AUGUSTA — Old Orchard Beach had to wait a day to play its Class C West girls basketball quarterfinal against Madison after it was postponed due to snow on Tuesday. When the two teams finally met on the hardwood, the Seagulls had to wait for their offense to show up, and when it finally did, it was too late. The team never recovered in a 51-43 loss at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Old Orchard Beach players ”“ and fans ”“ had to leave the school around 6 a.m. to make it to Augusta for an 8:30 a.m. tip-off. Many of the fans didn’t make it in time for the start of the game ”“ and neither did the OOB offense. The fourth-seeded Seagulls missed all 12 of their field goal attempts ”“ many from close-range ”“ in the first quarter, as they trailed 8-0 after eight minutes.
“I’m not one to make excuses. They had the same thing we had to deal with. They struggled early, actually, I thought, too, a little bit,” said OOB head coach Dean Plante. “They just made their layups, and we didn’t.
“Credit them: They shook it off quicker than we did.”
The Seagulls had a chance to break the ice on their first possession of the second quarter, but Lauralee Small missed both free throws after getting fouled on a strong move to the hoop. Old Orchard Beach had foul-shooting woes all game, as the Seagulls went 11-24 from the line.
The No. 5 Bulldogs built their lead up to 13-0 before Mackenzie Rague hit a 3-pointer with 6:06 left for OOB’s first points. Abby Dubois followed with two layups, including an and-1, in the quarter.
“Once we woke up a little bit and realized that this could be our last game, it was kind of now or never, and we just gave it all we could give,” said Dubois.
The Seagulls were successful in drawing fouls, as they got to the line 14 times in the quarter, but made just four attempts. The collateral damage for Madison, however, was that five players went into the half in foul trouble.
The Bulldogs did bring some momentum into the intermission, though, as Erin Whalen made 1-2 free throws after being fouled by Dubois at the buzzer. The Bulldog lead was 24-11 at the break.
The Seagulls didn’t spend much time in the locker room at halftime, as they came back out to practice shooting with six minutes left in the intermission.
“There wasn’t anything I was going to draw up, so I just said if we go down, we want to go down in our fashion: up-temp, aggressive, a lot of passion. And they did that,” said Plante. “And I said, ”˜Let’s go put some balls up and see if we can shake the rust off.’”
The Bulldogs extended their lead early in the third, but back-to-back 3s by OOB’s Haley Plante and Kelsey Custeau cut the deficit to 34-24.
Dubois then picked up her third foul of the game with some aggressive defending at halfcourt, causing an irritated Cristie Vicneire ”“ the Madison player that got fouled ”“ to lose her cool and get called for a technical ”“ her fourth personal foul.
Rague made 1-2 technical free throws to continue the OOB run, and the Seagulls then got baskets by Small and Dubois to extend the run to 11-0, and cut the deficit to 34-29.
“Once shots kept falling, all our energy was brought up,” said Dubois. “And we work together really well as a team. So if one person does things well, it kind of distributes to all the team.”
The Bulldogs answered back with a run of their own, however, as they finished the quarter on a 6-0 run ”“ with Dubois missing a layup with 10 seconds left ”“ to take a 40-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
“The hustle that it took to get (back) definitely took a lot out of us,” said Dubois.
The Seagulls never got to within more than five points in the fourth, and they only got as close with less than 30 seconds left. Madison made just enough shots ”“ and foul shots at the end ”“ to hold on for the eight-point victory.
The final margin equaled the deficit after the first quarter, leaving Plante to wonder what could have been.
“You could point to a lot of different things, but bottom line is the first quarter and a half hurt,” said Plante. “(It’s) tough to come back when you shoot that poorly.”
It was also the second year in a row that the Seagulls’ season was ended by Madison, after falling in the semifinals to the Bulldogs last year.
“We really wanted to get our revenge this year,” said Dubois, “but it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”
“You never want to lose to the same team, so there’s always that competitive edge. But revenge, I wouldn’t use that term. Healthy rivalry, yeah, absolutely,” said Plante. “It’s not like we’re losing to a chump; Madison is a good program, good coach, good basketball team.”
— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.
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