MONMOUTH — The way Monmouth girls basketball coach Scott Wing figured the Heal points, his team was slotted in sixth place in Western C no matter what happened Friday night. Madison, meanwhile, was hoping an end-of-season push would result in a home preliminary-round game.

You couldn’t tell anything was on the line for Monmouth, as the Mustangs went all out. Madison was just a little bigger, and the Bulldogs pulled out a 50-45 upset.

“This win was huge for us,” said Madison post player Aly LeBlanc, who led all scorers with 17 points. “We really needed this win, and it’s going to bump us a lot.”

“We played solid,” said Monmouth coach Scott Wing, whose team finishes the regular season at 13-5 and will host a prelim on Tuesday. “It’s about a matchup thing with them, because they’re physically stronger than we are, and they’re just quick enough to kind of keep up with us.”

Madison used that size advantage — as well as some outside shooting by Kayla Bess (13 points) and Madeline Wood (12) — to take a 15-8 lead early in the second quarter. Monmouth freshman Maddie Amero erased that lead by herself, scoring 11 points in the second quarter and all of her 14 in the first half.

“She’s a good shooter,” Madison coach Al Veneziano said. “She came out and shot the ball well. Hey, when you’ve got a freshman shooting the ball like that, that’s pretty impressive.”

Monmouth led 26-24 late in the first half when Sidney Wilson heaved in a shot from inside the halfcourt circle for a five-point Monmouth lead at the break.

Madison rallied back and led 35-33 midway through the third quarter after a three-point play by Wood. Monmouth regained the lead, but on what turned out to be a big play, Bess stole the ball at midcourt in the final seconds of the quarter, and nailed a pull-up jumper.

“We were really moving the ball around as a team, and talking defensively,” LeBlanc said. “Our defensive pressure is what brought the offensive pressure.”

Madison took the lead for good at 45-44 on a short jump hook by LeBlanc with 2:24 to play. In the final 35 seconds, Madison missed five free throws, but Bess and Erin Whalen hauled down some key rebounds. Wilson just missed on a game-tying three for Monmouth, and Bess clinched it by hitting two foul shots with 4.4 seconds to go.

Madison takes on Boothbay on Saturday, and Monmouth now has that prelim game. The final Heal points will be determined Saturday night.

“Now Madison has jumped Traip, and we’ll be playing Traip Tuesday — by my calculations,” Wing said.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo

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