BANGOR – A little extra practice on end-of-game situations paid off nicely for Mount Ararat girls basketball coach Kelly Lafountain and her team.

After fourth-seeded Hampden Academy cut a nine-point lead to just one with a furious rally in the final minute of Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class A girls quarterfinal game, fifth-seeded Mount Ararat of Topsham coolly responded by making eight straight free throws in the final 41 seconds to preserve a 61-52 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

Mount Ararat, now 16-4, advances to meet No. 1 Cony of Augusta on Thursday in an 8:35 p.m. semifinal. Cony (19-0) advanced with a 63-47 win over No. 8 Gardiner. Hampden finishes at 16-4.

The Eagles appeared to have taken control of a seesaw game thanks to a 12-4 run over a three-minute span late in the fourth quarter that left Mount Ararat holding a 53-44 lead with just 1:05 left. Sophomore guard Kelsey Eiane scored six points to key the spurt, while senior center Erin Johnson scored three.

During the week, Lafountain said the Eagles had spent time working on how to approach holding a lead late in the game.

“I felt the girls were ready for it,” she said. “We knew what we had to do.”

The Broncos weren’t ready to go down without a fight, however, and nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback.

After regaining possession with 1:04 left after Mount Ararat was called for a foul after a missed foul shot, Hampden’s Kim Stephenson buried a 3-pointer with 56 seconds left to cut the lead to 53-47.

After a Mount Ararat turnover, HA’s Jill Beal cut deeper into the Eagle lead when she made a basket with 48.3 seconds left and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but was fouled again on her putback attempt with 46.3 seconds left.

“We had a couple of mental lapses,” Lafountain said.

The Eagles appeared to catch a break when Beal missed both foul shots, but Tanna Ross rebounded the second miss and converted a three-point play with 43.1 seconds to play in the fourth, cutting the lead to 53-52.

In all, Hampden shaved eight points off Mount Ararat’s lead in 21 seconds of game action.

“The kids really believe they can win all the way to the final buzzer,” HA coach Ben Greenlaw said.

In their attempt to try and take the lead, though, the Broncos were forced to foul and the Eagles converted from the free throw line. Sophomore guard Elaine Emerson was 4-for-4 from the charity stripe in the final minute, while Eiane and Johnson each made both of their foul shot attempts.

“They did a nice job of making free throws down the stretch,” Greenlaw said.

Eiane paced the Eagles with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Johnson added 16 points and eight rebounds. Johnson has been one of the players who have helped fill the void from the loss of senior standout Erika Stupinski.

“She’s our other co-captain, our other 1,000 point scorer,” Lafountain said of Johnson. “We look for her to step up big in big games.”

Ross paced Hampden with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Stephenson finished with 14 points. Two of Hampden’s top offensive threats, Beal (nine points) and senior guard Johanna Ghiringhelli (eight), were plagued by foul trouble.

“Johanna and Jill are two people we depend on to score,” Greenlaw said. “It was hard for us to convert when they were not in the game.”

EAGLES 61, BRONCOS 52

Mount Ararat (16-4) Hampden (16-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Emerson 2 12 5 9 10 Ghiringhelli 3 14 2 2 8

Eiane 5 9 7 8 18 Stephenson 6 16 0 0 14

Gilbride 2 2 0 0 5 Morris 2 6 4

Johnson 6 11 4 6 16 Ross 6 14 15

Charette 1 1 0 0 2 Thompson 1 2

Allen 0 1 0 0 0 Bragg 0 0 0

Rogers 1 8 0 0 2 Beal 4 12 9

Woolford 2 7 4 4 8 Ryder 0 1 0

Haggerty 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 19 52 20 27 61 22 68 10 52

Mount Ararat 8 20 37 61

Hampden 11 24 34 52

3-pt. goals ? Mount Ararat (3-6): Emerson 1-4, Eiane 1-1; Hampden (2-17): Ghiringhelli 0-6, Stephenson 2-8, Ross 0-1, Thompson 0-2