SALEM – Coach Doug Lisherness hoped to prove something Monday night.

If his Mt. Abram girls’ basketball team wasn’t able to beat unbeaten Dirigo last night, Lisherness could only hope for an effort that would show his girls how close they could come to doing so.

His Roadrunners nearly accomplished both objectives. Though Dirigo eked out a 42-40 win over the Roadrunners, Mt. Abram had its chance to topple the Cougars.

“I thought if we came out and were not intimidated by them, we could play with them, and we did,” said Lisherness, whose club was the last team to beat Dirigo in the regular season in the late 1990s. “I felt we matched their intensity, and at times I felt that our intensity was a little more. They execute so well. Still to keep them in the low 40s, I was happy with the defense.”.

Dirigo broke a 39-39 tie with 28 seconds left to play when Alexa Kaubris hit two free throws to put the Cougars ahead for good.

“We were fortunate that we made some plays late in the fourth quarter that helped us prevail,” said Dirigo coach Gavin Kane.

Though Mt. Abram had a chance to answer, a traveling call gave Dirigo the ball back with 14 seconds left. Brooke Weston was fouled on the inbounds pass and hit one free throw for a 42-39 lead. Mt. Abram got a Katie Walker free throw with eight seconds left. She missed the second shot intentionally, but Dirigo’s Holly Knight grabbed the rebound.

Kaubris finished with 14 for Dirigo (8-0) while Michelle Holmquist had 12. Katie Walker had a game-high 16 for the Roadrunners (5-3).

“I give Dougie’s team a lot of credit,” said Kane. “They got after us pretty good early, and I thought we lost our composure and did some things that were pretty uncharacteristic.”

Dirigo had been up by five early in the fourth when Brooke Weston fed Shannon Daley on an inbounds pass. That made it 35-30 with just over seven minutes to play.

Dirigo was poised to nurse that lead, but Lynn Plog changed things in a hurry. Her 3-pointer with 6:57 left got Mt. Abram back within 35-33.

“That ignited us,” said Lisherness. “They thought they were going to start stretching it out. That was a huge 3.”

Mt. Abram tied the game with a Katie Walker jumper with 4:12 left. The Roadrunners then took the lead with 3:13 left with a Walker free throw. Dirigo answered right back with a Weston jumper from the foul line, and the Roadrunners never got the lead back again.

“I wanted to get a one-point lead and come down and go into our four corners,” said Lisherness. “We’ve been running it very well, but unfortunately those last couple of minutes, we didn’t have that one-point lead.”

Mt. Abram did get a free throw from Walker with 2:09 left to tie it. Mt. Abram had a chance to break the tie but a traveling call with 1:31 gave the Cougars the ball back. Dirigo ran the clock down. Mt. Abram hoped to get a possession call on a loose ball or a foul on Holmquist inside, but the Cougars maintained possession.

“We were just looking to run our motion offense and try to find somebody in the post and at the very least get somebody to the foul line,” said Kane.

Kaubris got the ball down low and was fouled in the paint. She swished both free throws.The Cougars, which shot 6-for-13 from the foul line, hadn’t hit back-to-back free throws in the game until then.

“She had a tough game, but she’s a gamer,” said Kane. “She came through with a couple of free throws.”