AUGUSTA — Hall-Dale locked down the paint for Thursday night’s Western Class C boys’ semifinal and dared Livermore Falls’ shooters to beat them.

They did.

Chandler White scored 14 points and Mike Anctil came off the bench for nine points, all on 3-pointers, to send top-seeded Livermore Falls to the regional final with a 42-37 victory.

The Andies (17-3), headed to their first regional title game since 1989, will face defending regional champion Dirigo at approximately 8:45 p.m. Saturday. The two teams split during the regular season.

“It feels great,” said senior forward Tom Ventrella, who held Ryan Leach, the MVC’s leading scorer, to 14 points. “It’s what we’ve been working for all season, so it’s nice to cap it off with a great win.”

With penetration and points in the paint rendered virtually impossible by Hall-Dale’s zone defense, the Andies settled for 3-pointers and hit enough (7-for-20) to overcome an otherwise poor shooting night (13-for-44 overall).

“We really wanted to attack the basket. We didn’t do a great job, but it’s a credit to Hall-Dale,” Magnusson said. “Their 1-3-1 and their other zone really took away the middle on us.”

 The Andies took the lead to stay on a White jumper that made it 27-26 with 1:30 left in the third quarter. They picked their spots carefully after that, and Hall-Dale (12-8) went cold from the floor in the fourth quarter (3-for-16) to seal its fate.

 “The defense deserves credit,” Magnusson said. “Tom was just all over Leach. He was really a man there, ‘D-ing’ him up.”

“We scouted him and kind of knew the things he liked to do,” Ventrella said. “But it was bsically get a hand in his face, don’t let him get any open shots, because when he’s open he can hit the 3.”

 The Bulldogs could have used the same strategy for defending Anctil, who came off the bench in the second quarter firing.

Hall-Dale started the game with a 2-1-2 zone and shut off White’s penetration. The Andies (5-for-14 in the first half) seemed content to settle for 3-pointers rather than looking inside to Mike Armstrong or Derek Castonguay.

 “In the beginning, what kept us in it was those missed shots,” Hall-Dale coach James Patrick said. “But once they started making it, we had to make an adjustment with the zone. We went from a 2-1-2 protecting the paint to a 1-3-1 getting out on shooters, and that worked a little bit, but not much.”

After a low-scoring first quarter, Hall-Dale started to pound the ball inside to Damian Melnicove, who scored 11 of his game-high 16 points in the second period. The Bulldogs led 14-10 before Anctil came off the bench and hit his first 3. Nate Michaud followed with a trey to put the Andies in front, then after Melnicove tied it at 16-16, Anctil drilled another trey to help Livermore Falls take a 19-18 lead into halftime.

“He’s a great shooter,” Magnusson said of Anctil. “I knew if they zoned it up, he could hit those. He’s done a good job of hitting those all year, and those three were big ones.”

“I was nervous because I knew we had to get the ball  inside and get things going,” Anctil said. “I knew I had to step up on defense, too, because if I didn’t play ‘D’, I was coming right back out.”

Armstrong and Derek Castonguay shut down Melnicove in the second half. His two free throws gave the Bulldogs a one-point lead, their last, with 2:44 left in the third. A minute later, Anctil hit his third 3 to inflate Livermore’s lead to four.

“I’m just glad all those extra hours in the gym finally paid off,” Anctil said. “I’m pumped to go to Western Maine.”