Even though the Dirigo girls basketball team won’t be facing old foe Calais, the Western Maine champion Cougars of Dixfield will still play a somewhat familiar team when they meet Eastern Maine winner Dexter for the state title tonight.

That’s thanks to lots of scouting on the part of Dirigo coach Gavin Kane and Dexter skipper Margaret Veazie.

“I’ve been scouting them like crazy, they’ve been scouting us like crazy,” Veazie said after Saturday night’s EM final. “We know everything about each other.”

The two teams, both 21-0, will meet at 7:35 p.m. at the Bangor Auditorium.

Four starters from Dirigo’s 2002 state championship team return to this year’s squad, which won its ninth straight WM championship Saturday with a convincing 76-39 victory over No. 2 Boothbay.

The Cougars’ offense is still focused squarely on 6-foot-1 senior center Lyndsay Clark, a third-team All-Maine pick last year who is heading to Albany on a basketball scholarship. Clark averaged 17.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in the regular season.

Senior Alyssa Burns, a 5-9 guard-forward, followed Clark with 15.6 ppg. Sophomore forward Alexa Kaubris is averaging 11.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg and a team-high three steals per game. Senior point guard Nikki Turbide adds 4.7 ppg and a team-best 3.7 assists per game. Senior forward Natalie Keene also averages about 4.7 ppg.

The Cougars averaged 73.6 points in three Western Maine tournament games.

“They could easily blow us out,” Veazie said. “They’re senior-laden and we’re not, and a senior-laden team like that just has an edge.”

The one edge Dexter holds is location of the state game. The Cougars have won 31 consecutive tournament games at the Augusta Civic Center, but they’ve been unable to win at the Bangor Auditorium.

Clark and Keene will have to go up against 6-3 center Ashley Ames and 6-foot forward Ashley Foster of Dexter. The Tigers also start point guard Brittany Veazie, and guards Keriann Patterson and Lindsay Turner.