MADISON — For nearly three quarters on Wednesday night, Madison senior guard Jared Miller mostly passed up open shots. Madison coach Jason Furbush didn’t tell Miller to start shooting, because he didn’t have to.

When Madison needed it most, Miller buried two 3-pointers in the final minute of the third quarter. That sparked an 11-0 run that lifted the fifth-seeded Bulldogs to a 48-38 victory over No. 12 Mtn. Valley in a Western C boys basketball preliminary round game.

“That was all on Jared,” Furbush said. “He’s a big-time player in a big-time game. That’s when the big players show up, is in tough games. He’s always done that, so it didn’t surprise me.”

Madison (16-3) advances to play No. 4 Winthrop at 7 p.m., Monday in a quarterfinal game at the Augusta Civic Center. Miller led all scorers with 14 points and added nine rebounds, while Derek LeBlanc hit for 11 points and Chase Malloy added 10 points and eight rebounds.

Mtn. Valley (9-10) had nine different players score, but that’s a bit misleading. The Falcons not only shot 14 for 34 (41 percent) from the free throw line, they were 11 of 49 (22 percent) from the floor.

“We usually play a little bit of zone, but we didn’t play that tonight, because we thought our man matchup would be a lot better,” Miller said. “Our bigs matched up real good, and we thought our guards could handle their guards. We did what we had to do to get the win.”

Mtn. Valley still stuck close for most of the game. Madison committed 26 turnovers on the night, and things didn’t get any better when starting point guard Nick Morales was pegged with his third foul late in the first half, and sat out the first three-plus minutes of the third quarter.

From a 20-14 halftime lead, the Bulldogs found themselves in a 21-21 tie when Mtn. Valley’s Alex Ridley knocked down an open three from the left corner with 3:14 remaining in the third quarter. Two minutes later, Andrew Cote stole the ball under the basket and made a short hook shot, and the Falcons led 23-21.

That was when Miller apparently had enough. At the other end of the floor, Miller coolly drained a straight-on three to give Madison a 24-23 lead. With 1.3 seconds to go in the quarter, Madison inbounded to Miller, who caught the ball in the left corner, turned, and dropped in a fallaway three to beat the buzzer.

“That’s how Jared’s played since hd was a freshman,” Furbush said. “He wants the ball in his hands, and if we lose, he’s the perfect teammate. He’ll take the blame when he doesn’t really need to.”

Malloy scored four points in the first 31 seconds of the fourth quarter, and suddenly Madison led 31-23. The fourth quarter was essentially a free throw contest (38 attempts over eight minutes) and that benefited the Bulldogs. While Mtn. Valley was clanging and banging, Madison was 20 of 26 from the line for the game — a 77 percent rate.

“We went 20 for 25 against (top-ranked) Boothbay — that won that game,” Furbush said. “And that obviously won the game tonight.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo

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