CUMBERLAND — Trailing by seven late in the third quarter, Mountain Ridge rallied to take the lead after three.
The No. 4 seed Miners (13-9) never trailed the rest of the night, completing the upset over top-seeded Fort Hill, 49-45, in the Class 1A West Region I semifinals on Monday.
“Just super proud of our kids,” Mountain Ridge head coach Tim Nightengale said. “The way they battled and hung in there and did all the things we’ve worked on all season long. They took this opportunity tonight and took hold of it.”
Down 34-27 with 2:38 left in the third, Mountain Ridge ended the quarter with eight unanswered points.
“Some of the problems that we’ve had throughout the season, I thought they ultimately caught up with us today,” Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner said. “Credit to Mountain Ridge, they shot well from the free-throw line. They made plays when they had to make plays.”
In the final 52 seconds of the frame, John Delaney swiped three steals, which he turned into three layups.
In the final moments of the period, Delaney swiped a steal and scored a layup at the buzzer to give the Miners a 35-34 lead after three.
He finished with 16 points with four steals and three assists.
“It got the crowd involved, it built the confidence,” Nightengale said. “Whenever you’re doing those things, your defense is creating offense for you. That’s a great feeling and helps to build that confidence.”
Trailing for the entire fourth quarter, the Sentinels (15-7) got within three at 42-39 on a triple from Liam Hamilton with 3:51 to play.
Hamilton led both teams with 20 points, adding two assists, a steal and a block.
Seconds later, AJ Lauder, who hit three triples and scored 11 points with two steals, answered with a triple to push Mountain Ridge’s lead to six.
The game remained a two-score difference until a late triple from Ramelo Palmisano with six seconds left.
“We just had a handful of baskets over a lengthy period of time,” Burner said. “I just thought we took our foot off the gas, and we weren’t really looking inside. We played a lot of hot potato out top. We gotta attack seams against the zone, you gotta have two guarding one and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”
Tied at 21 at halftime, Fort Hill opened the third quarter on an 8-2 run.
The Miners cut a seven-point deficit to four, but the Sentinels pushed the margin back to seven on a layup by Anthony Palumbo.
Each team made three shots from the floor in the first quarter, but Mountain Ridge went 5 of 6 at the charity stripe to take a 12-6 lead after one.
“We went to a 2-3 zone, which we haven’t done much all year long,” Nightengale said of the defense. “But we’ve worked on it here during this playoff practice time. That’s really what forced Fort Hill to shoot perimeter shots tonight and they weren’t hitting them.”
Trailing 19-12 with 3:33 before halftime, Fort Hill ended the half on a 9-2 run to even the score at 21.
The Sentinels shot 8 of 21 (38%) while the Miners were 6 of 20 (30%) in the first half.
“We just don’t shoot the ball very well,” Burner said. “So we gotta make other plays. At times we made plays, but we didn’t make as many plays today as Mountain Ridge did.”
It was reminiscent of the second meeting in the regular season, a 37-36 Fort Hill victory.
The Sentinels went 6 of 22 (27%) from the field while the Miners were 7 of 19 (36%).
Jameson Powell-Morris finished with 14 points and a block for Fort Hill.
Hamilton, Jacob Bone, Sam Spencer, Braelyn Younger and Jeremiah Fincham’s high school basketball careers came to an end as seniors.
The Sentinels reached the past three state tournaments, going to consecutive semifinals in 2023 and 2024 and the quarterfinals last season.
“They’re huge, I credit all of them,” Burner said of the seniors. “We’re gonna miss guys like Liam and Jacob, guys that just play really, really hard. They expect to win, today Mountain Ridge was just better.
Mountain Ridge advances to the West Region I final at No. 3 seed Allegany (14-8) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The Campers upset top-seeded Southern (15-9) in the other semifinal, 59-35.
The teams split two regular season matchups, but the Miners won the most recent, 58-39, on Feb. 2.
“It was all year long, anybody can beat anybody,” Nightengale said of the parity in the Western Maryland Athletic Conference (WestMAC). “Whoever was making shots, playing better defense. Everybody was very even this year. Fort Hill beat us twice in the regular season. It’s tough to beat a good team three times, so we put that into play tonight.”