MONMOUTH — The school with the longest highway to Augusta Civic Center blocked Monmouth Academy’s beeline to a rare engagement at the tournament site Wednesday night.

Western Class C tourney fixture Traip Academy of Kittery bolted to a hefty early lead, then shook off a pair of furious Monmouth rallies to escape with a 58-50 boys’ basketball preliminary-round win at Foster Gym.

No. 10 Traip (12-5) sank seven of its eight shots and forced six turnovers in the fourth quarter, salvaging a celebratory 90-mile bus ride home. The Rangers watched a 14-point halftime lead shrink to three in the third quarter and saw Monmouth diminish an 11-point deficit to two in the fourth.

“They hit a couple of 3-pointers to get back in the game. Then it was almost like we were waiting for something to happen,” said Traip coach Jeremy Paul.

George Mortimer, Traip’s lone returning starter from last year’s tournament team, scored six of his game-high 26 points in the fateful fourth. That included two inside buckets in a six-second span after Monmouth (10-9) nudged within a deuce.

Nate Westman notched eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter for Traip. 

Robbie Neal led Monmouth with 18 points, six rebounds and three steals. Ryan Baillargeon drained three crucial 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 11 points. Corey Dyke added eight and Tim Whitmore seven for the Mustangs, who were making their school’s first Class C postseason appearance since 1977.

“I would trade my first three seasons for this year, regardless of the outcome,” said Dyke, one of Monmouth’s three senior starters.

Traip will meet No. 2 Dirigo in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

“They’ve knocked us out three of the last four years,” Paul said. 

This year’s reduced tournament field and an unbalanced Western Maine Conference schedule nearly kept Traip out of the playoffs entirely. Heal Points didn’t tell the whole story about the Rangers, who have lost to only one Class C team (No. 3 Old Orchard Beach) and scored more than 80 points in five different games.

Monmouth couldn’t contain that offense out of the gate and had trouble getting itself untracked, too. Traip scored the first five points and led 13-5 after Alex Gamester’s put-back at the horn.

Mortimer erupted for 12 in the second quarter, nearly matching his per-game average of 13.5 for the season in a seven-minute stretch. The six-foot guard knocked down a dizzying mix of 3-pointers and pull-up jumpers from the paint and baseline.

“They ran that three-man weave pretty well against us,” said Monmouth coach Lucas Turner. “(Mortimer) is tough. He’s almost like a old-time basketball player the way he drives, stops and shoots over his man.”

Neal’s two free throws kept the Mustangs within seven, 22-15. But Traip finished on a 10-3 binge, beginning and ending with treys by Mortimer.

It wasn’t enough to scare away Monmouth, which awakened with back-to-back 3-pointers by Neal and Baillargeon to trigger a 10-0 run. Traip didn’t score until Westman’s spinning floater at the 3:43 mark.

“Coach said in the locker room just to play tighter and more aggressive, and if the foul situation didn’t work out, oh well,” Dyke said. “We had to do something to keep them from driving the middle.”

Dyke’s 3-pointer brought it to 36-33 before Mortimer and Westman strung together hoops late in the period.

After Traip restored its lead to double digits, two more Baillargeon bombs and a 3-point play by Neal brought Monmouth’s half of a capacity crowd back to life. Two Neal free throws and a Whitmore steal put the Mustangs in position to tie or take the lead with three minutes left.

But a flurry of turnovers ensued in each direction to freeze that momentum, and Riley Sheahan’s steal and tip pass to Mortimer for a breakaway lay-up fueled the Rangers’ finishing kick.

“I think we got lucky,” Paul said. “We said at the half that the only way they could get back into it is to hit a couple of 3s and for us to get careless and start turning the ball over, and that’s exactly what happened.”

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