FARMINGDALE — Hall-Dale threatened to pull away in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s Western C prelim against Traip Academy. After watching how quickly Traip could get itself back in the game with its long-range shooting, the Bulldogs turned the threat into a promise in the fourth quarter.

No. 6 Hall-Dale went on a 9-0 run early in the final period to break a 38-38 tie and ultimately emerged with a 59-44 win over No. 11 Traip at Penny Gym.

The Bulldogs (13-6) advance to face third-seeded Waynflete, the defending Western C champions, in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. on Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.

“We’re very excited to be going to the ACC,” senior center Wesley LaPointe said. “I thought we would before the night, but now it’s definite. I’m pumped. We’re all pumped.”

Brian Allen led Hall-Dale with 16 points, while Ryan Sinclair added 10. Alex Foye finished with 14 points to lead Traip (8-10).

Hall-Dale led 32-23 on Allen’s putback midway through the third quarter. But Foye and Colin Macomber (10 points) sparked a 9-2 Traip run to close the period with 3-pointers that pulled the Rangers within two.

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Foye added a 3-pointer to start the fourth and give Traip its last lead at 35-34. LaPointe answered with a putback and a steal that led to an Allen layup at the other end of the break to make it 38-35.

“We have that height, but also we know if a shot goes up, me, Brian and Bryson (Camp) all crash the boards and then we get those second chances which count for so much,” LaPointe said.

Foye tied the game again with another 3-pointer, but that would be his last points of the game as freshman Tyler Nadeau came off the bench to cool the Traip junior down.

“He got hot, so we fully denied him the ball and brought (Nadeau) off the bench,” Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow said. “His primary responsibility was the guard him the length of the floor and not let him take an open jump shot.”

Nat Crocker made the first of two free throws to put the Bulldogs back in front to stay. He missed the second, but Allen put that back in. A LaPointe turnaround jumper and free throws by Nadeau and Sinclair closed out 9-0 run.

“We played our game — fast-paced, broke down their zone,” LaPointe said. “That’s what was giving us trouble in the first half. We dealt with the zone with fast passes and open looks.”

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“Our intensity level picked up a little bit (in the second half),” Ranslow said. “A good metric of how hard and how well we’re playing is the space that’s there between our guy and the guy we’re defending. Whereas it was four or five feet in the first half, I think we closed it to about two in the second half. So I was really happy with that.”

Randy Whitehouse —621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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