BATH — Ninth-seeded Falmouth rallied from an early 11-point deficit to pull out a 58-54 victory against eighth-ranked Morse in a Class A South girls’ basketball prelim Monday night.
Grace Soucy scored a game-high 24 points as the Yachtsmen (6-13) advanced to face unbeaten, top-ranked Brunswick in a quarterfinal next Monday night at the Portland Expo.
“All year long we’ve all looked to Grace to be our leader on the floor,” Falmouth Coach Dawn Armandi said. “She’s struggled at times (because) people have been face-guarding her all the time. Tonight it was really great to see her break out.”
Soucy downplayed her contributions.
“I was on tonight and they found me,” she said. “I know all of them trusted me, but it goes with all of our seniors. It could have been anyone on any given night.”
Shannon Birks followed with 11 points and Allie Cunningham scored 10 for Falmouth.
Sierra Wallace led the Shipbuilders (3-16) with 17 points. Marija Medenica and Marissa Parks each scored 11.
Morse held a 21-10 lead with less than two minutes left in the first quarter. It took the Yachtsmen two more quarters to take the lead away.
“We’ve played pretty hard defensively all year long. It’s just we couldn’t buy a basket,” Armandi said. “We struggled to score for a long time, but it was nice to see 58 points up on the board tonight.”
Falmouth scored a season high after averaging 34.5 points during the regular season.
The Yachtsmen took the lead for the first time since the opening minute when Birks sank her third 3-pointer to make it 42-41 less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
Less than a minute later, Soucy, who finished with nine points in the final quarter, scored a layup off a fast break for a 44-41 advantage.
The Shipbuilders, who trailed 52-45 with 3:35 remaining in the game, three times pulled within two points but weren’t able to catch up.
“It was a great basketball game,” said Morse Coach Jan Veinot. “What else could you want in a basketball game? Both teams worked hard. Both teams left it out on the court.”
Soucy, who sank 10 of 12 free throws, nailed down the victory by sinking four free throws in the final 26 seconds.
“We played good basketball,” Veinot said.
“I’m so proud of how (my players) came to play tonight. It could have gone either way. I just can’t say anything negative because there wasn’t anything negative about it.”
But there was one negative factor that played a huge role. The Yachtsmen sank 15 of 21 free throws while the Shipbuilders managed to sink just seven of their 19 attempts from the foul line.
“You’ve got to make your free throws,” Veinot said. “That’s been an issue the whole year.”
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