KITTERY, Maine — There’s been a lot of basketball played in this gym in recent years. Just not a lot of playoff basketball.
Hardly any, in fact.
But here they are, heading into the last week of the regular season in Maine, and both Traip Academy teams have a chance to nail down preliminary-round home games in their respective Class C South tournaments.
The Traip girls (6-9) begin every season with a stated goal of advancing to the regional quarterfinals at the Augusta Civic Center. But the challenges this year were numerous, and started with mixing in some freshman guards with proven senior frontcourt players.
It also required surviving a schedule made up half of Class B opponents and will still require clearing a preliminary-round hurdle, which in recent years has pointed the Rangers north against teams from the Mountain Valley Conference.
“It would be a huge deal (to be at home),” said coach Scott Blake, “and not having to play an MVC team where they pack the gym every night.”
Two wins in their final three games, all against comparable opponents, should lodge the Rangers in the top eight, said Blake, and bring playoff basketball here for the first time since 2012 in a week and a half.
“It all starts with that first prelim game,” said senior forward Reilly Eddy, who was part of a team that won a road prelim to get to Augusta two years ago. “We have to set the tone then.”
The Traip boys (7-9) have the clearer path to a home game, which would be the program’s first since 2009. Sitting in seventh place, they play Friday at Class B Sacopee Valley (1-13) but then close with a big one on Tuesday against Old Orchard Beach (8-7).
The top five teams in the standings, plus the three prelim winners, earn spots in the regional quarterfinals in Augusta. The last time the Rangers go that far was 2011, and they missed the playoffs entirely in 2015 and ‘16.
“None of the guys have been in the playoffs,” said coach Jeremy Paul. “That’s the conversation we had (Wednesday). We know we’re in and that’s part of it. Now, let’s do what we have to do to get up to Augusta.”
It hasn’t been the most consistent winter for the undersized Rangers, especially on the defensive end, but when they communicate, and share the ball on offense instead of freelancing, the results have been solid.
Senior guard Charlie Driscoll is the team leader and sophomore guard Will Stuart has emerged as a go-to guy on the perimeter. He scored 32 points in Monday’s win over Class D Seacoast Christian.
“He does go off some nights,” said Paul. “He’s worked probably since the third or fourth grade on his offensive stuff. People have tried to run him off the 3-point line, and he’s used the shot-fake to get off the 16- and 17-footers, which he can hit."
The Traip girls, meanwhile, are a dichotomy, with two proven senior players inside -- Eddy and Cassidy Delano -- but needing freshman guards to get the ball to them.
Point guard Addy Hale and off-guard Kiki Huntress have made the biggest impacts among the newcomers, shrugging off the nerves that accompanied a season-opening loss at St. Dom’s.
“When the season first started, nerves were high,” said Hale. “Going out against St. Dom’s was nerve-racking, and we didn’t really know at that point what to expect. It was definitely fast-paced, but we made it a little more faster than we needed to be. I think we’ve learned how to control ourselves but keep the tempo going our way.”
“They’re controlling the tempo better,” said Blake. “At the beginning of the season it was all push, push, push. They didn’t understand that there were times we want to run and times we don’t.”
Delano, whose 11 points-per-game average is the fourth straight season she’s been in double figures, leads the team in scoring, while Eddy is chipping in 8 points a game.
Players from both classes said the adjustment came quick. There have been one-sided losses against the better Class B teams (Wells started fast Wednesday and never let up in a rout), but the Rangers have taken wins from teams ahead of them in the Class C South standings and played some good Class B teams tough.
“There was a point after St. Dom’s where I felt like we were more of a team, just connecting,” said Huntress.
"We really started to mesh as a team," said Delano.
Guards Kiley Chambers, Mia Perez, Jen McCluskey and exchange student Tezata Haizea Aldaz Zufiaurre are the other players seeing backcourt minutes. It’s an eclectic mix, but one that thinks it can take the step last year’s team couldn’t.
And then go from there.
“Every time we go into a prelim game we’re always just so worried, like, ‘We have to get to Augusta. We have to get to Augusta,’” said Delano. “If we’re at home, we’re going to be more like, ‘Hey, we can do this. This is our court. If we win this game we go to Augusta.’
“That’s a big deal for us. And this year, we want to get farther.”