AUGUSTA — Down two points and coming out of a timeout with 6.8 seconds to play, the Madison boys basketball team got what it was looking for. The problem for the Bulldogs was that so did Boothbay.
Madison worked the ball inside to Devon Watt, who got off a three-foot jumper with two seconds left. However, Boothbay’s Abel Bryer was there for the block and the Seahawks survived to take a 61-59 win in a Class C South quarterfinal Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.
No. 6 Boothbay, now 13-7, will face No. 2 Winthrop in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Thursday. No. 3 Madison finished 15-4.
In the final timeout, Boothbay coach IJ Pinkham reminded his team the Bulldogs only needed two points to tie the game.
“I said ‘They only need two. I don’t think they’ll look for the three. Now let’s make sure the guy that took the ball out of bounds won’t slip in and they go to him for the two.’ They did that a number of times,” Pinkham said.
Madison coach Jason Furbush said the final play called for Watt to get the ball in the low post. Bryer’s block was his fourth of the game.
“We got exactly what we were looking for. There was a scrum there and it didn’t go in,” Furbush said. “Bryer makes a play. He’s long and he’s a heck of a player.”
Boothbay took a 61-58 lead on a pair of Kyle Ames free throws with 54.8 seconds left. Madison cut the Seahawks lead to 61-59 on a Chris Beaman foul shot with 22 seconds left. Boothbay couldn’t handle the rebound on Beaman’s miss, and Madison retained the ball.
Boothbay led 29-26, and early in the third quarter it appeared the Seahawks would pull away. A 9-2 Boothbay run pushed the Seahawks lead to 38-28 with 4:58 left in the third quarter.
Madison answered with a 10-1 run of its own, cutting Boothbay’s lead to 39-38 on a pair of Beaman free throws with 3:01 left in the third. A Chase Malloy 3-pointer tied the game at 43-43 with 1:27 to go, and Madison took a brief 45-43 lead on a Mitch Jarvais layup with 20 seconds left in the quarter, the Bulldogs first lead since 2-0.
“We finally woke up. Our intensity picked up a great deal. It was just too late. We had to fight back, and maybe we ran out of energy a little bit,” Furbush said.
Boothbay and Madison split a pair of regular season games, and neither had any surprises for the other.
“They’re really athletic. They depend on (Ty) Greene to shoot threes, and Malloy’s a nice player. Their big kids can play when they get the ball to them. They’re a good team,” Pinkham said.
Both teams struggled with turnovers. Madison had 16, while Boothbay committed 21.
“We turned the ball over an awful lot,” Pinkham said.
“We didn’t take care of the ball tonight. That was the difference in the game. We had way too many turnovers, and didn’t shoot good from the foul line, either, especially in the fourth quarter,” Furbush said, noting the Bulldogs were just 5 of 12 at the line in the fourth quarter. Madison was 14 of 23 from the line in the game.
The first half was a series of Boothbay runs, in which the Seahawks would push their lead to six or seven points, only to see the Bulldogs rally and cut the deficit to a couple points. While Madison held the 6-foot-4 Bryer to nine points, Jacob Leonard had 20 points for Boothbay, with many coming in transition.
“Abel only had nine points. I’m surprised we win when Abel only gets nine points,” Pinkham said. “They’re bigger than we are, and they’re more athletic than we are. But we blocked out and rebounded.”
Kyle Ames scored 12 points for Boothbay while Carter Babcock added 13.
Malloy, Beaman and Jarvais each scored 14 points for Madison.
“A great group of guys. There’s no other team I’d go into battle with than these guys right here. We had great leadership from the seniors,” Furbush said. “Definitely not the way we thought we’d go out, for sure. The second half effort, they left it on the table, which is all you can ask for as a coach.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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