The Lee Academy girls basketball team experienced something rare in last year’s Eastern Maine Class D tournament: A first-round exit from the Bangor Auditorium.

Fast forward 10 months later, and the Pandas are eager to return to the old barn on Dutton Street and make amends after Greater Houlton Christian Academy bounced them out of the tourney in the quarterfinal round.

“There’s no doubt that’s something we talk about a number of times,” Lee coach Ron Weatherbee said. “We’ve got to get back to the Auditorium and see if we can do a better job than what happened last year.”

Weatherbee has a solid corps of six juniors back from last winter. His three-guard contingent will consist of Aarika Ritchie playing the point and Brooke Harris and Amanda Gifford playing the other two backcourt spots, with Karin Bird and Dana Houghton up front.

Laci McLaughlin, a 5-foot-5 junior, will play a key role off the bench.

Weatherbee said he is still searching for that second solid sub to complete his seven-player rotation.

“Right now we’re looking for that seventh man, we’ve got six other kids competing for that seventh or eighth spot,” he said.

He says that the playoff experience that this year’s team has, including last year’s first-round loss, will be beneficial in the long run.

“That’s definitely a plus,” Weatherbee said. “All five of those kids played big minutes for the last two years.”

The juniors on this year’s team were freshmen when the Pandas won a state title two years ago.

The Pandas are one of the favorites in Class D, but Weatherbee said there will be challenges aplenty.

“Bangor Christian is definitely improved, and Woodland [looks] even better than they were last year,” he said.

The Dragons are the defending state champions, and are certainly one of the teams to beat, which should come as no surprise, even though they graduated three starters, including inside threat Michelle Ferry.

Coach Arnie Clark’s has plenty of key players coming back, however, including 5-11 forwards Courtney Cochran, a junior, and Lindsey Ham, a senior, guard Rachel Torrey, also a junior.

The Dragons will also welcome freshman Ashley Lincoln into the mix, and Clark is eager to see her contribute.

“She’s very, very athletic, she does a real good job defensively,” he said. “She’s not really offensive-minded but can score.”

Two other young players who will play key roles for the Dragons this winter include freshman Ariel Knights and sophomore Julia Nicholas.

Woodland has one of the most difficult schedules in Class D, with two games each against Class C foes Calais, Washington Academy of East Machias and Narraguagus of Harrington, in addition to playing Lee twice.

“There’s no question, Lee is probably as good a [team] as there is in Class D,” Clark said.

Another team to watch out for this winter is Washburn.

The Beavers, who started 1-4 last winter before finishing 9-9 and earning a home playoff game, are hoping to take the next step this winter.

“We have really high hopes for doing really well this year,” said second-year coach Ron Ericson.

Washburn will have to do without 5-9 senior center Amber Palmer, who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the same type of cancer that Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester had recently.

Ericson said that Palmer is still “very, very active” with the team, as she keeps the scorebook and even does public-address announcing at certain Beavers home games.

Center Rachel Palmer, Amber’s sister, has a solid shooting touch and excellent hands, and the 6-2 sophomore could play a key role this year, Ericson said.

“One of the things I like about her is she has a soft touch for a young lady that’s tall and as young as she is, her shooting touch is pretty good,” Ericson said. “She has really good hands, she catches anything.”

Junior Alex Bird will run the point for the Beavers while juniors Kelsee McLaughlin and Erica McDougall will join Palmer in giving the Beavers a solid inside game.

“She’s really good defensively, a good outside shooter,” Ericson said of Bird.

Ericson said that winning games on the road will be one of the keys to the Beavers’ success in an always-competitive Aroostook County.

“The key up here is a lot of teams do well at home,” he explained. “You’re going to be one of the upper echelon teams if you can win games on the road. That’ll be the test for us.”

Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook is expected to contend this year as well, despite losing top scorer Audrey Charette.

Coach Jessica Porter’s club welcomes back Amanda and Brittany Charette, Shana Martin, Erin Caswell and Kayla Collier from a strong junior class from a team that made it to the regional final last year.

Other teams up north which should contend include Greater Houlton Christian, Ashland and Katahdin of Stacyville.