One reason the Waterville girls' basketball team will play Lake Region for the Class B state title Friday night in Bangor is that they have so many players who can beat you. On that team of stars, it's Sarah Given who got her name on a sign.
The sign is at the Waterville Wendy's, of all places. On one side, it says, "Swim away with a premium fish fillet." On the other, it reads, "Congratulations Sarah and the Waterville girls basketball team."
"I come in from the other side, so I didn't initially see it," said Given, a 5-foot-7 guard who works at that Wendy's. "One of the girls I work with told me to go outside and to the other side, and I just couldn't help but laugh and smile. Everybody's seen it. Everybody's made comments about it."
Ironically, Given has become less of a marquee player this season for the Purple Panthers who are one win away from their second straight undefeated season.
She is still among the top 3-point shooters in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B, but as the team's only senior starter, her value this winter is more in her defense and leadership.
"She's an unbelievable defender," Waterville coach Ted Rioux said. "Unless it's like a 6-foot-1 center, she usually guards the other team's top scorer, because she knows how to use her angles so well."
A talker with a ready smile -- sophomore Jen Nale called her "the biggest sweetheart on our team" -- Given naturally took on the leadership role because of her status as a four-year varsity player and having three younger sisters at home.
"All the girls (on the team) are like my younger sisters, so I kind of feel like I have to look out for them, and make sure that we stay together on the court," Given said.
Given is a three-year starter for the Panthers, and has seen Waterville go from a team which lost in the preliminary round in her freshman season to one of the top teams in the state in any class the last two seasons.
"My freshman year, we had a good team, we had a lot of girls who could play basketball and we were very athletic," Given said.
"But the thing is with the team as it grows up, we just played better together. We've been playing with each other for so long that we know girls' assets and we know what we should do in certain situations."
Given, like her teammates, has also bought into the idea that the individual scoring doesn't matter as much as a Waterville win. Last year in the Eastern B tournament, she scored 19 points in a two-point victory against Mattanawcook.
In the rematch Saturday, Given didn't score in the fourth quarter, but her defense was a factor as the Panthers pulled away.
"I've definitely accepted the role, because I'd much rather win than score 30 points," Given said. "Last year, I was probably much more of an offensive threat than I am this year, but we have more than five girls on our team who can put up a good amount of points on any given night.
"All you can do is help the other girls and make sure that they put up the points that they should be putting up."
Matt DiFilippo -- 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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