Hall-Dale High School graduate Chelsey Dionne recently finished her sophomore year at Brandeis University.

There's a full slate of games Thursday in Augusta, and I see them as three good games and one not-so-good one.

At halftime from Bangor Auditorium, Waterville leads Erskine 31-8. The Purple Panthers are doing it with defense. Waterville has forced 16 turnovers and has held Erskine to 3 for 15 shooting from the floor.

At Tuesday's Western C girls quarterfinals in Augusta, I was able to see a great display of sportsmanship, and also a case where a young woman was out of line.

I went to the Class D girls matchup between Richmond and Forest Hills on Tuesday morning half awake. Sportswriters, as a rule, like to sleep in.

Eastern A and B almost entirely held form in the first round, as the top three seeds advanced in both brackets. The only "upset" was No. 5 Oxford Hills beating No. 4 Bangor in Eastern A. Here's a look at the semifinal matchups, all of which will be played Wednesday:

This is the space where I give my predictions on the Western C girls quarterfinals. Before we get to that, it's worth talking about why the Heal points system doesn't work, and why the Maine Principals' Association needs to fix it.

Here are my predictions for the first round of the Western D girls basketball tournament. Quarterfinal games will be played Monday and Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center:

Waterville wins easily, 63-37. Morgan Frame leads the way with 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. Ten different players end up scoring for Waterville, which moves on to play Erskine Wednesday night.

Erskine holds on to win 53-49. Ericka Malley scored 25 for the Eagles and Allie Parent had 27 for Camden. Ashley Richardson added 13 points and nine rebounds for Erskine.

Staff writer Travis Lazarczyk called into update the Eastern B quarterfinal between the Mt. View girls and John Bapst.
At the half, John Bapst leads Mt. View 28-12.

Here's the second installment of my first-round predictions, including an upset I can't believe I'm taking.

This year I'm using this blog to make round-by-round predictions for the brackets which have our local teams involved (Eastern A, Eastern B, Western C and Western D). First, a couple quick disclaimers:

There's not much to complain about if you're a Gardiner girls basketball fan. The Tigers lost a prelim game, 52-51 on a buzzer-beater from Old Town's Rebecca Taylor on Tuesday night, but their effort, particularly in the fourth quarter, was outstanding.

An electrifying crowd came out to see the Messalonskee girls basketball team bury Brewer 53-45 in an Eastern A preliminary game Tuesday night in Oakland.

You won't see a lot of emotion on the floor from Rachael Mack and Shelby Pelkey, but they are definitely the leaders on an otherwise inexperienced Cony High School basketball team.

Here's hoping you're having a great holiday season, and here's hoping you were able to see the Mt. Abram-Winthrop or Lawrence-Morse games on Friday night. Only about 60 fans were on hand for the Mt. Abram-Winthrop game, but it was still one of the most exciting games you could hope to see. I left the gym, got on my phone and said, "Games like that are why I love my job."

Moving on, the best matchups during this week are at the Capital City Hoop Classic. But there are a few interesting games on Friday in which Heal points are on the line.

Here are some more things worth mentioning from a very strange night at Messalonskee.

I wasn't lucky enough to see the Messalonskee-Brewer triple overtime game Friday night, but as usual, there are plenty more matchups to look forward to in the last week before the Christmas break. The big one -- and indeed, it's one of the best of the season -- is at Morse High School on Friday night.

It's a little too soon to tell which games are going to end up being big ones, but guessing which games will be interesting ones is fine even after one weekend of games. Here's a look at some interesting matchups in the week ahead:

It's always tough interviewing a coach after a tough loss. If I were a coach in that situation, probably the last person I'd want to talk to is someone with a notebook or a tape recorder. So it's nice when there's another reminder that we have some good people coaching in central Maine.

Forest Hills probably isn't a contender for a state title. But anyone who likes high school sports can appreciate the Tigers this season.

Waterville will open defense of its Class B state title in the City of Waterville on Friday, Dec. 7, but it won't be at Waterville Senior High School, and it won't be at the usual 7 o'clock start for Friday night games.