AUGUSTA — The Madison girls probably didn’t play their best basketball of the season Tuesday night. In truth, they certainly didn’t need to.

No. 12 Mt. Abram was out of sorts from the opening tip, and the fourth-seeded Bulldogs took advantage to avenge one of their three regular-season losses with a one-sided 62-27 victory in the Class C South quarterfinals at the Augusta Civic Center.

Madison (17-3) will meet the winner of Monday’s late quarterfinal between top-seed Boothbay and No. 9 Traip in the regional semifinals on Friday.

Bulldog senior Lauren Hay was the dominant force against Mt. Abram (11-9), scoring a game-high 18 points and pulling down 14 rebounds.

“She usually comes to play for us every night,” Madison coach Al Veneziano said of Hay. “She was exceptionally excited about playing. I thought she went for every board. She got us a chance to have a good push on the basketball up the floor.”

“This was really important,” Hay added. “All of us seniors were ready for the game. We wanted to come out and win.”

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NOTHING DOING: If rebounding, turnovers and field goal percentage are the litmus test for successful basketball, then it was no surprise to see Mt. Abram facing a 21-point deficit at halftime, 32-11.

The Roadrunners made only three field goals in the first half, committing 18 turnovers and being out-rebounded by a 21-8 count over the same span. Hay herself had more rebounds (10) and points (14) through the opening 16 minutes.

“On the defensive end, we wanted to make sure we were shutting them down and only giving them one shot,” Veneziano said. “They have some good shooters, so we wanted to make sure we took that away from them. We did a good job of that, I thought.”

Mt. Abram shot only 16.6 percent in the first half.

GUARD PLAY: Part of Hay’s effectiveness was due to the ability of Madison guards Sydney LeBlanc and Ashley Emery to create chances from the outside.

LeBlanc scored a game-high 19 points, while Emery finished with 13. With so much focus on the Bulldogs on the perimeter, Hay was allowed to take advantage of mismatches and open spaces.

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“That helps,” Hay said. “They’re doubling out on them, and a lot of times that leaves me open inside.”

NO RESEMBLANCE: The game looked nothing like the Jan. 29 meeting between the two teams, when Mt. Abram handed the Bulldogs a 57-51 loss in Madison. In that meeting, the Roadrunners’ combined for 50 points from Lindsay Huff, Megan Sorel and Summer Ross.

On Monday, all three of those players fouled out before the fourth quarter was five minutes old and combined for only 22 points, 14 of them from Ross.

“We didn’t play that well that game, and we wanted to come back and show them we’re a better team than that,” Hay said. “We played more together as a team, played with more intensity and took it to them.”

All 14 of Ross’ points came in the second half. She scored eight straight points for Mt. Abram to begin the third quarter.

TURNING POINT: The opening quarter.

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The Bulldogs used a 14-2 run in the period to end any doubt about the final result almost immediately. It might not have been Madison’s cleanest outing, but at the very least it was played at a tempo the Bulldogs wanted.

“We made them handle the ball full-court and take them out of their offense,” Veneziano said. “We wanted to push it a little bit and make it hard for them. We try do that every time we play to get people running — we feel like we can run.”

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC


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