AUGUSTA — Seacoast Christian suited up only six players for Wednesday’s Class D South semifinal against Forest Hills. But the players they had made a big impact.
Ellie Odess scored a career-high 17 points and Breckyn Winship added 14 as the third-seeded Guardians eliminated the No. 2 Tigers 40-34 at the Augusta Civic Center. Seacoast Christian will face top-seeded Valley, a 77-23 winner over Vinalhaven in Wednesday’s other semifinal, for the regional title Saturday in Augusta.
Odess just beat out her previous career high of 16 points, which was tied in Monday’s 51-27 quarterfinal win over North Haven. Ellie Leech added nine points and seven rebounds for the Guardians.
Odess, a sophomore who missed most of last season with a COVID-19 related heart ailment, scored seven points in a tooth-and-nail fourth quarter. The Guardians didn’t score a field goal after Odess’s 3-pointer with 4:22 left in regulation. Bri Cluff, who had eight rebounds and was credited with “the game of her life” by coach Lee Petrie afterward, fouled out with 1:03 remaining. Winship had played with four fouls since late in the third quarter.
But the Seacoast defense held Forest Hills to 1 point in the game’s final 2:08; a pair of free throws by Leech sealed the win.
With such a tiny roster, Seacoast frequently practices 5-on-5 drills with members off the boys’ team.
“You just find a way,” Petrie said. “You find a way and you hope you’ve instilled a lot of good defensive principles in them.
“We had six kids, so it took a whole team effort today. I couldn’t be more proud of this group.”
Carli Frigon scored 15 points for Forest Hills, which also fell to Seacoast in last year’s D South final. Grace Allen added nine points and nine rebounds.
While Forest Hills held a 29-23 rebounding advantage, the Tigers were frustrated in their attempts to turn their boards into points, as the Guardians’ defense clogged the lane and forced many awkward shots.
“We were trying to rebound, but it’s little difficult when you’re a shorter team,” Forest Hills coach Robert Manix said. “You work hard, but sometimes it doesn’t pay off.
“We had planned on Breckyn and Ellie Leech to be the shooters, and we weren’t expecting (Odess) to come out and light it up today. We tried to adjust, but it didn’t work in our favor.”
Seacoast burst out to a 17-5 lead midway through the second as Odess and Winship combined for all but two of Seacoast’s points.
Forest Hills roared back and scored the final 11 points of the half to cut the deficit to 17-16. Frigon scored nine of the Tigers’ points during the run, including a 5-for-6 effort from the free-throw line. Seacoast stretched its lead to 27-22, but back-to-back baskets by Frigon in traffic made the score 27-26. Forest Hills got no closer the rest of the afternoon, however as Seacoast held on.
The teams combined for 31 fouls.
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