HEBRON — Catherine Sanborn has seen her share of close games and clutch moments.

The Kents Hill senior guard was part of Maranacook’s team that won a Western C title last year and lost in the state championship game.

When the Huskies watched Hebron Academy rally in the fourth quarter and tie the game Friday, Sanborn didn’t panic. She knew just what to do.

Sanborn answered the Lumberjacks’ tying basket with a field goal of her own. She added four more points in the final minute to help the Huskies close out a 49-44 win over Hebron.

“I didn’t want to lose,” Sanborn said. “Hebron’s our rival. So I wanted to come back with a win.”

Sanborn finished with a game-high 33 points and had 17 of the Huskies 21 points in the second half. Though Hebron tied the game late, the Lumberjacks missed some key shots and had costly turnovers that squelched any hopes of completing the rally.

“We missed a couple shots that really made a difference,” Hebron coach Colin Griggs said. “At the same time, Kents Hill is a good team. Their point guard is a very good player, and she outhustled us. She beat us to a lot of balls.”

In addition to Sanborn’s 33, Leah Herbin added 12 for the Huskies (1-0), including four points in the second half. Herbin was one of two starters who didn’t play in a preseason tournament game with Hebron last week. The Lumberjacks won that game by 26 points.

“We played them in a tournament earlier this year,” Sanborn said. “I think we wanted to win because we lost by over 20. It’s pretty exciting that we came back.”

Maddy New led Hebron (1-2) with 16 points. Franceska Halloran added 15 while Louisa Ellis had eight.

Hebron, which lost to Pine Tree 41-39 on Wednesday, led for all of the first half, but fell behind after a 9-0 run in the third quarter for the Huskies. Down 43-40 with 1:40 left, Hebron tied the game with a 3 by Halloran with 1:04 left.

It only took 10 seconds for the Huskies to retake the lead. Sanborn went right to the basket and scored in the paint for the go-ahead score. After a Hebron turnover, Sanborn scored on a drive with 36 seconds left. She added two free throws to build a 49-43 lead with 22 seconds remaining.

Kents Hill managed Hebron’s attempts at pressure down the stretch while the Huskies defensive play in the second half was excellent.

“I was really impressed with the way that we were so composed going down the court,” Sanborn said. “Usually we’re frazzled. We’ll get the ball and get double teamed on the sidelines. I think we handled it really well.”

After hitting shots in the first half to build the lead, Hebron struggled offensively in the second half. The Lumberjacks shot 1-for-18 in the third quarter and went 5-for-19 in the fourth. The outside shots weren’t falling. Most of the success in the fourth came from feeding the ball into the post where Sophie Gibson and Reily New were able to hit shots.

“We’ve had some third quarter struggles for sure this year,” Griggs said. “We’re going to need to fix those. Our post players did well. We got into some foul trouble in the post early, but our post players did well.”

Maddy New had 11 in the first quarter, including a trio of 3s while Halloran scored five and had a 3 of her own. Hebron had the lead up to six a couple of times and led by as much as 18-10. The Lumberjacks maintained that lead in the second quarter, leading by as many as 30-23 before Kents Hill finished strong. Sanborn hit a 3 and Herbin put back a rebound to get within 30-28 at the half.

After Hebron got a Reily New basket to start the third, the Lumberjacks didn’t score again until early in the fourth, a drought of nearly six minutes. The Huskies 9-0 run, with seven coming from Sanborn, put Kents Hill up 37-32.

 Ellis scored twice to get Hebron close to start the fourth. Sanborn and Herbin scored to maintain the lead until Halloran’s 3 tied it late.

Griggs said his team has played six games and had just one practice in the last nine days. That might explain Hebron wearing down in the second half.

“We’re definitely continuing to improve,” Griggs said. “We had an overtime loss on Wednesday and to follow up with this really tight game, we’ve had two good learning moments that will make us better.”

kmills@sunjournal.com