AUGUSTA — Seacoast Christian suited up only six players for its Class D South girls’ basketball semifinal Wednesday morning against Forest Hills. Those six players made a big impact.
Ellie Odess scored a career-high 17 points and Breckyn Winship added 14 as the third-seeded Guardians eliminated the No. 2 Tigers, 40-34, at the Augusta Civic Center. Seacoast Christian, the defending regional champion, will face top-seeded Valley for the regional title Saturday.
Odess beat her previous high of 16 points, which she tied Monday in a 51-27 quarterfinal win over North Haven. Ellie Leech added nine points and seven rebounds for the Guardians.
Odess, a sophomore who missed most of last season because of a COVID-19 related heart ailment, scored seven points in a tooth-and-nail fourth quarter. The Guardians didn’t score a field goal after an Odess 3-pointer with 4:22 left in regulation. Bri Cluff, who had eight rebounds and was credited with “the game of her life” by Coach Lee Petrie, fouled out with 1:03 remaining. Winship had played with four fouls since late in the third quarter.
But Seacoast held Forest Hills to one point in the final 2:08, and a pair of free throws by Leech sealed the win.
With such a tiny roster, Seacoast frequently practices 5-on-5 drills with members of the boys’ team.
“You just find a way,” Petrie said. “You find a way and you hope you’ve instilled a lot of good defensive principles in them.
“We had six kids, so it took a whole team effort today. I couldn’t be more proud of this group.”
Carli Frigon scored 15 points for Forest Hills, which also fell to Seacoast in last year’s regional final. Grace Allen added nine points and nine rebounds.
While Forest Hills held a 29-23 rebounding advantage, the Tigers were frustrated in their attempts to turn those rebounds into points, as the Guardians clogged the lane and forced many awkward shots.
“We were trying to rebound, but it’s a little difficult when you’re a shorter team,” Forest Hills Coach Robert Manix said. “You work hard, but sometimes it doesn’t pay off.
“We had planned on Breckyn and Ellie Leech to be the shooters, and we weren’t expecting (Odess) to come out and light it up today. We tried to adjust, but it didn’t work in our favor.”
Added Petrie: “We work real hard, practicing every day with the boys, we work a lot with digging off the post. That’s something we try to take away and make you do something else with it.”
Seacoast burst out to a 17-5 lead midway through the second quarter, as Odess and Winship combined for all but two of Seacoast’s points.
Forest Hills roared back and scored the final 11 points of the half to cut the deficit to 17-16. Frigon had nine points during the run, including a 5-for-6 effort from the free-throw line.
Seacoast stretched its lead to 27-22 in the third, but back-to-back baskets by Frigon in traffic made the score 27-26.
The teams combined for 31 fouls.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
