AUGUSTA — Faith Blethen is a 6-foot-1 freshman with the skill to play outside or inside. More often than not this season, Boothbay girls’ basketball coach Tanner Grover asked her to put her inside skills on the back burner and use her perimeter skills.

Against Monmouth Academy in a Class C South semifinal, however, Grover had Blethen set up inside, and she showed she hasn’t been neglecting that part of her repertoire. Blethen scored 15 points to lead No. 2 Boothbay to a 36-34 victory Thursday over No. 3 Monmouth at the Augusta Civic Center.

Sidney Wilson, right, of Monmouth Academy, keeps the pressure on Kate Friant of Boothbay during Thursday’s game at the Augusta Civic Center. Boothbay won, 36-34. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Boothbay (19-1) advanced to the regional final at 7 p.m. Saturday against No. 4 Madison.

“This tournament, we’ve definitely started to use our post more,” Blethen said. “We really haven’t used our height advantage all the way this season, but now our height advantage is getting even more (pronounced), so we’ve started to move it in more. The last time we played them, we didn’t really take advantage of our inside stuff.”

Monmouth (18-3) handed Boothbay its only loss, 42-41, in the regular season.

Haley West led the Mustangs with 12 points and six rebounds, while Tia Day added nine points.

Trailing 10-7 after the first quarter, Boothbay started to exploit its height advantage with Blethen and 5-foot-11 sophomore forward Page Brown (seven points). The Seahawks still trailed by three at the half, but they matched their patient offense with stifling defense in the second half, outscoring the Mustangs 12-3 in the third quarter for a lead they would never relinquish.

“There was a lot of push in the locker room. We knew that we were down, but we also knew that we had more to give,” Blethen said. “Our last sequences in the second quarter really showed us we’re getting in our rhythm, we’re in our comfort zone, and now it’s time to just play our game.”

“Boothbay made some good adjustments by posting Blethen, which (Grover) really hasn’t done that much this year,” Monmouth Coach Scott Wing said. “Brown’s tough down there, and when you’ve got them both to deal with down there, it’s very, very difficult.”

Blethen and Kate Friant went inside to score the first two baskets of the second half, putting Boothbay in front to stay.

“It’s tough when you’re going against that size,” Wing said. “The kids had no margin for error at all. Everything they did defensively had to be just right. That obviously changed our game plan. Once we got behind a little bit, we had to come out and play them a little bit more because we were sagging back trying to help out on the post play.”

Thanks to a mix of 1-2-2 zone and man-to-man defense by Boothbay, Monmouth didn’t score in the third quarter until a Sidney Wilson free throw made it 22-20 with 2:27 left. Boothbay’s Sydney Meader answered with a 3-pointer.

“The zone was tough. They’re so long they can recover quickly,” Wing said. “When we moved the ball well against them we were all right, but we just didn’t get that many clean looks.”

“The first time we played them up at their place, we went straight man. They run that motion offense so well, they seemed to take care of a lot of open looks,” Grover said. “We were just trying to do anything we could to dictate the rhythm of the game.”

Day scored the Mustangs’ only field goal of the quarter to pull them back within three, but the Seahawks held the ball for the last shot of the quarter and got a three-point play when Meader passed to Brown over the top of Monmouth’s defense.

“That’s something that’s very deliberate on our part,” Grover said. “We try to work the last possession every quarter. We feel like it keeps us in control. It doesn’t always work out that well, but it worked out that way that time.”

Blethen scored inside again to extend the margin to eight early in the fourth, and later scored on a putback for a 33-23 lead midway through the quarter. But back-to-back three-point plays by Day and Abbey Allen (eight points, seven rebounds) and a pair of free throws by Allen pulled the Mustangs within two with 1:07 left.

Boothbay senior Hannah Morley made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 52 seconds, yet the Mustangs were still within one possession when Allen sank 1 of 2 free throws with 13 seconds remaining. Inexplicably, Monmouth didn’t try to foul after Boothbay put the ball in play, and the clock ran out.

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