WALES — Paxton Lessard didn’t see a lot of pressure moments last season.

She came off the bench and saw some minutes but never faced that moment in which the game was on the line and the ball was in her hands.

Friday night, she faced that very scenario.

“Last year, I didn’t get a lot of playing time,” the senior guard said. “I probably went in for like a minute every game. So I’ve never been under this much pressure.”

Her Monmouth Mustangs had watched Oak Hill rally from 14 points down and take the lead with 50 seconds left in the game. Lessard drew a foul and had two free throws with the chance to put the Mustangs back in front.

“It was really tough,” Lessard said. “I knew I had to take a deep breath and make it because we needed it.”

Lessard swished them both to put Monmouth ahead for good. The Mustangs held off the Raiders for a 53-52 win in the season-opener.

Lessard had six of her 12 points in the fourth while Sidney Wilson scored five of her team-high 14 in the final quarter.

In a game that featured 46 fouls, Monmouth was without senior guard Kylie Kemp late in the third and for the early minutes of the fourth.

“I was so proud of our sophomore who never came off the court,” said Monmouth coach Scott Wing. “Sidney Wilson never had a sub because we got into foul trouble. Haley West played unbelievable. When Kylie picked up her fourth foul, I was just hoping to hang on and they did all they could to hang on. That’s all we needed. Then we kind of pulled it out in the end.”

Oak Hill lost three players to fouls and three others were nursing three fouls at game’s end. Sadie Goulet led the Raiders with 16. Freshman Brianna Mulherin made a nice debut with seven and just missed a 3 at the buzzer after a steal at halfcourt.

“To spot them 14 and decide, ‘Now we want to play,’ that’s tough to come back from,” Oak Hill coach Tom Morong said. “We just couldn’t get into a rhythm.”

The Raiders were down 33-24 at the half but watched the Mustangs open the lead early in the third. A 3 by Lessard, which followed a missed double dribble in the backcourt, and baskets by Kemp and West made it 40-26 midway through the third.

Kemp picked up her fourth late in the third and Oak Hill’s pressure began to pay dividends. The Raiders ran off 10 straight points to close the gap to 40-36. Goulet hit a pair of 3’s during that run while the Oak Hill defense forced 11 Monmouth turnovers in that quarter.

“We’re going to live and die by our pressure,” Morong said. “We want to run and run because we play a lot of kids. We were slow in our rotation. They picked their spots and challenged us. They had good ball control. Their point guard did a pretty good job.”

Monmouth had 14 turnovers in the fourth but when Kemp came back in with 5:32 left, the Mustangs started to settle down.

“I kept telling everybody that we needed to stay calm and take care of the ball and not panic,” Lessard said.

Monmouth got a big 3 early from Wilson to keep the lead, but Oak Hill managed to tie it twice on a leaner by Meagan Crosby and free throws by Danielle Samson. With the game tied 45-45, Lessard hit a free throw and then moments later hit a 3 from the top of the key. It rolled around the rim before dropping for a 49-45 lead with 1:36 left.

“I knew I was open and I knew I had to shoot that for the team,” Lessard said. “We weren’t losing our cool or anything. We knew we had to make some shots. When I made those it got everybody rack rolling again.”

A drive by Jamie Prue trimmed the deficit and then Goulet drilled a 3 in the final minute to give Oak Hill its first lead since 2-0. Lessard drew the foul seconds later and swished her free throws for the lead.

“We talked before the game that it was going to be a game of runs,” Wing said. “We know the way Oak Hill plays. They’re going to come running at you and make runs at you. That was one of those runs in third quarter. It was a bit scary at the time, but we talked a lot in practice about being solid with the ball. We did a good job with that even if we did panic.”

Ashley Coulombe padded the lead with 20 seconds left with two more free throws. Oak Hill got a corner jumper from Samson with 4 seconds left. Then Mulherin intercepted the inbounds pass at midcourt and got a last-second shot off that just missed.

“That freshman knew enough to take two dribbles and shoot it,” said Morong. “On one inbounds, it must have been four-and-a-half seconds on the count. It was almost five. Then on the one at midcourt, that must have been four-and-a-half seconds. We had it all shut off.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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