If you think this year’s Eastern Maine Class A girls basketball tournament featured stellar play, just wait until next year.

All five members of the 2004 Eastern A NEWS All-Tournament team will be back next winter, led by 6-foot-2 junior center Katie Rollins of regional champion Cony of Augusta, winner of the Owen Osborne Most Valuable Player Award.

The MVP award was established in 1994 in memory of Osborne, a former NEWS sports editor and reporter. The award and NEWS All-Tournament Team are selected by a vote of media, tourney officials and representatives of the Maine Principals’ Association.

Rollins is one of three Cony players to earn All-Tournament Team honors, along with 6-1 freshman forward Cassie Cooper and 5-6 junior guard Briiana Rende.

They are joined by two standouts from Eastern A runner-up Skowhegan, 5-4 sophomore guard Nicole Paradis and 5-9 freshman guard Bethany Sevey.

Rollins, an honorable mention selection last year, was the unanimous choice as tournament MVP. She averaged 20 points and 8.7 rebounds in three games for the 21-0 Rams and shot 54 percent from the field (25 of 46). She saved her best game for last, amassing 25 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots as Cony topped Skowhegan 51-44 to win its second regional title in the last three years.

Cooper teamed with Rollins to give coach Paul Vachon’s Rams an imposing frontcourt tandem. The daughter of University of Southern Maine career scoring leader Maureen Burchill Cooper and former Lawrence High girls basketball coach Bruce Cooper, Cassie Cooper averaged 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per tournament game. She had 25 points and eight rebounds in Cony’s 70-50 semifinal victory over Mount Ararat of Topsham, then had 17 points and 12 boards in the championship game.

Rende was a two-way sparkplug for Cony, guiding the offense from her point-guard slot while leading the Rams’ traditionally aggressive perimeter defense. She averaged 17 points per game, including 25 in Cony’s 63-47 quarterfinal victory over Gardiner and 23 in the semifinals against Mount Ararat.

Like Rende, Paradis was as much a defensive leader as an offensive catalyst from the point-guard position while leading Skowhegan to its first appearance in an Eastern A title game since 1979. Paradis averaged 8.7 points, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game, with five assists and four steals in Skowhegan’s 53-26 semifinal victory over Bangor.

Sevey tied an Eastern A girls tournament record with 10 3-point goals, shooting 35.7 percent (10 of 28) from beyond the arc in three games. Sevey averaged 16 points per game, including 23 points in the Indians’ 62-51 quarterfinal victory over Messalonskee of Oakland.

All-Tourney Team

Class A

Pos. Name School Yr. Ht. PPG RPG

C Katie Rollins* Cony Jr. 6-2 20.0 8.7

F Cassie Cooper Cony Fr. 6-1 16.7 8.7

G Nicole Paradis Skowhegan So. 5-4 8.7 4.0

G Bethany Sevey Skowhegan Fr. 5-9 16.0 4.3

G Briiana Rende Cony Jr. 5-6 16.0 4.0

*?Owen Osbourne Most Valuable Player Award winner

Honorable Mention: Kayla Thompson (Skowhegan), Erin Johnson (Mount Ararat), Laura Clarke (Bangor), Kim Stephenson (Hampden Academy), Betsy French (Messalonskee)