For the time being, Gorham coach Kevin Jenkins is OK with letting his star player, Jeff Manchester, take over basketball games. Jenkins knows that the level to which the Rams sometimes depend on Manchester is unhealthy, but, with two regular starters out, the points need to come from somewhere.

So the 6-foot-2 guard, who has verbally committed to play for Franklin Pierce next season, shoulders the load, and his teammates fill their roles around him. The formula has worked out so far, as the Rams have won four straight since losing three in a row – to Portland, Deering and Cheverus – to start the season.

In their most recent win, 47-38, over Biddeford on Friday, the Class A newcomers got 26 points from Manchester. Junior Andrew Dean provided the fill-in buckets that caught the Tigers off-guard, though. Nothing unhealthy about that.

“Manchester, we knew, was going to get his 20 points, but Dean did a very good job of penetrating and he got some lay ups over (center) Bennie Jones,” said Biddeford coach Mike Fecteau. “We cut the lead down to four and he hit that three-pointer. That put the dagger in us. It took the wind right out of our sails.”

The three-pointer in question came with three minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The Rams led by 10 when the fourth began, but the Tigers scratched and clawed their way back. Stephen Crepeau converted a backdoor pass; Jones had a fast-break lay-in; and then, seconds after Jenkins called a timeout to regroup, Ernie Dore slashed through the lane to make it 36-32.

That was it. The Tigers would get no closer because, down at the other end of the court, the Rams worked the ball around until Dean found himself with the ball in his hands and enough time to bend over, tie his shoes and then shoot.

The opportunity wasn’t wasted, and the Rams built the lead back up to nine points 45 seconds later when senior center Rob Connolly stuck with a blocked shot.

“I’ll tell you what, Biddeford’s a scrappy group,” said Jenkins. “They have trouble scoring, but they are after every ball.”

That was obvious from the opening tip off. The Tigers held the Rams to just nine points in the first quarter.

“We were ready for that, but they had some big kids,” said Manchester. “They had some other kids that were pretty rugged and pretty quick, and it was hard to get around them, so their defense was pretty good.”

It was more of the same in the second quarter. The Rams went up by six points two minutes in on a pair of free throws by Manchester, but the Tigers came right back. Gorham then went up 19-12 with less than a minute to go on a Manchester steal and lay-up, but, again, the Tigers came right back. Tom Tardiff turned a steal into a three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 19-17.

“We were turning the ball over a little bit too much in the first half and we couldn’t do that,” said Dean. “In the third quarter I don’t even know if we turned the ball over once, so that was big.”

Actually, the Rams did turn it over once in the third, but only once. And, as a result, they added eight points to their lead.

“We played much more sharply at both ends and put more pressure in the backcourt,” said Jenkins. “The kid that really turned it around for us was Colin Hurd. He’s not an all-star player, but he really had a very good game defensively. And Manchester up top is tough. He’s like a one-man press.”

The lead held up – thanks to Dean’s three-pointer – and the Rams, once 0-3, improved to 4-3.

“We had the three best teams in the league (to start the season) and some of the best players in the league too on those teams and I think we did pretty good against them, but we could’ve used (Matt) Trask and (Josh) Tanguay,” said Manchester. “It made us stronger, though, I think.”