The Raiders ended the holiday on a sour note Saturday with a loss at Hall-Dale. Though Monday represented a return to school for students, it was also a return to winning ways for Oak Hill.
The Raiders rallied from behind early and then held off previously unbeaten Boothbay for a key 50-44 Mountain Valley Conference win.
“We knew this would be a huge win for us because they were undefeated,” senior guard Sadie Goulet said. “We pulled it out.”
The Seahawks (8-1) are ranked second in Western C. The Raiders (7-1) are fourth in Western B and every valuable point helps in the Raiders’ playoff positioning.
“These games, this one and three or four other clubs are worth a bunch of points and we need those,” Oak Hill coach Charlie Castonguay said.
Goulet led the Raiders with 14 points while Danielle Samson added 12, including six in the fourth quarter. Brianna Mulherin added eight. Page Brown led the Seahawks with 15 while Sara Durgan had 12.
The Raiders watched their unblemished record get tarnished Saturday at Hall-Dale in a 49-46 loss. Oak Hill beat the Bulldogs earlier in the year 63-32.
“I don’t know what happened against Hall-Dale,” Goulet said. “We just didn’t come ready to play. Today, we were pumped up in the locker room. We knew this was going to be a good game.”
Castonguay had talked to his team after the Hall-Dale game and tried to help them move past the disappointing loss.
“We had a good talk after the Hall-Dale game,” Castonguay said. “We realized that we can’t play that way against a good team. Hall-Dale’s a good team. It’s tough to convince the girls when you’ve beaten somebody by a big score that they’ve improved and when they play in their gym, it’s going to be a different game.”
The Raiders were ready for Boothbay but still had to shake off some jitters early. The Seahawks built a five-point lead in the first quarter.
“We didn’t panic,” Castonguay said. “We knew what we had to do defensively. We did play good defense and started pushing the ball and got our running game going.”
Down 11-6, Goulet hit a pair of free throws. Then Samson hit a pull-up jumper. After a drive by Morgan Crocker, Kayla Veilleux finished off a Grace Sabine pass to get within 13-12.
In the second quarter, the Raiders started to play their game and got the game going uptempo. Boothbay seemed to struggle to keep up, especially with a shorter bench. Oak Hill had a 7-0 run that erased the deficit. Two free throws by Meagan Crosby cut it to 15-14. Then a jumper by Vanessa Wright gave Oak Hill the lead. A 3 from Goulet opened the lead to 19-15. Boothbay answered with a 3 from Durgan but Crosby finished the half with a basket off a Goulet pass and another score off an inbounds pass at the buzzer. Oak Hill had a 23-18 advantage at the half.
“Our team has to settle down first,” Goulet said. “We get really pumped and then we get all nerved up and that’s when we have turnovers. Coach does a good job settling us down. He’s calm but fired up at the same time.”
Boothbay hit just one of its first 10 shots in the second quarter and finished 2-for-14 in the quarter. In the third, the Seahawks hit just one of its first nine and finished 2-for-11.
Oak Hill had the lead as high as 32-24. Mulherin had four points in the third quarter and Goulet had three. The lead was up to 36-25 early in fourth on a Goulet basket, but the Seahawks made a run to get within 36-30. After a Crocker free throw, Durgan and Brown each scored off steals. Oak Hill called a timeout to settle things down with 5:56 left.
“We just needed to keep playing,” Castonguay said. “We had come too far to stop playing and look at the clock. We had to keep playing and finish the game.”
Samson led the charge to build the lead back. She scored on a rebound and then sank two free throws after being fouled on a steal.
Boothbay stayed withing reach. Brown had nine in the fourth quarter while Durgan had seven. The Seahawks shot 8-for-17 in the fourth and were within five twice and four with 15 seconds left. The Raiders managed to finished the game off from the line. Oak Hill sank 12-of-14 free throws in the final quarter, led by four from Samson and three from Jamie Prue.
“We haven’t been too hot with free throws lately,” said Goulet, who sank a pair as well. “It was good that we pulled those out tonight.”
kmills@sunjournal.com
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