By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – Hard work usually pays off in basketball, but don’t tell that to Mountain Valley.

Sixth-seeded Greely made undefeated Mountain Valley work hard for everything it got in Saturday’s Western B quarterfinal and ultimately wore out the third-seeded Falcons in a 50-44 upset.

The Rangers (12-7) will face Western Maine Conference rival Gorham in the semifinals Wednesday night. They played stifling halfcourt defense, effectively shutting down Mountain Valley from the perimeter even while double and triple-teaming 6-7 center Jarod Oldham (18 points, 12 rebounds).

“We wanted to make sure we played their perimeter players,” Greely coach Ken Marks said. “I don’t know what kind of perimeter defense they saw this year, but I thought we did a pretty good job of getting out on them.”

“We missed some easy shots and we rushed some passes,” Falcons coach Ryan Casey said. “We didn’t read the defense as well as we would have liked. We certainly didn’t get into a flow offensively.”

The Falcons didn’t do themselves any favors at the free throw line, either, shooting 8-for-18.(44 percent) Greely made 15-of-25 (60 percent) from the stripe.

Greely took a 20-18 lead on a Scott Alexander jumper with 45 seconds left in the second half and led the rest of the way. The Falcons (18-1) extended their defense full-court in the second half and caused some problems for the Rangers (26 turnovers). Yet every time they’d make a run, Greely would figure out Mountain Valley’s pressure and get a lay-up or get sent to the free throw line and swing the momentum back in its favor.

“We got some great traps but our back-side rotation, I don’t know where they were,” Casey said. “When you’re working that hard to try to get a steal and it’s a free two points for them, it takes a lot of wind out.”

“(Greely) did a good job,” he added. “They executed their press-breaker well and even when we turned them over, they were pretty good at closing back and not giving us any easy baskets.”

Jon Alley led the Rangers with 12 points and eight rebounds, but it was a trio of sophomores who may have made the biggest impact.

“I thought Will Grogan (five points, eight boards off the bench) did a great job on (Oldham),” Marks said. “Scott Alexander came off the bench and helped us in terms of guard play. He was a J.V. player, one of the kids that I’ve been rotating up this year and he did a tremendous job.”

The other sophomore, Caleb Jordan (11 points) got into foul trouble in the second half, but Marks was able to substitute him in and out of the game at key intervals to handle Mountain Valley’s press.

“When Caleb Jordan’s in trouble, we’re in trouble, because he’s kind of our stability,” Marks said. “That’s why I had him going in and out with four fouls, because there was nobody out there that could take the ball.”

Greely led by as much as seven in the second half. The Falcons chipped away to get the deficit down to one on an Oldham hoop with 2:56 left, but Greely immediately went over the top of the fullcourt pressure to give Alley a virtually uncontested layup and things went downhill from there for Mountain Valley. Alley drew Oldham’s fifth foul and drained both of the subsequent free throws to make it a five-point game.

The Falcons briefly made it a one-possession game again on Andy Shorey’s 3-pointer that made it 47-44 with 43 seconds left, only to have an Alexander free throw and a Grogan layup off the press-breaker put the game away with 10 seconds to go.