AUGUSTA - Basketball tournament math quiz: Is it better to rattle off 14 unanswered points in the second half of a quarterfinal game, or to watch your star embark upon one mini-run after another, all afternoon?

That's no question at all for Waynflete School, which advanced to the Western Class C semifinals for the first time in school history with a 52-40 triumph Tuesday over outgoing state champion Mt. Abram at Augusta Civic Center.

Margaret Veroneau, a 5-foot-9 senior co-captain, scored nine of her game-high 29 points in the final 4:30. She also registered six steals to help No. 3 Waynflete (17-3) earn a 2 p.m. Thursday date with No. 2 Monmouth Academy.

"She was on fire. She was a bad matchup problem for us," Mt. Abram coach Doug Lisherness said of Veroneau. "I thought she was the only one that we couldn't handle offensively."

Sisters Morgan and Alex Woodhouse combined for 12 points and a staggering 33 rebounds to complement Veroneau. Morgan, a sophomore, also swatted four shots.

No. 3 Waynflete watched a 14-point lead evaporate during a smidge more than three minutes of clock time in the third and fourth quarters, but the Flyers showed most of that generosity while Veroneau sat on the bench with three fouls.

Veroneau's return early in the fourth quarter appeared to inspire the Flyers' role players, too. Nina Russem hit the first of two free throws to retrieve the lead for keeps with 5:31 left.

Russem later scored inside and Mariam Qazi canned an open baseline jumper before Veroneau etched the dot at the bottom of the exclamation point, driving the baseline for the beginnings of a 3-point play that made it 42-36.

"Whoever steps up, steps up. We all can play," Veroneau said. "They're obviously a great team. Any team you play now is a great team. We knew that they'd come back. We just had to keep our composure."

No easy task, considering the seismic shift of momentum and the Mountain Valley Conference's decades of Class C tournament dominion over the Western Maine Conference, where the power generally lies in the 'B' division.

Mt. Abram trailed 34-20 with 4:35 remaining in the third quarter before Morgan Cummings' two free throws innocently triggered the turnaround.

Cummings, Mikayla Burbank and Kenni Norton each produced four points and two steals during the surge. Norton's steal and lay-up pulled the Roadrunners even with 5:57 to play in regulation.

"That little run in the fourth quarter, that showed me a lot. That took a lot of heart, I don't care, because we were sucking bog water," said the colorful Lisherness. "And we definitely had them going. We had 'em rattled. If we hadn't dug ourselves in such a hole, I think that run would have been enough to win the game for us."

Norton finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and five steals for the Roadrunners (13-7).

Cummings added 10 points and Burbank notched nine to go with four assists and four steals. Janessa Thomas tacked on six points and 14 rebounds for a Mt. Abram squad that gave itself plenty of work underneath the backboards, shooting 17-for-60 (28 percent).

Waynflete coach Brandon Salway also learned plenty about his team.

Undefeated during the 2006-07 regular season under former coach Jan Veinot (now at Portland High), the Flyers fell hard in the quarterfinals to MVC longshot Winthrop. After beating longtime giant Dirigo in the preliminary round, Waynflete is 2-0 against the nemesis league while overcoming its share of speed bumps along the way.

"It's important to have Augusta experience, but it's more important to have winning Augusta experience," Salway said. "Now they feel like not only can they win, but they can withstand a big run and show some mental toughness."