Ever since Ashley Ames stepped onto the basketball court as a freshman for the Dexter High School girls, there’s been speculation about where the 6-foot-4 standout will wind up in college.

Four years later, Ames still isn’t sure exactly what she’s going to do at the next level and is still in the process of filling out applications. But at least two teams are interested in her, and the feeling is mutual.

Ames said she wants to play basketball at a level no higher than Division III. And she wants to live outside of Maine for a while.

Coaches from Emmanuel College and Wentworth Institute of Technology, which are both located in Boston, came up to Corinth last Wednesday to watch Ames lead the Tigers to a 43-28 win over rival Central.

Ames is also applying to Springfield (Mass.) College.

“I just want a change,” she said after scoring a game-high 17 points against the Red Devils.

“If I don’t like it I can always come back but I just want to get away, see what life is like outside of the woods,” Ames added with a laugh.

Ames has had an impressive three years at Dexter. The Tigers have won two straight Eastern Maine Class C titles, and beat Dirigo of Dixfield in the Class C state final last year. Ames is a two-time tournament MVP and was a second-team All-Mainer.

The Tigers are 3-0 so far this season.

Fall league play helped Bapst

There was no rest for the John Bapst girls basketball team in the weeks after the fall sports season and the time before basketball tryouts.

The Crusaders of Bangor chose to play in the Bangor YMCA fall basketball league, and the success they had in those weeks may have jump-started the program.

The first indication of that came Friday night, when Bapst beat Hampden 43-31 at the Bangor Auditorium. It was the first time in at least four years that the Crusaders won a game against the Broncos.

John Bapst has been 15-57 in the last four years, including an 0-18 record in 2002-03, while Hampden went 54-18 in that four-year span.

None of that seemed to matter Friday night as Bapst celebrated its win. The Crusaders are hoping they’ve served notice to the rest of the Big East Conference that they won’t be a pushover this year.

Bapst senior forward Katie Andrle said the Crusaders lost just one game in the YMCA league.

“I think that definitely helped our confidence,” she said Friday night. “We won a lot of games. Some we won because [the other teams] didn’t have their best players, but still winning those games really boosted our confidence. And when you’re confident, you play better.”

Not only has it been several years since a John Bapst girls team had a win over Hampden, but Andrle said the Crusaders haven’t beaten Bangor since she’s been playing. The two teams meet for the first time this season Jan. 5 at Bangor High’s Red Barry Gymnasium.

As for Hampden, the Broncos had just two returning starters on the floor Friday and had a junior, a freshman and two sophomores off the bench, none of whom had any appreciable varsity experience last year.

Would-be starting guards Kim Stephenson and Becca Workman are both dealing with knee injuries and aren’t expected back any time soon.

“We have a lot of players playing new roles and it’s taking us a while to become accustomed to that,” Hampden coach Ben Greenlaw said. “We looked out on the floor a few times and we had three or four kids who hadn’t played at all for us the year before.”

Villanova’s Wright helps Carlsen

After his team lost to Belfast near the end of the regular season, Camden Hills girls basketball coach Jay Carlsen instituted a more free-flowing offense, drawing on conversations with fellow coaches Jeff Hart, who coaches the Camden Hills boys, Cony of Augusta girls coach Paul Vachon and Cheverus of Portland boys skipper Bob Brown.

The changes seemed to work as the Windjammers won the Eastern Maine Class B title.

This year, Carlsen turned to yet another coaching voice: Villanova men’s coach Jay Wright.

Carlsen said he spoke with Wright, who may be known to Maine basketball fans as the former coach at Hofstra, which used to be in the same conference as the University of Maine. Wright gave Carlsen some ideas for a new offensive system. Carlsen said he tweaked Wright’s ideas for the Windjammers.

“It’s more of an open system, more of a freelance system,” Carlsen said. “It’s putting kids into positions where it will play into their strengths, getting them open looks from the perimeter whether it’s taking the ball to the basket or creating one-on-one opportunities in the post.”

Camden Hills’ strength is its trio of talented guards. Senior Samantha Wiley, junior Marianne Croce and sophomore Kayla Gushee will all start this year. Wiley was the tourney MVP last year.

As with any new system, the team is taking time to adjust.

“We’re struggling with it right now,” Carlsen said. “It’s really based on reads, almost more like a college-type offense.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.