LIVERMORE FALLS — Mountain Valley Conference girls’ basketball coaches can only hope the difference in their blood pressure readings between the beginning and end of the season is slim as the point differential  in most of the games this winter.

But it’s doubtful.

Livermore Falls passed another stress test Tuesday night, holding off Mountain Valley, 32-29, to complete a season sweep of the Class B Falcons and protect the No. 3 spot in a ridiculous Western Class C playoff race.

“This league is unbelievable,” said Livermore Falls coach Mark Simpson. “No one’s going to pull away. That (win is) going to help us, but then (No 2) Jay and (No. 1) Madison play (Wednesday) night.”

It was the Andies’ astonishing fifth three-point victory of the season. Livermore Falls previously won at Mountain Valley by five. Simpson’s team also has suffered a pair of two-point losses and dropped another game by three.

Neither team led this one by more than five. Twice it was tied in the final four minutes.

Marissa Welch led the Andies (11-4) with 12 points and 19 rebounds. Hannah Therrien hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds remaining to establish the Andies’ final margin.

After a timeout, Kathryn Ventrella knocked down Mountain Valley’s ensuing long inbounds pass near half-court. Chelsea Bordeau recovered the ball for the Falcons, but her 30-foot desperation heave for the tie sailed high off the backboard.

“That’s a pretty big win. I think this might help us get to Augusta,” said Welch, whose team has clinched a trip to the regional quarterfinals and still has point-worthy games remaining with Madison and Carrabec. “It’s good competition every game.”

With Therrien blanketing Mountain Valley’s Ayla Allen and McKenzie Paterson putting Livermore Falls’ Ventrella under lockdown, both teams relied on their No. 21 in the low post to stay afloat.

Mountain Valley’s answer to Welch was opposite number Breana Roberts, who scored 11 points and snagged nine rebounds. Allen finished with eight points and 10 boards.

“We played pretty solid, half-court man-to-man,” said Mountain Valley coach Rich Allen. “We didn’t have much luck last time we played pressing them full-court. They got some easy layups off the back of that. At least we didn’t have to claw back from seven or eight points this time.”

Thanks in part to Mountain Valley’s pressure on guards Ventrella and Megan Therrien, Livermore Falls went the final seven minutes of the first half without a field goal.

The Andies nearly repeated that drought in the third period. But Welch book-ended the quarter with offensive put-backs to stave off an 11-3 Falcons flurry and restore a 20-18 Andies advantage.

“We struggled when we hit 12 (points, on Welch‘s inside bucket early in the second quarter). We just stayed there, and they just chopped away and got back into it,” Simpson said. “At halftime I just said, ‘Girls, this is what we’re made for right here.’ We’ll never get out away from people, but we know how to handle ourselves.”

Mountain Valley reversed its struggles from the field (7-for-31 through three quarters) by successfully working the ball inside to Roberts, Allen and Bordeau for easy buckets in the fourth.

Lone senior Emily Knapp’s jumper from the left elbow tied it at 26 with 2:18 remaining. Livermore Falls answered on its next possession, with Welch kicking out to Hannah Therrien for an 18-footer that put the Andies in front to stay.

Two missed free throws briefly left the door ajar, and Allen’s 3-pointer made it 30-29 with 21 seconds to go. But with the Mountain Valley bench imploring the officials for a five-seconds-while-closely-guarded call that never came, the Falcons (10-6) failed to foul until the 3.7 second mark.

“The Paterson girl, she played her tail off, and I thought she should have been rewarded with at least a couple of five-second calls,” Rich Allen said. “I tried to raise that point.”

Ventrella and Annika Durrell each pitched in six points for the Andies. Hannah Therrien supplemented her five points with eight rebounds.

“Defensively I can’t say enough about these kids,” Simpson said. “We had a few lapses where we let them get a few points, but other than that they had to work for everything they got.”

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