It seemed the Boothbay Seahawks had nearly righted the ship Feb. 18 in their Class C South Boys quarterfinal matchup with Traip Academy. The Rangers had expanded their nine-point halftime lead after a steal led to a Will Stuart fastbreak layup extending the No. 5 seed’s lead to 43 to 32 midway through the third period. Boothbay called timeout and its switch from zone to man to man defense in the second half started to pay off. Now it was the Seahawks forcing Ranger turnovers and Boothbay outscored Traip 17 to 2 in taking a 49-45 lead into the fourth quarter.

But Traip, an undersized and youthful squad, did what it did best: convert turnovers into quick and easy fast break baskets. The Rangers outscored Boothbay 25 to 11 in the fourth quarter en route to a 70-60 tournament victory. For Boothbay, the loss came down to too many turnovers and too few rebounds. While Boothbay’s starting lineup had a front line of 6-6 Ben Pearce, 6-4 Nicholas Morley and 6-3 Hunter Crocker, they couldn’t capitalize their advantage against Traip whose tallest starter was 6-1 Issac Henderson. Boothbay managed only one offensive rebound in the first half and struggled scoring in the low post throughout most of the game.

“We didn’t take advantage of our size,” said Boothbay Coach I.J. Pinkham. “They were afraid to pass it in. Part of our game plan was to use our size advantage. The game really came down to too many turnovers (22), we didn’t rebound well in the first half, and we missed 10 free throws.”

At first, Boothbay didn’t encounter many problems with the Rangers. Stuart nailed a long 3-pointer giving Traip the game’s first lead. It took Boothbay 105 seconds to score its first basket. Pearce scored on a fast break followed by a Crocker basket giving the Seahawks a 4-3 lead. Boothbay scored nine more points on a 13-0 run with more baskets by Steve Reny, a 3-pointer by Crocker, and two more fast break baskets by Pearce and Crocker.

Traip’s Henderson ended the run after a Boothbay turnover and scored on a fast break basket. The quarter ended with a Traip 13 to 4 run closing Boothbay’s lead to 17-16.Traip continued its momentum into the second quarter. The Ranger man-to-man defense caused Boothbay even more problems. Traip limited Boothbay to nine shots for the quarter while shooting 18 of its own. Traip outscored Boothbay 21 to 11 in the second quarter taking a 37-29 lead into intermission.

Boothbay turned the game around in the third period by switching to a man-to-man defense. Now it was Boothbay forcing Traip turnovers, and converting easy fast break baskets. Boothbay’s fourth quarter four-point lead quickly evaporated with a 6 to 1 Ranger spurt. Stuart scored twice off two Boothbay turnovers to start the quarter. Seahawk guard Sullivan Rice hit one of two free throws. Traip’s Jordan Polanco scored off another Seahawk turnover. Reny, who scored five of Boothbay’s 11 fourth quarter points, regained the lead briefly with a 3-pointer. But Traip’s pressure defense persisted sparking a 15 to 3 run ending the game.

Pinkham credited his squad for overcoming a double digit third quarter deficit and taking a lead into the fourth quarter after struggling against Traip’s defense. “We got ourselves down, and the kids did a great job coming back,” Pinkham said. “We came back, but we couldn’t handle a good thing and started turning the ball over, and it’s hard to win turning the ball over as many times as we did because they scored so many points off them.”

Traip was led in scoring by Stuart with 27 and Jordan Polanco with 13. Boothbay’s Reny had a game-high 30. Other Seahawk scorers were Crocker with 13, Morley with seven,  Pearce with six, and Rice with four.

Boothbay ends its season 14-5. Traip (14-5) advances to the regional semifinal to play top seed Winthrop (18-1) who defeated No. 8 Dirigo, 67-51.