MONMOUTH — Monmouth had a hard time playing catch-up after a slow start. And when the Mustangs surged past Mountain Valley in the fourth quarter, they had a hard time holding onto a short-lived lead.

The Falcons, though they struggled mightily from the floor and allowed the pesky, short-handed Mustangs to hang around, found their touch in the final minutes, rattling off 11 unanswered points in the final 1:23 to pull off a 50-42 victory at Foster Gymnasium on Thursday.

“We’ll walk away with the win right there,” Mountain Valley coach Tammy Gallant said. “They played us tough, they went down low and they beat us to death in that area. We’re happy to get the win. We still have plenty to work on.”

The Falcons (3-0) sped out to an early lead on the strength of Ayla Allen’s six first-quarter points and Chrissy Briggs’ eight in the second, which included two from beyond the arc.

But as Mountain Valley went cold to begin the second half, Monmouth heated things up with an 8-2 run while holding Mountain Valley to 3-for-14 shooting in the third frame.

“I definitely can’t fault the kids’ effort in this one,” Monmouth coach Scott Wing said. “They had that intensity; they never quit.”

In the fourth, Monmouth’s Kylie Kemp hit for six of her 12 points on the night as the Mustangs (2-1) jumped out to their first lead of the contest with 6:09 to play. The Mustangs built that into a five-point advantage with 3:31 remaining and kept Mountain Valley at arm’s length, holding a three-point edge as late as the 1:23 mark of the fourth.

“When we go cold like that, we try to bang it inside, but they played us tough there,” Gallant said.

But Briggs, who had been money in the second quarter from downtown, found her range again, hitting her second trey in as many attempts to even the score.

“Our motto is just to keep shooting,” Briggs said. “Our coach just kept telling us to shoot, and they’d fall eventually.”

Kaitlin Armstrong followed that with her first basket of the night to recapture the lead for Mountain Valley, and Briggs iced the contest with four consecutive free throw makes, two on a technical foul to Monmouth’s Kristine Kahl.

“At the beginning of the game, they made a lot of foul shots,” Briggs said. “We had none, and we kept fouling. They’re an important part of the game. We backed up with defense and got some chances later in the game.”

Allen, who was relatively quiet after scoring the game’s first three points on her first shot, capped the scoring with a pair of freebies in the waning seconds.

“We were keying on (Allen). She’s obviously one of the best players in the league,” Wing said. “(Melissa) Brassard did an unbelievable job on her all night.”

Allen got things started in an otherwise anemic first frame with a long three. The teams combined to shoot 6-for-31 in the first quarter as the Falcons held onto an 8-6 advantage.

“We missed a lot of shots early,” Wing said. “We have this tendency to get wide open layups and miss them. I think sometimes the kids are uptight early in the game.”

Monmouth went cold in the second, making only one basket (and that came in the final 15 seconds of the half). But the Mustangs stayed close thanks to their prowess from the charity stripe. Monmouth stayed within eight points with an 8-for-12 showing from the line in the second quarter.

Monmouth’s run to begin the second slowed briefly as Mountain Valley’s Darbi Brown nailed another three, but the Mustangs didn’t stay down for long. Another 7-1 run to begin the fourth gave the home team its first lead, an advantage it pushed to 39-34 on a Colby Wilson runner.

“I told the girls after the game that (Mountain Valley) is going to be one of the best teams in the conference, and if we can play with them, we can play with anybody,” Wing said.

The Falcons’ next contest is Monday against Carrabec, while Monmouth will travel to Dirigo, also on Monday.

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