re not alone and everybody is there to help pick us up.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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