MONMOUTH — Monmouth Academy didn’t want to give a young team like Traip Academy a moment to catch its breath in Tuesday’s Western Class C prelim, so the Mustangs did what earned them the No. 6 seed and home court advantage in the first round — defend the entire court, and do it in waves.

The Mustangs’ depth and defensive tenacity was on full display as they limited No. 11 Traip to 14 percent shooting to build a comfortable 25-6 lead in the first half and cruised to a 50-25 victory.

Monmouth (14-5) advances to the quarterfinals, where it will face No. 3 Dirigo at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Traip concludes its season 8-11.

After a shaky start, Monmouth assumed control of the game with a 13-0 run, sparked by 3-pointers from Sidney Wilson and Tia Day. Wilson finished with a game-high 14 points, while Day added eight.

“We just had to start rotating the ball, because they were in a zone,” Day said. “Once we started getting in our rhythm, passing the ball, getting easy, open shots, that’s when we started to calm down.”

Wilson added a drive and Maddie Amero a layup off a steal to extend a 6-4 first-quarter lead to 19-4 early in the second quarter. Traip made just one of 13 shots from the field in the quarter and committed 16 turnovers in the first half.

Sophomore forward Marina Casey led Traip with six points and 10 rebounds, but the Rangers’ plan to get her the ball inside was usually thwarted by a turnover or a rushed shot forced by Monmouth fullcourt press.

“We weren’t really anticipating their pressure,” Traip coach Scott Blake said. “We came up and watched them a couple of times and they didn’t press in the games that we saw them. The coaches that I talked to from the MVC said they didn’t press them either. We haven’t had a real practice for three days because it hasn’t done anything but snow down in Kittery, so that kind of hurt, too. Their press bothered us.”

“(Our defensive focus) in the halfcourt was the big girl but we really wanted to pressure their guards,” Monmouth coach Scott Wing said. “We wanted to keep them out of getting into a set offense because we knew that their main goal was to get it into (Casey).”

Next to Traip’s first-half shooting woes, Monmouth’s 36 percent from the field looked downright prolific. The Mustangs cooled off in the third quarter (2-for-12), but they got to the free throw line and, more importantly, kept the pressure on Traip by going deep into their bench for fresh defenders and extended their lead to 38-14 at the end of three.

“I don’t think they’re as deep as we are, and that was part of the plan, try to wear them down,” Wing said. “It obviously had them frustrated.”

“We’re a pretty good defensive team. We really work on defense during practice,” Day said. “We don’t want them to be able to get into a rhythm. We didn’t necessarily want them to get a lot of turnovers. We just don’t want them to get in rhythm and get easy buckets.”

Ashley Blake added six points for Traip, which graduates just one senior.

“We’ll be back next year,” Blake said. “We only had two or three girls who actually played in the playoffs last year, so it’s a whole new experience for quite a few.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33

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