A dominant defense led Boothbay Region High School to its first girls’ Class C regional basketball championship in 32 years. Boothbay Region defeated Madison, 40-24, Feb. 20 in claiming the Class C South championship.

The Seahawks employed a 3-2 zone defense which suffocated the opposition’s offense in all three tournament games at the Augusta Civic Center. Carrabec only tallied 19 in the quarters, Monmouth scored 34 in a two-point semi-final loss, and Madison posted 24 points in the regional final.

The Seahawks’ stingy defense allowed only three field goals in amassing a 13-6 halftime lead over Madison. But it took a little longer for Boothbay Region offense to click. Only two Seahawks scored in the first half. Forward Page Brown scored seven points and guard Kate Friant had six.

Boothbay Region didn’t exert scoreboard domination until the third quarter. The Seahawk offense scored 14 third quarter points in building a 25-12 lead. Friant began the quarter by scoring two of her 14 points on a lay-up. Madison’s Kayla Bess countered with a three-pointer cutting the deficit to six.

But that was as close as the Bulldogs got. The Seahawks ended the quarter with a 12-2 run. Once Boothbay settled into a better offensive flow, the Seahawks seized control of the game.

“Defensively, I thought we played pretty well in the first half. But on offense, we had some pretty bad turnovers that cost us,” said Boothbay coach Tanner Grover.  “We settled down in the third and found our stride and played with some pretty nice rhythm.”

Brown was the main beneficiary of the offense’s newfound rhythm. Brown, the Mountain Valley Conference Player of the Year, scored only nine points in the previous two games. She exploded with 19 to lead all scorers. Brown also received the Class C Robin Colcord Award as the outstanding player-sportsman in the Class C girls tournament.

The award is named after former Boothbay Harbor resident Robin Colcord, a noted basketball referee and prime mover behind the development of youth sports in the region.

The award is the second one in the Brown home. In 1984, her mother, Lauren (Webster) Brown won it.

“I was shocked,” Brown said. “I knew about the award because my mother received it the last time Boothbay won the state championship,” Brown said. “It’s really an awesome honor.”

While Brown’s post moves lit up the scoreboard, it was the team’s constant defensive pressure which prevented Madison from making a comeback. Brown credited her team’s defensive play for winning the championship.

“We have so much size at every position, especially with Faith (Blethen) at the top. She’s our tallest player and really makes it tough for the opposition to pass.”

Grover credited Friant’s play at point guard for igniting the Seahawk offense. He described her as one of the top point guards in Class C.

‘She had her best offensive game of her career,” he said. “She did a great job recognizing the defense when it keyed on Page and Faith,  and knew she had more room to operate.”

This was the second consecutive year Madison and Boothbay met in the tournament. Last year, No. 2 Boothbay Region defeated Madison twice in the regular season only to be upset in the tournament. It seems the Seahawks didn’t let last year’s disappointment affect their preparation for the regional final.

Boothbay entered this year’s tournament in second place and defeated Mountain Valley Conference foe Madison twice in the regular season. But the Bulldogs couldn’t pull off another tournament upset.

Friant said the team’s focus this entire season is winning a Gold Ball.

“It feels pretty good,” Friant said. “We’ve put in the hard work to get to this point. We’ve been focused on winning a championship the whole season so it makes everything we’ve done worth it. We weren’t focused on revenge. We knew if we played our game we’d win.”

Seahawks Hannah Morley and Faith Blethen joined Friant and Brown in the scoring column. Morley had four, and Blethen had three.

This is Boothbay Region’s first regional championship since 1984.  Boothbay won its only girls’ basketball state championship that year defeating Central Aroostook, 60-57.

2016 marked the sixth time the girls basketball team reached the regional final. The Seahawks played in three successive regional championship games from 1982-1984. In 1982, Boothbay Region lost to Mexico, 59-56. In 1983, the Seahawks lost to Winthrop, 60-56. In 1984, Boothbay Region won the regional title beating Mexico, 52-45, en route to the state title.

In 1994, the No. 10 Seahawks won a prelim game and advanced to the regional championship, but lost to Madison, 61-31, in the final.

This is the girls basketball team’s best season since 2003. The Lady Seahawks advanced to the 2003 regional final, but lost to Dirigo, 76-39.

Boothbay will play Washington County school Narraguagus of Harrington at 7:05 p.m. on Feb. 27 for the Class C State Championship in Augusta.

The No. 3 Knights (18-2) defeated No. 4 Penobscot Valley of Howland, 45-19,  for the Class C North championship.