BANGOR – The Dexter girls basketball team escaped Tuesday morning’s Class C quarterfinals by about a millisecond.

That’s probably how much time elapsed between the basketball leaving Mallory Ames’ right hand and the final buzzer sounding.

Ames grabbed a loose rebound off a Katie Poirier miss and scored to send the second-seeded Tigers into a Friday 2:05 p.m. semifinal with a 33-32 victory over a tough, scrappy No. 7 Narraguagus of Harrington team at the Bangor Auditorium.

The Tigers (18-1) face sixth-seeded Fort Kent (14-6), which rode the shooting of Marissa Albert to a 65-58 upset victory over No. 3 Houlton in overtime in the day’s first game, in a 2:05 p.m. semifinal on Friday.

In the early game, the Warriors started to find their rhythm when Albert beat the halftime buzzer with a 25-foot shot off the glass to pull Fort Kent even with Houlton at 27 apiece, after the Shires (16-3) led by as many as seven in the opening 16 minutes.

The junior guard took over from there, scoring 17 of her game-high 30 points in the second half, including a pull-up 3-pointer off a screen with 19 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Just how were all those shots falling for Albert? She was surprisingly puzzled the ball found the bottom of the net so many times.

“To tell you the truth I really don’t know,” she said with a smile. “I like pressure, and I just executed.”

The key halftime adjustment for the Warriors was limiting the inside play of 6-foot-2 Shiretowners center Rachel Foster.

“We talked about at halftime how we had to limit her touches,” said Fort Kent coach Travis Delisle. “She’s very talented once she touches the basketball, and very strong once she rebounds it.”

Foster did score 10 of her 15 points in the second half, but every time she touched the ball, it seemed the Warriors’ 2-3 zone would converge from all directions.

“We said as soon as she touches it, we’ll double- and triple-team her,” Delisle said.

Fort Kent senior center Meagan Charette had the tough task of playing inside against the taller Foster, but she battled her way to 13 rebounds and 10 points, many of which came on offensive end.

“She’s a big force under there, she gets all the rebounds and uses her body to her advantage,” Albert said.

Fort Kent guard Emily Pelletier gave the Warriors a valuable boost as she scored six of her 14 points in overtime, all on free throws, going 6-for-6 at the line in the extra session.

“We’ve always said that if a team’s going to win at tournament time, you’re going to need to shoot at least 70 to 80 percent from the line, Delisle said.

Vanessa Sanderson’s 17 points led Houlton while Emily Bartlett added 15.

In the late-morning game, the Knights (12-8) led by as many as seven in the third quarter, but Ames scored six points in a three-minute span to pull the Tigers even at 20-20.

The game went back and forth throughout the final period, with the largest lead being a 31-29 Dexter edge with 29 seconds left.

After Dexter’s Chelsea Chambers missed the front end of a 1-and-1, the Knights’ Andrea Perry banked home a toughly contested 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to put Narraguagus up one.

Things got crazy from there.

On the Tigers’ final possession, Poirier missed with two seconds left, and the 6-6 Ames, who was surrounded by four maroon shirts, got a hand on the ball and quickly put up the game-winner as the horn sounded.

“If [Ames] stands there and doesn’t make the play, we’re going home,” said Dexter coach Jody Grant. “Fortunately she has that never-quit attitude and we survived.”

Throughout most of the game, the Knights played a 2-3 zone, doubling and sometimes even triple-teaming Ames to eliminate inside passes.

“We’ve seen a lot of gimmick defenses and things like that,” Grant said. “They really bottled things up inside.”

Ames was held to 10 points, but she was a force inside defensively, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking five shots.

Poirier also had a double-double for Dexter with 13 points and 13 boards. Perry led the Knights with 11 points while Amanda Ostberg hauled down 10 rebounds.

WARRIORS 65, SHIRETOWNERS 58 (OT)

Fort Kent (14-6) Houlton (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Boucher 2 10 3 4 7 Rowe 2 7 5

Pelletier 2 12 8 10 14 Bartlett 4 10 5 9 15

Rossignol 0 1 4 4 4 Foster 6 13 15

Albert 11 30 4 6 30 Sandersn 4 14 7 16 17

Hafford 0 3 0 0 0 Dow 2 8 4

K.Bouchrd 0 0 0 0 0 Hovey 1 6 2

Morneault 0 0 0 0 0 McPrtland 0 0

Charette 5 20 0 2 10

Totals 20 76 19 26 65 Totals 19 58 16 30 58

Fort Kent 12 27 35 53 65

Houlton 13 27 39 53 58

3-pt. goals – Fort Kent (6-17): Albert 4-7, Pelletier 2-9, Boucher 0-1; Houlton (4-7): Bartlett 2-4, Sanderson 2-3

TIGERS 33, KNIGHTS 32

Narraguagus (12-8) Dexter (18-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Caler 0 0 0 0 0 Ames 7 20 15

Robinson 2 12 0 0 5 Chambers 1 2

Burke 0 0 0 0 0 Gove 0 1 0

Foss 2 9 1 4 5 Burton 1 5 1 3

Greene 2 11 0 0 5 Chapman 0 4 0

Albee 0 1 2 2 2 Poirier 5 15 13

Ostberg 2 10 0 2 4

Perry 5 8 0 0 11

Totals 13 51 3 8 32 Totals 14 52 15 33

Narraguagus 6 16 24 32

Dexter 8 13 22 33

3-pt. goals – Narraguagus (3-9): Greene 1-4, Perry 1-2, Robinson 1-3; Dexter (0-1): Chambers 0-1