PORTLAND — The Maranacook girls basketball team made its free throws in overtime to pull off an upset of second-seeded Oak Hill 43-39 in a Class B South quarterfinal at the Portland Expo on Saturday.
The No. 7 Black Bears (11-8), who made 5-of-6 free throws in the extra period, were paced by Gabrielle Green’s game-high 17 points.
Anna Beach, Audrey Bauer and Gabby Chessie each scored seven points for Oak Hill (14-5).
Maranacook will face No. 3 Wells in the semifinals Tuesday.
On the tip-off that began overtime, Chessie grabbed the ball out of the air and scored a layup in the wrong basket. That ended up being the only field goal of the period.
The rest of both teams’ offense in overtime came at the charity stripe.
Maranacook’s Anna Drillen, who finished with eight points, made three free throws, the final two putting the Black Bears ahead by four points with three seconds left on the clock. Green added a pair of foul shots.
“We hit free throws and we rebounded well,” Maranacook coach Karen Magnusson said of overtime. “I thought the biggest thing was we took care of the ball enough to get fouled and get to the line.”
The Raiders’ defense forced a five-second violation, a travel and made a steal in overtime, but the offense only managed three free throws — two by Emily Dillman and one by Chessie.
The Black Bears took control early in the game, out-rebounding the Raiders 9-3 and leading 8-4 after one quarter.
The first quarter was all Maranacook. The Black Bears out-rebounded the Raiders 9-3 in the first frame and Gabrielle Greens scored five points to lead the Bears.
Oak Hill started to get itself into the right positions in the second quarter and fought back on the glass, which led to more transition opportunities. Five players for Oak Hill scored in the period, and a free throw at the end of the half by Audrey Dillman gave the Raiders a 14-13 lead at the break.
“It was just how it happened,” Oak Hill coach Mike Labonte said. “Sometimes you talk about the pace of play and the strengths of the other team, but you don’t really realize it until you’re out there. We try to get in transition all the time (and) they did a better job in the second, but (Maranacook) got a couple of easy buckets in transition, as well.”
Maranacook took a 25-20 lead into the fourth quarter on the back of Green, who scored five in the third.
“We are pretty good defensively and we have a lot of girls that take pride in what we do, and I think you could see at times our runs came when we could get out in transition,” Magnusson said.
Oak Hill battled back in the fourth, including a run of buckets from Bauer and Beach, to force overtime with the scored tied 36-36.
The Black Bears lost their lead but didn’t waver when the Raiders stormed back.
“(We) just have the girls focus on what we need to do and things that we can control,” Magnusson said. “Sometimes when things start going another way you focus on things you can’t control. I tried to have them focus on things they could control.”
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