MONMOUTH — Sixth-seeded Monmouth Academy limited 11th-ranked Traip Academy to 14 percent shooting in the first half Tuesday night, building a comfortable lead on the way to a 50-25 victory in a Western Class C girls’ basketball prelim.

Monmouth (14-5) will face No. 3 Dirigo at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center.

After a shaky start, Monmouth took control with a 13-0 run, sparked by 3-pointers from Sidney Wilson and Tia Day, and led 25-6 at halftime. Wilson finished with 14 points; Day added eight.

“We just had to start rotating the ball because they were in a zone,” Day said. “Once we started getting in our rhythm, passing the ball, getting easy, open shots, that’s when we started to calm down.”

Wilson added a drive and Maddie Amero a layup off a steal to extend a 6-4 first-quarter lead to 19-4 early in the second. Traip made just 1 of 13 shots in the quarter and committed 16 turnovers in the first half.

Marina Casey led Traip (8-11) with six points and 10 rebounds, but the plan to get her the ball inside was usually thwarted by a turnover or a rushed shot forced by Monmouth’s press.

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“We weren’t really anticipating their pressure,” Traip Coach Scott Blake said. “We came up and watched them a couple of times, and they didn’t press in the games that we saw them. The coaches that I talked to from (their league) said they didn’t press them, either. We haven’t had a real practice for three days because it hasn’t done anything but snow down in Kittery, so that kind of hurt, too. Their press bothered us.”

“(Our defensive focus) in the halfcourt was the big girl but we really wanted to pressure their guards,” Monmouth Coach Scott Wing said. “We wanted to keep them out of getting into a set offense because we knew that their main goal was to get it in to (Casey).”

Ashley Blake added six points for Traip, which graduates just one senior.

“We’ll be back next year,” Coach Blake said.


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