WATERBORO — The visiting Sanford girls basketball team was able to hold off a Massabesic surge in the fourth quarter to gut out a close 47-44 win on Thursday night.

The two teams grinded throughout the 32 minutes, with neither club leading by more than seven at any point. Sanford would take a 39-33 lead early in the fourth, but the Mustangs would get back-to-back 3-pointers from Marissa Holt to knot the score.

“They’re a good shooting team — especially (Massabesic’s McKenzy) Ouellette. For us it was about running people off the line and not get caught up in this chasing game,” said Sanford coach Rossie Kearson after the win.

The Mustangs would eventually take a 43-40 lead midway through the quarter, but Sanford rallied to go on a 7-1 run in the final four minutes to put the game away.

“I would say that we still have some growing up to do. Although we withstood their pressure we still had situations where we were throwing the ball away. What was key was that we made some free throws down the stretch that gave us some cushion and got us through it,” said Kearson.

Massabesic would take a 13-9 lead in the first and seemed to be in control heading into the second, but Sanford center Paige Cote would take over at the post and score 10 points in the quarter to give Sanford the 25-19 halftime lead.

Massabesic was able to shut down Cote in the third and cut the Spartan lead to just two points heading into the final quarter. 

“She’s probably about four or five inches taller than anyone we’ve got and she’s polished in the post. We didn’t follow what we wanted to do from our practice but I think in the second half we got doubles from where we needed to get them from, I think our press kind of wore them out so they weren’t executing as much,” said Massabesic coach Chris Aube. “(Sanford) did a nice job in the second half though, they hit a couple of jump shots because of our attention to her.”

Kearson also felt that the Spartans did a good job of taking advantage of the open looks created by the double teams placed on Cote. 

“It was more or less telling her to be stronger with the ball, pass out and trust your teammates, and we started getting shots from the outside which kind of opened things up,” said Kearson.

Cote led Sanford with 19 points while Jillian Lizotte added 10 and Samya Santiague nine. Ouellette led the Mustangs with a game-high 27 points while Holt finished with 13.

Aube feels that moving forward, the Mustangs are going to have to continue to use their quickness and sharp shooting to compete with the top teams in the tough Class AA South conference.

“That’s who we need to be. Our biggest kid is probably (5-foot-8), (5-foot-9) … we’re athletic but we struggle to score at the half court. We’re trying to create a tempo here that gets us some easy looks,” said Aube. “I think we made them uncomfortable throughout the game and that’s what our identity has got to be.”

Both Sanford and Massabesic field young clubs, and both coaches felt that the highly competitive game was a good learning point for their respective teams.

“I think it’s important. I was pretty pleased that they weren’t satisfied with just being close. We had some upset kids in that locker room and we’re going to move forward from here,” said Aube.

“It’s very valuable — it shows a little bit of maturity as a team,” said Kearson. “But they still understand that we have some growing up to do.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.