AUGUSTA — With the Hall-Dale girls’ basketball team clinging to a one-point lead over Traip Academy, it looked like Thursday’s Western Class C semifinal was primed for dramatics.

And then Traip fell into its second shooting slump of the second half, allowing top-seeded Hall-Dale to pull out a 46-41 win at the Augusta Civic Center.

“I think we have a special group of senior leaders that have been through the battles and know what to do down the stretch,” Hall-Dale Coach Brandon Terrill said. “I don’t know if we have the most talented team in the tournament this year, but I’d be willing to bet we’re the most poised. We don’t lose our cool; we don’t lose our composure.

“We’ve been there eight or nine times. When the game hangs in the balance, we show composure. We show poise.”

The Bulldogs (18-2) are 7-2 in games decided by five points or less. This time they were aided by Traip’s cold shooting late in the game. The fourth-seeded Rangers (12-8) didn’t score in the final three minutes, missing 10 shots and a pair of free throws.

Allison Crockett scored a bucket in the post with 2:25 remaining to give Hall-Dale a 44-41 lead. Natasha Brown made a free throw and senior guard Carylanne Wolfington hit another with 13.6 seconds left.

“We’ve been practicing free throws a lot,” said Wolfington, who finished with 21 points. “We weren’t so good at them at the beginning of the season so we started practicing them. Our coach always tells us, free throws, rebounding, defense. That’s what wins games.”

Hall-Dale was up 27-24 at halftime, then built a double-digit lead in the third quarter as Traip missed its first 11 shots and went 1 of 15. The lone bright spot was a 3-pointer from Katherine Volpe that cut Hall-Dale’s lead to 37-27 late in the quarter.

“Our offense wasn’t exactly clicking on all cylinders either, so if it wasn’t for that defensive effort there in the third quarter, we could have been in some trouble, too,” Terrill said.

Selena Lorrey scored 10 points early in the fourth quarter to bring Traip close, but it wasn’t enough.