MADISON — The third time was the charm for the Carrabec girls basketball team.
A seven-point fourth-quarter lead evaporated, the ninth-seeded Cobras picked themselves up off the canvas and scored the final six points of the game Tuesday night, dropping No. 8 Madison 42-36 in a Class C South preliminary round game at Veneziano’s gym. The Cobras, led by a double-double from sophomore forward Cheyenne Cahill, advanced to meet top-seeded Winthrop in the regional quarterfinals Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.
With the win, Carrabec (10-9) completed a three-game season sweep of Madison (12-7).
“It feels great against our arch-rivals,” said Cahill, who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. “We got to stick it to them.”
Carrabec opened a 33-26 lead with five minutes to play after Courtney Rollins cut to the hoop for two of her five points.
Madison fought back almost immediately, with senior Lauria LeBlanc scoring six points in an 8-0 Bulldog run that put the home team up 34-33 with 3:31 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Sarah Olson made two big free throws to hand the Cobras the lead, 35-34, before LeBlanc’s drive tied the score at 36-36 with 1:51 left.
Then Cahill took over — both from the lane and from the foul line — and the Bulldogs never scored again.
There were never any nerves down the stretch from a Carrabec team that hasn’t been to the Augusta Civic Center since 2016.
“I thought about it like it was a regular-season game,” Cahill said. “We’ve played Madison. This is like our home court, honestly, because we play here so much and we play Madison so much. It’s just natural for us.”
“They’ve really been working on their mental toughness, because that’s what beat us in this (round at Monmouth) last year,” said Carrabec coach Skip Rugh. “We talk a lot about it. They came in here really loose tonight with some confidence, which was good.”
The Cobras led 9-4 after one quarter and 18-13 at halftime, both scores indicative of their ability to generate second chances. Carrabec out-rebounded Madison by a 28-16 count on the night.
While those rebounding opportunities — particularly at the offensive end — didn’t always generate second-chance points, they did give the Cobras extended possessions from which to run a very patient offense.
That deliberate pace suited Carrabec well, much as it had in winning both regular-season games against the Bulldogs.
“We just knew what we had to do,” Cahill said. “We had to execute our offense and play solid defense like we have been.”
“We allowed them some second shots,” Madison coach Al Veneziano said. “You can’t allow that in a game like this. There’s too much at stake. You’ve got to get in, box out and rebound.”
Trinity Slate drained a key 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, and Rollins forced the Bulldog defense to stretch and used the space to drive to the hoop for points.
“It’s a team effort every night, and we never know who are going to be the five at the end of a game,” Rugh said. “Every game it seems like a different group for us.”
Katie Worthen led Madison with nine points. Emily Edgerly, who along with backup guard Lillian Levesque, spent long stretches of the first half on the bench in foul trouble.
“I thought we battled back the whole game,” Veneziano said. “We kept them, defensively, to a minimum. I thought we were still within the game (at the half) and we came out and had a good third quarter. Things happen — one turnover, one missed play, and it goes the other way quickly.”
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