By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – Melissa Moylan knew time was running out.

She had watched Lake Region surge ahead in the third quarter of Friday night’s Western B championship game and knew it was now or never for her Yarmouth Clippers.

So during the huddle before the final quarter began, the senior guard issued the challenge.

“I just told them if we didn’t step it up right now than this was going to be it,” said Moylan. “We knew we wanted to stay together. So we knew we had to step it up in the fourth quarter or we weren’t going to go on to the state championship.”

The Clippers earned themselves another week of basketball season by rallying for a 45-43 win over Lake Region for their first-ever basketball regional title.

For the third straight playoff game, Yarmouth came from behind to win. The Clippers used a 16-2 run to build an eight-point lead before holding off the Lakers in the final minute.

“We just had to stay confident with ourselves and patient with our offense,” said junior center Meredith Shaw. “We’re really close as a team. We stay really confident through the whole game. We’ve been down in a lot of our regular season games, but we pulled them through in the end.”

Shaw led the Yarmouth (20-1) with 20 points, 10 of which came in the final quarter. She was presented the Mike DiRenzo Award for the tournament’s most outstanding player. Aylie Baker added 11 points for the Clippers.

Samanatha Allen led all scorers with 21 for Lake Region (18-3). Kate Callahan added 10. It was six straight points by Allen late in the third that helped the Lakers open a lead.

After a Kayla Nowell drive got Lake Region within two, an Allen three-point play put the Lakers ahead, 25-24. After a steal, Allen put back her own rebound and was fouled. The three-point play made it 28-24 with 40 seconds left in the quarter.

“I thought it boiled down to pressure on the basketball and getting into transition,” said Lake Region coach Paul True. “They took care of the basketball pretty well most of the time, but we created a couple of turnovers in that period that led to some easy baskets.”

Allen ended the third quarter with a 3-pointer for a 31-25 lead. Lake Region made it a 33-27 lead early in the fourth on a Nowell basket.

“We knew we couldn’t be down by any more,” said Moylan. “We knew we had to come back and have a strong offensive run.”

That’s exactly what the Clippers did. Yarmouth ran off nine straight points, five coming from Shaw. After she hit a free throw, she hit a turn-around shot and was set up by Chrissie Attura. Moylan hit a jumper from the corner and Lexie Brunelle set up Shaw inside to put Yarmouth up 36-33.

“They don’t quit,” said Yarmouth coach John Martin. “I think I get a lot more nervous than they do. They don’t get rattled

“We didn’t change anything offensively or defensively. We didn’t do anything spectacular. They just went back out there and worked hard.”

While its post game carried the offense, Yarmouth shutdown the Lakers. Attura held Allen to just just three shots in the final quarter. The Lakers hit just one of its first 11 shots and went over three minutes without scoring and nearly five minutes without a field goal.

“They’re a very strong team,” said Shaw. “They have really quick guards. They have a very strong player in Sam Allen. We knew we had to contain her.”

The Lakers got two free throws from Callahan with 3:32 left, but Yarmouth got two free throws by Baker. Shaw converted a three-point play, and Moylan hit another jumper with 1:57 left for a 43-35 lead.

Lake Region managed a brief rally with a Callahan steal and three-point play with 1:31 left. Allen hit a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining to cut the lead to two.

“It was loud and crazy in here,” said Shaw. “We just had to focus on the court and focus on ourselves, executing our offense and staying patient.”