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MONMOUTH — It’s 10 for 10 for the Monmouth Academy boys basketball team, which now is headed to the place that has been its home sweet home.

Monmouth closed out the regular season Wednesday with a 62-45 victory over Hall-Dale in a Class C South and Mountain Valley Conference showdown. The win sends the reigning state champion Mustangs to the Augusta Civic Center as the No. 2 seed in the upcoming state tournament.

“(The margin) was a little unexpected, but we toughed it out,” said Monmouth coach Wade Morrill said. “It came down to, you never want to end your year with a loss, you never want to end your year with a loss to a rival, and you certainly don’t want to end your year with a loss to a rival in your home gym.”

How Monmouth did it

• Monmouth (14-4) went on two 10-0 runs, first after Hall-Dale took a 6-0 lead to start the game and again after the Bulldogs pulled within a point at 31-30 early in the second half.

• With Hall-Dale (12-6) keying on the Mustangs’ Jacob Harmon after he registered 23 points and eight rebounds in the teams’ Jan. 24 matchup — a 62-46 Monmouth win — Bingham Abbott (24 points, 14 boards) and Levi Laverdiere (21 points) stepped up for Monmouth.

What it means

• Monmouth has won 10 games in a row since a 54-39 defeat to Madison on Jan. 6. The Mustangs, who were languishing as low as ninth earlier in the season, clinched the No. 2 spot in Class C South.

• This is the third consecutive year that Monmouth enters the C South tournament as the No. 2 seed. The Mustangs have made three consecutive regional final appearances, and they hope the experience from those runs can pay dividends.

“(The experience) is going to be a huge help,” Abbott said. “We’ve got guys that have been there since their freshman year — I’ve been here since my freshman year — and being able to get a couple games under your belt is definitely a big, big help when it comes to playoff time.”

• Hall-Dale, the No. 5 seed in the C South tournament, has lost four of six after C South standings for a good part of the season.

They said it

• “We know it’s not an easy matchup in the paint; they present a matchup problem. We have size in the paint, and they have all guards, so that’s a matchup problem for me and Jake Harmon, but we were still able to manage to work our offense through it.” — Bingham Abbott

• “They were focused on Jake Harmon because last game he really went to work on them, so it left a lot (of open opportunities for me) and Bingham here, too. It really spread them out so I could get to the lane.” — Levi Laverdiere

• “This tournament is going to be wild. If we’re the 2 seed, that possibly puts us against Winthrop. I don’t care what their record is, that’s Coach (Todd) MacArthur, that’s 3 miles away, and that’s a senior-heavy team. It’s nice to have that experience, but when you get to Augusta, it’s survive-and-advance.” — Wade Morrill

Stat leaders

• Hall-Dale: Karter Eldridge (15 points, six rebounds), Keegan Cary (12 points).

• Monmouth: Bingham Abbott (24 points, 14 rebounds), Levi Laverdiere (21 points), Aiden Oliveira (11 points, five rebounds).