AUGUSTA — Boothbay struggled through the first half and it seemed Waynflete was well on its way to victory in a Class C South boys’ quarterfinal game Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.
Instead, the sixth-seeded Seahawks rallied back to upset the third-seeded Flyers, 65-64.
“I did not expect that,” Boothbay’s Hunter Crocker said. “It was amazing.”
Waynflete was considered by many to be one of the top teams in C South, if not the team to beat.
In the first half, the Flyers lived up to the hype, leading by as many as 16 points and holding a 42-29 lead at halftime.
“We were a little jittery there in the first quarter,” Seahawks coach IJ Pinkham said. “We had some guys that were pretty shakey out there. We had some kids that weren’t getting in the right place to do the things that we needed to do. They’re high school kids, that’s how it goes.”
The only thing keeping Boothbay that close was Steve Reny’s 8-for-8 free-throw shooting in the final three minutes of the half.
The Seahawks didn’t do anything different in the second half, they just did what they were trying to do better.
“We didn’t change much defensively, we tried to improve what we were doing defensively,” Pinkham said.
The Flyers still held a cozy 50-39 lead with three minutes left in the third, but a 7-0 run by the Seahawks cut the deficit to four points.
“As is want to happen, momentum started to shift, the ball started to bounce their way,” Flyers coach Rich Henry said.
Waynflete led 54-48 after three quarters, and built it back up to 11 points, 59-48, two minutes into the fourth.
Crocker scored a pair of buckets and Kyle Ames hit a 3 to make it 59-55, and then Crocker drained a corner 3 and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but the gap was down to 59-58 with 3:10 remaining.
“I didn’t think that went in, and it kind of hurt,” Crocker said. “I was surprised — it was great.”
Ames made another 3 with about 1:15 left to give Boothbay its first lead at 62-61.
“That was … well, gotta have a little luck here and there,” Ames said. “I just let muscle memory take over at that point, let it happen.”
Henry said that once the game got close, the Flyers youth might have become a detriment.
“You have to give credit to Boothbay,” Henry said. “They played well and they started to hit some shots, and we started to make some decisions as though we were behind. And that’s the sign, maybe of a young team.”
Reny’s free throw extended the lead to two, but Waynflete’s Diraige Dahia tied the game with a jumper.
Crocker scored in the post to put the Seahawks back on top with 16 seconds left.
“They were guarding Kyle heavily because he had a bunch of points,” Crocker said. “So I just snuck in there, and I hadn’t really made a layup all game, so I just snuck in there and I was wide open.”
Waynflete’s Dominick Campbell made one of two free throws at the other end. After second one missed, Boothbay knocked the ball out of bounds during the scramble for the rebound, giving the Flyers the ball under the hoop with 4 seconds left.
But Ames stole the inbound pass and excitedly dribbled the ball down the court.
“I couldn’t (believe it),” Ames said. “There was a lot of hype before the game for them, they were favored. It was kind of an upset that we won. But I believed overall that we could it if we just kept our minds in it, especially in that second half.”
Reny topped all scorers with 21 points. Ames made five 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, and Crocker scored 17.
Asker Hussein led Waynflete with 12, while Dahia had 11.
Boothbay will face No. 2 Winthrop in the semifinals Thursday evening. The Ramblers defeated Madison 49-38 on Monday.
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