RUMFORD – Mountain Valley girls’ basketball coach Greig Parr devised a game plan, and hoped his Falcons would execute it at Puiia Gymnasium Monday night.

The Falcons headed followed Parr’s directions to the letter, holding their ground for nearly three quarters. But the ball control down the stretch proved to be the difference.

Sophomore Kristen Arsenault scored a game-high 19 points and Cerese Richardson celebrated Senior Night by dominating the boards as the Falcons held on for a 33-30 win against Telstar in MVC action.

Class C Telstar (12-5) and Class B Mountain Valley (9-8) have each qualified for their respective playoffs. The results of the final games will determine if they’ll host a home contest or travel to the Augusta Civic Center.

Mountain Valley led the entire game, except for 11 seconds when Telstar went ahead 24-23 at the end of the third quarter. The lead proved to be short-lived as Jen Arsenault scored on a jump shot to put the Falcons ahead to stay.

“If there’s one thing that we learned tonight it was patience,” Parr said. “We had to protect the ball and every pass was import. We threw the ball away a couple times when we tried getting the ball inside against their zone. At the other end, we really needed to deny Telstar the ball.”

Mountain Valley hurt itself by shooting 34 percent, but committed 11 turnovers in the game.

In the fourth quarter, Richardson hauled down five rebounds and Tanya Nicols came off the bench to score five points. The Falcons took a 31-26 lead on baskets by Richardson, Nicols and Kristen Arsenault.

Telstar received two baskets from Jillian Kimball (10 points) and got help in the paint by Krystal Gould (10 rebounds). The Rebels hadn’t committed a turnover in the third period, but made seven and shot 28 percent in the fourth quarter.

“Were an outside shooting team,” Telstar coach Aaron Bean said. “Things started working for us in the third quarter when we flashed someone to the high post. It broke down when (Mountain Valley) switched to a man-to-man defense.”

Telstar received nine points from Liz Rosenberg and five points from Chea Davis. The Rebels made three of 12 free throws.

Mountain Valley made nine of 16 from the charity stripe and received steady play by guard Devon Allen and forward Sasha Theriault.

“Telstar was effective against us with a 2-1-2 zone,” Parr said. “That’s hard to play against and (Gould) was big in the middle. The difference in the fourth quarter was being able to box out on defense in order to rebound and offensively we took care of the ball.”

Telstar had three possessions in the final 30 seconds, but made only one shot.