RUMFORD – Two fundamental flaws – turnovers and rebounding – have been keeping the Boothbay Seahawks from their usual perch among the Mountain Valley Conference elite this season.

It took Mountain Valley some time to find those weaknesses Thursday night, but once the Falcons did, they exploited them at every opportunity and controlled the final three quarters of a 58-43 victory.

Matt Laubauskas scored a game-high 18 points, poached six of Boothbay’s 26 turnovers for steals and attacked the offensive glass for six of his 10 rebounds, to lead the Falcons (12-2) back from some first-quarter struggles.

“You’ve got to go in there and get dirty,” Laubauskas said. “You’ve got to go and get the ball, you can’t wait for it to come to you.”

Cameron Kaubris added 17 points and Travis Ruff 16 points, but the offense was slow in developing for Mountain Valley. The Falcons shot 21 percent (3-for-14) in the first quarter and fell behind 14-5 when Alex Gorey drilled a 3-pointer with a little over five minutes into the game.

“We always have slow starts. Then we settle down, play our game and do all right,” Ruff said. “We came out flat. We gave up a lot of face-cuts, and we’re a short team, so when we do that, they get easy buckets.”

The Falcons clamped down in the second quarter, allowing just four points while forcing seven turnovers. At the offensive end, they began to solve Boothbay’s tight 2-1-2 when Kaubris found Ruff on the back side of the zone for a layup that sparked a 13-2 run.

Superb defense and rebounding helped the Falcons get their running game going. They closed the half with back-to-back fast break buckets by Cole Clark and Kaubris that put them in front, 22-18, at intermission.

“We had great senior leadership tonight from Matt Laubauskas, Travis Ruff and Myles Mercier,” Mountain Valley coach Dave Gerrish said. “Matt rebounded great. He’s a power player and he showed it today.”

Laubauskas took command of the offensive glass to start the second half, scoring on two consecutive putbacks to put the Falcons’ lead into double digits for the first time.

Mercier didn’t score, but his contributions, particularly at the defensive end, couldn’t be quantified. His assist to Ruff midway through the third quarter made it a 12-point game.

Led by Dylan Brandt (16 points, eight rebounds), Boothbay (9-4) made a brief run to pull within six heading into the fourth quarter.

“I wish they’d have pressed us the whole game, because we did pretty well when they were pressing us,” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “We killed ourselves with turnovers, but they played good defense. They force you to do things you don’t want to do.”

Ten turnovers in the fourth quarter ultimately sealed the Seahawks’ fate. Laubauskas found Jacob Arsenault open in the right corner for a 3-point dagger that made it 51-37 with 2:41 left.