Seventh-seeded Cape Elizabeth scored just four points in the first quarter against one of its toughest defensive opponents this season, then found its range to pull out a 34-26 win over Oak Hill on Tuesday in a Class B South girls’ basketball quarterfinal at the Portland Expo.
Second-seeded Oak Hill was unable score more than seven points in any period, and Cape Elizabeth put together a couple offensive spurts to improve to 10-10 and advance to the semifinals against No. 3 Freeport.
“Probably the best defense we’ve seen all year,” Capers Coach Christine Casterella said of Oak Hill. “Just ended up making enough shots and getting enough stops to win it at the end.”
The Raiders (16-3) limited the Capers to one field goal in the first quarter – a Brooke Harvey jumper three minutes into the game – but could only muster a Desiree Dumais layup and Audrey Bauer 3-pointer for a 5-4 lead.
“All those B South teams (out of the Western Maine Conference), they’re all highly athletic, they’re big, they’re strong. It’s always a challenge for us to try to find offense through that stuff,” Raiders Coach Mike Labonte said.
The Capers rallied for their first lead at 11-10 with Isabel Berman draining a 3, Harvey completing a three-point play and Karli Chapin’s free throw, then led 15-12 at halftime.
“(At halftime) we just kind of talked about that it was still early, we still had time,” Labonte said.
“That we just had to tighten up on defense and make it harder for them. And to try to move the ball a little quicker so that we could create some space.”
Instead, it was the Capers who created some space, taking leads of 20-12 and 24-15 before Abby Nadeau finished the third quarter with four free throws to pull Oak Hill within five points.
Nadeau scored six of her eight points in the third, and her only field goal. The Capers otherwise made life difficult for the Oak Hill senior forward.
Dumais made the only basket of the fourth for the Raiders, who were held to just six field goals in the game. She finished with 12 points.
Harvey and Berman both had nine points for the Capers, but it was free throws by Jessica Robicheaw, Saylor Wood and Chapin that allowed Cape Elizabeth to hold on for the upset.
“We made them when we needed to make them,” Casterella said. You’d like your team to be perfect, but we’ll take it. It was good enough.”
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