Boothbay’s Faith Blethen goes up for a shot as she is being double-teamed by St. Dom’s Sky Rogers and Rebecca Zimmerman in a Class C South quarterfinal game at the Augusta Civic Center on Tuesday. Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi

 

AUGUSTA — Boothbay coach Brian Blethen just shook his head and eventually smiled when he spoke about the Seahawks’ rusty shooting in Tuesday’s Class B South girls’ basketball quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center.

But the No. 1 Seahawks made several key shots when they needed to against No. 8 St. Dom’s in the fourth quarter. Boothbay’s clutch shots allowed it to slip away from the pertinacious Saints with a 32-26 victory. 

The Seahawks preserved their perfect 19-0 record and go on to face 13th-ranked Madison (7-13) on Thursday at 4 p.m.

“Oh my goodness,” Blethen said. “Offensively, we threw everything and the kitchen sink at it and we couldn’t score.

“I felt like our kids defended fairly well. That’s our average. We allowed 26 points for the season. Defensively, I thought our kids did a decent job, but oh my goodness, it didn’t matter who was putting it up there — Faith (Blethen), Glory (Blethen), Chloe (Arsenault) — it just didn’t matter … nothing went.”

The Saints were breathing down the Seahawks’ necks in that crucial fourth quarter, but Boothbay keep its cool even though its 24-21 lead was on shaky ground with 5:09 left in the game.

“Great team, very gutsy,” Brian Blethen said. “Well-coached. He did a nice job. He did his homework — a very well coached team. Give (St. Dom’s coach J.P. Yorkey) credit.”

Belthen added that the Saints did a good job “taking Glory and Faith out of the mix.”

“That was a good first start (for the Saint),” he added. “They checked that off the list, and then I feel they applied just enough pressure to make our perimeter players a little uneasy and a little tentative.

“It really took us a while and we just went back to our motion offense and you got to share the ball and wait for those opportunities to show themselves and you had to re-instill that confidence in them. … There is always one (game) that you have to gut through.”

With the score 24-21 with about five minutes left, neither team scored for the next two minutes until Boothbay guard Josey Smith drilled the team’s only 3-pointer, giving her team a little breathing room with 27-21 lead. But the Saints responded with a basket from senior forward/guard Abby Castonguay with 2:38 remaining in the game.

Perhaps feeling a little closed in, Boothbay retaliated with five straight foul shots, including a pair from junior guard Madison Faulkingham and three from guard Chloe Arsenault.

For the afternoon, sisters Faith and Glory Blethen combined for 16 points, with the team-high 10 points going to Faith.

St. Dom’s sophomore guard Hannah Kenney dropped in the team-high 10 points and junior guard Rebecca Zimmerman helped out with seven.

But St. Dom’s coach J.P. Yorkey was quick to point out that his Saints’ turned in an outstanding performance on defense.

“That was our best defensive game of the year by far,” Yorkey said. “Our girls really battled. It was a point of emphasis to be physical with them and on the inside and defensively in terms of blocking out. Generally, we are not a physical team so we really had to get out of our comfort zone and the girls did a great job.

“Abby Castonguay guarded Faith almost the whole game and Faith had one field goal at halftime. I think she finished with 10 points. Abby just made her work for everything. To Faith’s credit, she is also a very unselfish player so she didn’t try to force a lot.”

“I am really proud of the effort these girls put in tonight. We really think that’s a game that could have have gone any way.”

 

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