PORTLAND — Another No. 1 regional seed has gone down in the girls’ basketball tournament, and this one hits close to home.
Felled by 16 percent shooting, No. 1 Spruce Mountain saw its undefeated season dissolve in stunning, heartbreaking fashion Tuesday night in a 32-30 Class B West quarterfinal loss to No. 9 Cape Elizabeth at Portland Expo.
Cape Elizabeth (11-9) will face No. 5 Lincoln in Thursday’s semifinals. Spruce Mountain ended its season at 18-1.
Mount Desert Island (Class B East) and Pine Tree Academy (Class D West) also lost as top seeds in the quarterfinals.
“I think we were getting good looks,” Spruce Mountain coach Chris Bessey. “A lot of them were right there on the rim. They just rolled out. To shoot 16 percent and still have a chance to win the game, I think that shows we’re pretty good.”
Cape let an eight-point slip away, then rallied to tie the game three times in the fourth quarter before Hannah Sawyer’s 3-pointer from the right corner put the Capers ahead to stay.
“They are a confident group. They don’t play with fear, and I’ve noticed it the last several games,” Cape coach Christine Casterella. “They don’t look over their shoulder and get that look of we’re playing not to lose.”
For all its titanic struggles to put the ball in the basket, the Phoenix — a team that routinely scored 60 and 70 points a night during the KVAC season — had opportunities to survive.
Nicole Hamblin hit one of two free throws to make it 31-30 with 2:32 left.
After numerous chances went awry for both teams, Sawyer swatted consecutive shots by Samantha Richards to deny a possible go-ahead bucket.
“Our goal was to contest, no matter who it is,” Casterella said. “Nobody wants somebody running in their face with their hand up. They just battled, and they were dead tired, and they just hung in there, which was kind of amazing.”
Spruce then allowed Cape to run more than 30 seconds off the clock before fouling Montana Braxton and sending her to the line for 1-and-1 with 13.3 ticks remaining. Braxton drained the front end and missed the bonus.
That gave the Phoenix one final bid. It fell short and into Sawyer’s hands. She slipped to the floor, a traveling violation, but with only three-tenths of a second remaining the officials ruled that only a tip-in could legally tie the game.
Braxton batted down the desperation inbounds pass as time expired.
Madeleine Bowe led the Capers with nine points. Sawyer had seven, Carter Harvey six, Ashley Tinsman six and Braxton four.
Cape was only 13-for-50 (26 percent) from the field but sank 4-of-7 in the fateful fourth.
“It was offensive futility, but I think it was good defense,” Casterella said. “They took us out of our game, and we really didn’t get a lot of open looks. We had to work to move the ball around. Their pressure was phenomenal, and it ended up being first team to 30, won.”
Hamblin paced the Phoenix with seven points.
Amanda Castonguay added six and was nearly the hero. The senior came off the bench and temporarily rescued Spruce with consecutive 3-pointers late in the third, giving the Phoenix a 23-20 lead. Spruce was 0-for-14 from the field in the period prior to that outburst.
Bowe drove to the hoop and cut Cape’s deficit to one as time expired.
Braxton, Bowe and Sawyer all sank game-tying baskets in the fourth after Bessey switched to a matchup zone.
“It was really a defensive letdown,” Bessey said. “It’s not like they ran a really great play. (Sawyer) was standing in the corner the whole time. The game plan coming in was knowing that she was a shooter. Unfortunately we lost track of her, and they came back to her, and she hit the shot.”
Spruce was undefeated in the MVC a year ago and lost to Wells in the regional semifinal. The school switched to the more challenging, Class B-dominated KVAC ths winter.
Bessey took over the girls’ program from Gavin Kane after leading the boys’ team the previous three seasons.
“I thanked them for the chance to get to know them, having known them for a very long time from a parent-slash-fan, to actually get to know them on a personal level,” Bessey said. “They’re great kids. They work hard.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
