WISCASSET — Going into Wednesday’s Western Maine Class C boys basketball prelim with Wiscasset, St. Dom’s first-year coach Todd Flaherty was feeling good about his team’s chances to advance.

The two Mountain Valley Conference foes had met in the third game of the regular season and the ninth-ranked Saints suffered a last-second 43-42 loss to the No. 8 Wolverines.

And early on Wednesday, his charges led 5-0 and there wasn’t much to complain about.

However, tack on 34 turnovers and a tremendous man-to-man defense by Wiscasset, not to mention a 38-11 free-throw advantage and the Saints were ousted, 78-56.

St. Dom’s closes out the season at 7-12, while the Wolverines improved to 11-8 and now take on No. 1 Boothbay Region (17-1) in quarterfinal play Monday night (8:30 p.m.) at the Augusta Civic Center.

“Hey, give Wiscasset a lot of credit,” said Flaherty. “They played much more aggressive defense and we actually prepared a lot for the zone.

“We turned the ball over a lot … way too much and that’s been a problem for us. We missed a lot of layups and they provided some matchup problems for us.”

Wiscasset boasted of many standouts.

Top billing goes to sophomore Travis Padilla, who merely went 19-for-20 at the foul line and sported a game-high 34 points.

Dylan McMahon was a force with 14 points and eight rebounds, and John Rines came of the bench to hit four 3-pointers, including two in a crucial second quarter when the hosts outscored St. Dom’s 26-13 on seven-of-16 shooting for a 44-29 halftime bulge. Dale Peaslee chipped in with 10 points and seven boards.

Cam Raymond paced a balanced St. Dom’s effort with 12 points, while Michael Bryant had 11, Matt Dyer nine, and Zak Johnson and Eric Ulin seven each.

Wiscasset wound up 31 of 38 at the charity stripe and St. Dom’s four of 11.

In a first period that produced ties of 9 and 11, the Saints suffered from turnovers (eight), while the Wolverines crashed the offensive boards and played strong defense, led by the burly McMahon. The Saints were never allowed to get into any flow.

Padilla erupted for 13 second-quarter points and the Saints offense stalled, save for a couple of Dyer bombs.

At halftime, Flaherty implored his charges to go all out, reminding them that there was plenty of time left to play.

He wanted a strong start to the third quarter … and got two quick turnovers. A timeout helped slow down the hosts, but St. Dom’s shot four of 12 from the floor and managed just 10 points in falling behind 57-39 at the break.

“Well, in the first game we were playing strictly zone defense,” said Wiscasset coach Dana Lawrence. “And, neither one of us shot the ball very well.

“At the beginning of the first quarter I thought we were a little timid and I thought the game was going to be called much tighter, but they let them play. We stepped it up from there and once we got our defense slowing them down, our offense started to click.”

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