FALMOUTH — Abby Ryan hit her fourth 3-point shot with less than 10 seconds left in overtime to lift Falmouth to a 42-41 win against Lake Region in a Western Maine Conference girls’ basketball game Thursday night.

Ryan, a 5-foot-8 sophomore guard/forward, hit the clutch shot at the end of a fast break moments after stepping onto the court for the first time in the extra period.

“I actually thought it was a three to tie the game,” Ryan said. “I was so nervous on the bench. I was just like ‘I don’t even want to go out there,’ but I knew what I was doing and my shots were on. I just trusted myself.”

Ryan, who scored a team-high 12 points, sank her first three 3-pointers during the second quarter to help propel the Yachtsmen (3-1) to a 19-10 lead.

“She hit three 3s in the first half, and then we just got into a defensive thing that we wanted to do,” Falmouth Coach Mari Warner said. “We’re big, and it’s hard to defend against a team like that, but we did. We wanted to hold them under 43 points. That was our goal, and I thought we did a nice job.”

The Lakers (2-2) had averaged 48 points in their first three games.

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Falmouth appeared to have the victory sewn up during regulation, but Lake Region sophomore guard Kristen Huntress sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 37-37 tie.

“It was a great high school basketball game,” Lake Region Coach Paul True said. “Both teams were resilient when they could have rolled over, and Falmouth made the big play at the end to win the game.”

Falmouth made several mistakes down the stretch to give the Lakers the opportunity to send the game into overtime. Huntress’ game-tying shot came after the Yachtsmen threw the ball away with 1.7 seconds left in regulation.

“In special situations, we turned the ball over and you can’t do that,” Warner said. “(My players) composed themselves. They got back into the game, and I’m proud of them.”

The Yachtsmen held a significant size advantage, but the tenacious defense employed by Lake Region prevented them from making the most of it.

Sarah Hancock scored 13 points for Lake Region. Chandler True added 10.

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After trailing by as much as nine points in the second quarter, the Lakers finished the first half with a rush, running off seven points during the last two minutes to go into the break down 21-20.

Falmouth hit three of its four shots in the first five minutes of the third quarter to move into a 28-22 lead, but Lake Region held the Yachtsmen scoreless during the final three minutes of the quarter and again pulled with a point at 28-27.

Spencer True briefly gave the Lakers the lead with a 3-point goal that made it 33-30 less than three minutes into the fourth quarter.

A 7-0 run sent Falmouth into a 37-33 with less than a minute left to play.

After Chandler True put in a free throw with 1.7 seconds left, the Yachtsmen turned the ball over on the following inbounds play, setting up Huntress’ clutch shot.

The Lakers played their second consecutive game without starting point guard Cece Hancock, who is out with a leg injury.

“The kids who played tonight and were on the floor, I could not be more proud of their effort.”


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