AUGUSTA — Boothbay senior point guard Anthony DiMauro reached a milestone Monday night, but that wasn’t as important as making sure his team won.

DiMauro scored 19 points as top-ranked Boothbay Region cruised to a 67-43 victory against eighth-seeded Wiscasset in a Western Class C boys’ basketball quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center.

With 3:34 left, DiMauro put in a layup on a fast break for his 1,001st career point to become the fourth player in the program’s history to reach 1,000.

“I just went out there and tried to win,” said DiMauro, who also had seven assists. “That was the most important thing tonight and we did it. A thousand points didn’t really mean anything.”

The victory sent the Seahawks (18-1) into a semifinal Thursday night against No. 4 Madison (12-7) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

It was Boothbay’s third win of the season over the Wolverines (10-9), who gave the Seahawks trouble in the first half.

“They know our game style and they kept a guy in the middle to try to (keep us) from fast-breaking,” DiMauro said.

Early on, the Wolverines played a zone to try and keep Boothbay out of a transition game.

“We struggled against the zone,” Boothbay Coach I.J. Pinkham said. “They were in that 1-2-2 zone and we got ahead just enough so they had to get out of it. If they were able to stay in it, it might have been a different story.”

Dale Peaslee scored 12 of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter for Wiscasset, but the Seahawks ended that quarter with a 7-0 run to take a lead they would never relinquish.

Boothbay also switched to a 2-3 zone defense that kept Peaslee from driving.

“We couldn’t stop that Peaslee kid from going down the middle and scoring,” Pinkham said. The penetration was hurting us.”

Wiscasset closed the gap to 20-18 in the first four minutes of the second quarter as the Seahawks missed seven consecutive shots. But Boothbay finally got untracked offensively, forcing Wiscasset out of its zone.

“We’re a transition team,” Pinkham said. “If they make us run a half-court offense, we struggle. If we can get out and go, we’re tough. If someone stops us from running, we struggle.”

The Seahawks finished the half with a 10-2 run for a 30-20 lead.

“We were a little lackadaisical with the ball,” Wiscasset Coach Dana Lawrence said. “We had too many turnovers, and they’re too good a team to give them that many turnovers and that many chances to score.”

 

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH

 

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