MADISON — The game plan for the Madison Area Memorial High School girls basketball team couldn’t have been executed much better in a Class C South preliminary round game Tuesday against Carrabec. The Bulldogs wanted to get the ball in the low post offensively, and pressure the Cobras up and down the court. Madison did exactly that, and advanced to the regional quarterfinals at the Augusta Civic Center with a 54-27 win.
The No. 4 Bulldogs (16-3) will face No. 12 Mt. Abram (11-8) in the regional quarterfinals. The Roadrunners upset No. 5 Hebron Academy, 43-29. No. 13 Carrabec finished 7-12.
Lauren Hay led Madison with 20 points and 17 rebounds. Sydney LeBlanc added 14 points for the Bulldogs, while Ashley Emery scored eight and Marah Hall seven.
“I thought Lauren played very well inside. I thought Marah played well inside, and I thought we got the ball inside,” Madison coach Al Veneziano said. “I was very pleased with that. We’ve done it a lot this season, but tonight we really went at it. I thought we could score in there.”
The Bulldogs opened the game with a 7-0 run and led 16-4 after one quarter. Madison’s 10-2 run to open the second half pushed its lead to 26-6. And an 11-2 run to open the third quarter extended Madison’s lead to 43-16.
Bailey Dunphy led the Cobras with 11 points.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Hay scored 13 of her 20 points in the first half, helping the Bulldogs take a 32-14 halftime lead. The 5-foot-8 Hay was able to exploit the mismatch throughout the game.
“We figured when we played this team before, we can really dominate inside. That’s really what we tried to do. I tried my best to take it to the hoop,” Hay said.
DEFENSE: Carrabec committed 25 turnovers and often struggled to get the ball over midcourt, especially early in the game.
“There’s no secrets when we play them. We felt we had to force tempo. That’s kind of the way we want to play, anyway,” Veneziano said.
Madison’s 23 press allowed the Bulldogs to trap Carrabec ball handlers along the perimeter, forcing mistakes,
“That worked really well against teams that aren’t as strong handling the ball. We forced a lot of turnovers doing that,” Hay said.
PLAYOFF REMATCHES: This was the third meeting this season between the teams. Madison swept the regular season games, winning 40-24 and 62-32. Madison’s next opponent, Mt. Abram, defeated the Bulldogs, 57-51, on Jan. 29.
“Mt. Abram beat us here. We’ve got to get ready. They have a good team. We have to make sure we’re ready to play,” Veneziano said.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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