“We’re really good at celebrating the little things,” said Black Bear sophomore Alice Ferran. “We don’t get down on ourselves. We just talked each other out of the (slump) and took care of it.”

Ferran’s buzzer-beater forced overtime Wednesday night, and Maranacook took care of business from there, avenging an early-season blowout with a stunning 43-40 Mountain Valley Conference win over Madison.

Natalie Mohlar, the lone senior on the Black Bear roster, drilled a pair of key 3-pointers en route to her game-high 16 points. Her triple from the right corner cut the Madison lead to 32-30 with 1:14 remaining in regulation to give Maranacook life, and her left-corner trey with 1:04 to play in overtime sealed the victory.

“Our team comes together at all the right times,” Mohlar said. “We had one talk about how we needed to pick up the energy, and we did exactly that.”

Madison (15-3) lost for the third time in its last five games following a 12-0 start, a streak that included a 52-38 win over the Black Bears on Jan. 9. Maranacook, though, improved to 13-5 and likely earned enough Heal points to avoid a Class B North preliminary-round game next week.

“This is so big for us,” Ferran said. “That’s a really good team. We came into this knowing we might have to play a prelim, and it’s so big for us to beat that team. We stepped it up today.”

After a defensive first quarter that saw the teams tied 6-6, Maranacook opened the second quarter with a 9-2 run to build a 15-8 lead. But the Bulldogs heated up, closing the half with a 12-0 run that didn’t stop with the intermission.

Madison’s Raegan Cowan scored six of her team-high 15 points in the third quarter that saw the visitors open with an 8-0 run to build a 28-15 lead with 5:26 left in the period.

Maranacook’s first field goal of the second half didn’t come until Cooper Davis dropped a bucket with 2:41 remaining.

Madison went cold after the hot start to the period, however, and didn’t score again until Jacey Moody’s field goal with 4:06 to go in the fourth. By then, the Black Bears had inched to within four at 28-24.

Ferran led the Maranacook charge late, scoring six of the Bears’ final 10 points of regulation. Mohlar’s short 3-point attempt in the final seconds was snared by under the rim by Celia Bergdahl, who kicked it out to Ferran for the tying bucket as time expired.

“I thought it was going to go out,” Ferran said of the rebound. “I said, ‘Come on, Celia!’ and she did, and I just chucked it up and it went in. … I was praying.”

“Our kids fight, that’s what I love about them,” Maranacook coach Karen Magnusson said. “This group does not stop fighting. Even on that play — get the ball, save it for the shot. A lot of kids would have seen the (initial) shot and just given up and said, ‘Whatever.’”

Ferran finished with 12 points and five rebounds, while Cooper Davis added nine points and three boards. Maranacook out-rebounded Madison by a 32-22 count for the night.

Mackenzie Robbins chipped in with seven points in the loss for the Bulldogs, while Moody ended up with six points and seven boards.