For the past 364 days, the Boothbay boys basketball team has been determined to atone for an early tournament loss. Once again, Boothbay came into its Class C South quarterfinal match-up as the higher seed and, unlike last year, the Seahawks had enough grit, determination and barely enough free throw shooting to win a hard fought 59-54 victory over No. 6 Mount Abram of Salem Township. No. 3 Boothbay advances to the regional semifinals to play No. 2 Waynflete, a private school in Portland, at 7 p.m. Feb. 20. 

But the semifinal match-up was still not secure with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. Mt. Abram had trimmed an eight-point deficit to two with a 6-0 run. Guard Kenyan Pillsbury ignited the rally scoring on a fast-break layup. Forward Jackson Masterson followed with a bucket, and another fast-break layup by guard Hunter Warren put the Roadrunners within a basket and with all the momentum. Boothbay stretched its lead with a Sullivan Rice basket and a Nicholas Morley free throw putting the Seahawks up five. With 2:08 remaining, Mt. Abram made one last run. Two Mt. Abram baskets by Nate Luce and Pillsbury pulled the Roadrunners within one, 55-54, with 1:42 left.

But a change in momentum wasn’t the most pressing problem for Boothbay, it was a lack of clutch free throw shooting. Boothbay struggled the entire contest from the charity stripe connecting on 15 of 35 attempts. The missed free throws’ impact was magnified in the fourth quarter. At one point, Boothbay missed five consecutive free throws until Ben Pearce connected on a pair extending the lead to 57-54 with 18.8 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, Pillsbury drove down the lane, but charged into Seahawk defender Morley. This was Pillsbury’s fifth foul and he exited with 10 points. “I thought they called me for a block,” Morley said. “I was just trying to stop the ball and prevent an easy layup, and luckily, we got the call.”

Mt. Abram coach Dustin Zamboni received a technical foul for protesting the player control foul. Pearce shot the two technical free throws, and missed both.  He later hit two free throws which eventually sealed the victory. “After the misses, my teammates still had confidence in me,” Pearce said. “They told me I was the best free throw shooter in the conference and to go ahead and make the next ones.”

Twice Boothbay had a double-digit lead and led by five with 102 seconds remaining, but had trouble in securing victory until the final seconds. Down the stretch, Boothbay’s captains showed leadership in preserving the victory. “We were one-and-done last year and didn’t want it to happen, again,” Pearce said. “Coach gave a pretty good speech at halftime, and me, Nick and Hunter told the others to focus on things we can handle.” Pearce also recalled the Seahawks had been in several close games in the regular season including an overtime thriller versus No. 1 Winthrop. “We beat Mt. Abram by three earlier in the season and knew we had to come out guns a’blazing, and we did,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot playing those close games which helped us tonight.” 

While Seahawk free shooters struggled, Seahawk defenders shined. Boothbay’s man-to-man defense limited Roadrunner leading scorer Nate Luce to four points. He scored 24 in Boothbay’s Dec. 20 regular season victory over Mt. Abram, 65-62. The Roadrunner star expressed his frustration to Seahawk defender Hunter Crocker late in the game. “At one point No. 22 turned to me, and said ‘Man, I can’t hit anything tonight,’ and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Good, stay that way.’”

Mt. Abram thrived throughout the contest creating turnovers and scoring in transition. The Roadrunners forced 18 Seahawk turnovers especially in the last three quarters after changing defenses. The Roadrunners started with a man-to-man defense as they did in the previous game. But in the second quarter they switched to a zone which allowed them more opportunities to utilize a half-court trap. But Boothbay’s man defense created pressure and turnovers, too. The Seahawks forced 16 Roadrunner turnovers and forced a perimeter game in the half-court. Mt. Abram shot two of 14 from the 3-point stripe. 

Boothbay had all the momentum after the first quarter leading 18-7, but Mt. Abram’s zone resulted in a tight contest. “I blame myself for that,” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “We let them get out in transition too much and we really should have wrapped this up much earlier.”

Crocker led all scorers with 20 points. Two other Seahawks hit double-figures. Pearce scored 18 and Morley had 10. Other Seahawk scorers were Sullivan Rice with six, Kaeden Davis with three and Kaleb Ames with two. Mt. Abram’s leading scorer was Hunter Warren with 19. Other Roadrunner scorers were Jackson Masterson with seven, Parker Ross scored six, and Adam Luce, Nate Luce and Thomas Deckard-Madore all had four.