The Boothbay girls basketball team clung to a slim lead down the stretch and eeked out a 41-40 win over Oak Hill on senior night on Thursday, Jan. 23 in Boothbay.
The Seahawks led by as much eight points toward the end of the third quarter before the Raiders came storming back to create an exciting finish in front of a big crowd on a senior night that also featured a cute performance by the Wildcat Lady Dribblers, a youth basketball troupe from Boothbay Region Elementary School that performed tricks at halftime.
Boothbay jumped out to a commanding 15-7 lead after the first quarter, but the big lead evaporated in the second quarter and the gap narrowed to just 17-15 at halftime after Seahawks star forward Tatum French sat out much of the stanza due to foul trouble.
French came back to the court in the third quarter and boosted Boothbay back to their previous eight point lead, by scoring nine of her game-high 24 points in the quarter as the Seahawks rallied to a 33-25 advantage with 2:21 left in the frame. The Raiders came storming back yet again, and cut the Boothbay lead to 35-34 by scoring a pair of free throws with one second left in the quarter.
The score stayed within four points the rest of the way. Oak Hill tied the game 37-37 on a clutch 3-pointer by Kendall Theriault, who tallied 20 in the match to lead the Raiders.
French scored the final six of the game for Boothbay. She scored on a short jump shot in traffic to reestablish the Seahawks lead 39-37, and on the next possession was fouled on a 3-point shot and made two out of three free throws to give the Seahawks a more comfortable 41-37 advantage.
The Raiders were not done yet. Shelby Elwell hit a big 3-pointer for Oak Hill with 1:41 left to narrow the margin to 41-40. French fouled out with 25 seconds remaining and Oak Hill got the ball, but the Seahawks defense was able to hold off the Raiders the rest of the way, including a missed shot at the buzzer that bounced off the backboard.
“Oak Hill has been a big rival of ours for a few years now and we really wanted this one, so it feels great to help our team win,” said leading scorer Tatum French, who was clearly a target of the Raiders in a very physical game before fouling out. “We’ve had a lot of adversity with three starters out for a good chunk of the season, so everyone left has picked up the slack and worked really hard. It was a really fun game and the fans helped us out a lot tonight.”
The noisy crowd celebrated Boothbay senior night before the game with a presentation for seniors Ivory Cody, Maddie Orchard and Anna Gosselin, a top scorer who was on crutches and is out for the rest of the season.
In addition to French’s 24 points, Orchard tallied 10 points, Arabella Hodgdon, Abby Orchard and Addie Barter two each, and Cody 1. Barter also grabbed a key rebound in the final 25 seconds.
Boothbay improved to 3-12 in Class C South with the win, while Oak Hill fell to 2-13 while playing in Class B South.
