Central Maine Community College learned Thursday night that being the No. 1 seed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Tournament host Penn State-Fayette fed off the emotion of its home crowd and seized momentum in the latter stages of its first-round USCAA National Championship game to upset the top-seeded Mustangs, 86-78, in Uniontown, Pa.

The Roaring Lions started the game-changing 12-4 run with seven minutes remaining, then held off a late Mustang run to advance to the national semifinals.

Maggie Sabine led CMCC (22-5) with 26 points and 14 rebounds, both game highs. Nohemy Aguila added 17 points and three assists and Danielle McCusker 15 points and six rebounds.

Kasey Ruble led five Roaring Lions (14-10) in double figures with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Caitlin Wontroba bothered the Mustangs at both ends with 17 points, five rebounds, six assists and five steals, while Tara Neely added 16 points, six boards and four steals.

“They simply outworked us,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “They beat us to loose balls. They did a great job crashing the offensive glass. That’s what built them a little lead. They continued to gain confidence from doing those little things and it just kept building and building and building to the point where all they had to do was knock down foul shots at the end.”

CMCC (39 percent) outshot Fayette (35 percent) from the floor and limited the No. 2 three-point shooting team in the country to 23 percent (6-for-26) from beyond the arc. But the Mustangs shot 14-for-28 (50 percent) from the free throw line and committed 22 turnovers. The Roaring Lions scored 25 points off of those turnovers, while the Mustangs managed just seven points off 13 turnovers.

“It was not a great display of foul shooting on our part but, you know, it happens,” Morong said. “It’s just one of those nights, the ball wouldn’t roll our way. But you’ve got to give our girls credit for being aggressive and getting to the line.”

The Roaring Lions led by as much as 11 in the first half. Tara Neely’s three-pointer with 5:08 remaining made it 32-21. But Sabine answered with a trey of her own 11 seconds later to spark a 12-0 Mustangs run, capped by Danielle McCusker’s three which put them in front, 33-32 with 1:58 remaining.

Penn State Fayette recovered to take a 37-35 lead into the locker room.

The second half would start with seven ties and a pair of lead changes in the first 13 minutes. Central Maine’s largest lead came early.

Sabine made a layup and Corinna Kinder made one of two free throws for a 47-44 Mustang advantage 5:03 into the half. McCusker gave them their last lead with a pair of free throws that made it 50-48 with 12:47 to go.

“I thought we were getting ready to pull away,” Morong said. “It came down to it being time to us getting some defensive stops so we could get out in transition and get some easy baskets and build up on that lead, but they just hit some shots and found a way to get to the free throw line, which kind of took the wind out of our sails.”

The teams traded blows through the 50s to a 60-60 tie. Neely and Wontroba took over from there.

Neely put the Lions on top to stay with a layup with 6:45 left. Wontroba, who shook off a 1-for-12 first half to score 14 points in the second half, followed with a layup, a steal, and a pair of free throws to make it 66-60.

Susie French scored her only points of the second half to make it 66-62. The Mustangs’ leading scorer this year (19.5 ppg) and a USCAA All-American, French finished with with five points on 2-for-9 shooting.

Neely answered with a three-pointer. Shannon Flament’s layup widened the margin to eight, 72-64, with 3:11 remaining.

CMCC battled back to make it a one-possession game again when Aguila’s jumper made it 76-73 with 1:43 to go.

The Mustangs had a couple of chances to pull even closer when Sabine rebounded a Wontroba miss, but those hopes melted away on misses by French and Sabine at the other end. Ruble converted six of six from the free throw line in the final minute to send the Lions on to the semifinals, where they will face Berkeley College of New York.

“Not making any excuses, but it’s certainly a huge advantage,” Morong said of Fayette’s home court. “They have that sense of comfort. It’s where they’ve been all year. But it doesn’t matter who we’re playing in the national tournament or whether it’s their home court or not. They’re in the national tournament. They’re there for a reason.”

CMCC will face Penn State-Brandywine in a consolation game at 2 p.m. Friday before heading home.

“I know the players are certainly disappointed,” Morong said. “After the game in the locker room, I told the girls to not forget what kind of season we had. Five, 10 years from now when people look back on CM women’s basketball, this is going to be one of the first seasons they talk about.”