enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Women 50 and over practice for next week’s trip to California to compete in the National Senior Games. From left: Cyndi Bona, Lana Merchant, Janice Pendleton, Brittany Bona and Kathy Sanborn. Brittany is a Scarborough sophomore practicing with the team.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Lana Merchant goes up for a shot while guarded by Brittany Bona during a recent practice.

PORTLAND — The bruises were blossoming on Sabrina Best's arms and legs and her boyfriend wanted to know why.

Didn't she tell him she was going to work out?

"I did," replied Best that night.

Didn't she tell him this weekly workout was playing basketball with women old enough to be her mother? Or her grandmother?

"I did," said Best, 22, retelling the questions and answers while catching her breath last week. Behind her, two games of 3-on-3, half-court basketball were being played. Three young, tanned, and fit women against three older, tanned and fit women. Some with threads of telltale gray in their hair, others hiding the signs of experience.

The warm air in the gym on the Portland campus of the University of New England was getting hotter with each drive to the basket. This was the final practice at home before three teams of Maine senior women basketball players leave for California and the Summer National Senior Games.

More than 80 Mainers, age 50 and older, will compete in the senior games at Stanford University from Aug. 1-15. For many, it will be a continuation of the competition and camaraderie of sports.

For others, it's an awakening. You don't always remember that until the 1972 legislation that established Title IX, women were on sports sidelines. Some on the senior teams play the game furiously, as if to make up for lost time.

Dozens of players sign up for Deb Smith's Not Too Late basketball camp at Southern Maine Community College every summer. The numbers have grown and Smith will lead three teams to Stanford. The Pioneers, comprised of women 60 and older, begin play Aug. 5. The Flashes, women over 55, play their first game Aug. 6. The Triple Threats, a team of 50- and-older players, play first in a pool of about 25 teams, starting Saturday.

All three teams can win games. Maine placed fifth in the country in the 50-and-older division two years ago in Louisville, Ky.

"Our lack of height hurt us," said Mike Giordano, the South Portland High coach who works with the women. "We've got shooters and ballhandlers, but when you're going up against 6-footers, it's hard."

That's why Brittany Bona, a 6-foot-1 sophomore at Scarborough High, was recruited to play against the seniors at last week's workouts. That her mother, Cyndi Meserve Bona, plays for the Triple Threats, helped.

"They're good," said Brittany, who moves well and plays a power game. "When they double down it is hard to get the shot."

Plus, she said, the seniors take no prisoners.

"We've lost a few times to them and we don't live it down," said Best, a Freeport High graduate, who works at Smith's camp. "I love the passion they have and it gives me something to look forward to when I turn 50. But they'll remind me when they win."

Of course.

As evidenced by Best's bruises, there is contact. Sometimes a senior player hits the floor. Hard. Best shows her concern when she leans over the fallen player.

"Don't baby me," the older women bark back.

"They want me to yell at them to get up, shake it off, get going," said Best, shaking her head.

Smith, who managed the South Portland Community Center until she was laid off this winter, is the brains and the passion behind the senior women's teams. After she lost her job, her players rallied and raised the money for her airfare to San Francisco.

Many of the women who make up this year's Pioneers played for Smith nearly 10 years ago. Smith was too young to play then. Now 53, she willingly gave up her coaching duties so she could get on the court.

More women with basketball experience, like Kathy Sanborn and Lana Ladd Marchand, are showing up for practice, eager to play. Sanborn played in the backcourt at the University of New Hampshire before signing a contract with the New York Stars of the Women's Basketball League for the 1979-80 season. She ran the court at Madison Square...