AUGUSTA — Morgan Woodhouse of Waynflete and Allaina Murphy of St. Dominic made a season’s worth of big shots in Tuesday’s Western Class C girls’ basketball quarterfinal.

Waynflete freshman Catherine Veroneau fired the one that let the Flyers live to fight another tournament day, though.

Veroneau chalked up her only three points of the game with a 21-foot swish from the right wing, restoring the Portland school’s lead with under three minutes remaining and lighting the path to a 44-40 victory at Augusta Civic Center.

No. 2 Waynflete (14-3) wasted a 14-point lead and later trailed by four prior to Veroneau’s heroics, paved by a pass from her sister, Martha. Her trey broke the fourth tie of the half.

“That was huge,” said Waynflete coach Brandon Salway. “I thought her ‘3’ and Martha’s defense kind of sparked us while things weren’t looking too good for us.”

St. Dom’s (12-7) clawed back within one when Murphy hit a jumper on the Saints’ next possession. The margin was still a manageable two points when Elise Applegate located Murphy down low for a bucket with 13.1 seconds left.

But six seconds elapsed after an ensuing timeout before the Saints could foul Woodhouse, and the Flyers’ lone senior knocked down both ends of a 1-and-1 to apply the exclamation point.

Woodhouse finished with 27 points, 16 rebounds and five steals. Murphy produced 18 points and five rebounds for the seventh-seeded Saints (12-7), who lost to Waynflete in the quarterfinals for the second straight year. St. Dom’s and Waynflete were formerly Western Maine Conference rivals before the Saints switched to the Mountain Valley Conference this year.

Waynflete lost to Jay in last year’s regional final. Woodhouse is the only starter back from that squad.

“It feels amazing to win a game in the Augusta Civic Center,” Woodhouse said. “I think we were all motivated because no one thought we would go this far.”

St. Dom’s recovered from a sluggish start (3-for-26) and foreshadowed its comeback with an 8-1 run to end the first half. Buckets by Morgan Brown, Mary Caron, Allaina Murphy and Meghan Murphy provided the awakening while the Saints held the Flyers without a field goal for the final 4:19.

Two steals and transition layups by Woodhouse kept Waynflete afloat in the third period. That was a far cry from the Flyers’ struggles in the half-court set, where St. Dom’s wreaked havoc with a 1-3-1 zone.

“We got them standing around, and I was hoping they would stand around like that for the rest of the game,” said St. Dom’s coach Paul Rheaume. “But in the fourth quarter, (Salway) got them moving around a lot more. We did a good job coming back. I feel sorry for the kids. They played with a lot of heart.”

St. Dom’s rattled off eight straight points to end the third period with a 30-27 lead. Murphy scored the first five. Brown capped the push with a 3-point play off a pass from Sarah Gosselin.

Woodhouse kickstarted the fourth with her own hoop-and-harm to tie it. Consecutive hoops by Julia Richardson (six second-half points) and Gosselin gave St. Dom’s its largest lead, 34-30, with 5:21 to go.

Martha Veroneau scored twice to pull Waynflete even again.

“Morgan was pretty consistent throughout the game,” Salway said, “but we needed contributions from other kids or we weren’t going to advance.”

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