AUGUSTA — When the Boothbay and Carrabec girls basketball teams played in the regular season, neither team scored more than 27 points. So it was no surprise that the rematch Monday in the Class C South quarterfinal was another low scoring affair.
Neither team scored more than nine points in a quarter and No. 2 Boothbay escaped with a 32-17 win over No. 7 Carrabec at the Augusta Civic Center. The Seahawks, now 18-1, will face No. 3 Monmouth (17-2) in the semifinals at 2:30 p.m., Thursday. The Cobras end the season at 12-8.
“I’ve been coming up here for a long time. It’s very hard for any team to put together three flawless games. But we did a lot well,” Boothbay coach Tanner Grover said. “We faced some adversity. That was good for us. Our best basketball is yet to come.”
The Seahawks did not score a field goal in the fourth quarter, although they didn’t need to. Ahead 23-14 after three quarters, Boothbay was content to pass the ball around the perimeter, driving the lane when given the chance, and knock down free throws. Boothbay went 9 for 13 at the line in the fourth quarter and increased its lead by holding Carrabec to three points over the final eight minutes.
Boothbay scored the first nine points of the game and never trailed, leading 9-2 after one quarter and 17-6 at halftime. Throughout the game, Carrabec struggled against the bigger Seahawks, who clogged the middle with 6-foot-1 freshman Faith Blethen and 5-11 junior Nicole Clarke.
Carrabec coach Skip Rugh attirbuted his team’s offensive struggles to Boothbay’s tight defense.
“I think it was them. They’re just a tough defensive team. We struggled the last time. We struggled this time. We started to do OK, but we still struggled. They’re just so big and tall,” Rugh said.
Blethen scored 11 of her game-high 16 points in the first half as the Seahawks built their lead. Blethen was the only Boothbay player to make a field goal in the game, as the rest of the Seahawks’ points came at the line.
“Our length has been an advantage for us all year long. We’re not physically strong inside, but we did make an effort to put the ball around the basket,” Grover said.
Liberty Chestnut and Mickayla Willette each scored five points for Carrabec.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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