WISCASSET HIGH SCHOOL’S Travis Padilla (15, top photo) goes up for shot with Winthrop’s Jacob Hickey (12) cloing in. In the right photo, Wiscasset’s Matt Craig (5) goes inside with pressure coming from Winthrop’s Dakota Carter. Craig had 13 points, but his Wolverines fell to the Ramblers, 55-52, in an MVC boys high school basketball game on Friday in Wiscasset.
The Wolverines, hosting Winthrop in a key early-season boys high school basketball Mountain Valley Conference contest on Friday, kept the fast Ramblers bottled up and held a 20-10 lead with 2:12 remaining until halftime.
All Dana Lawrence’s team needed to do was finish the deal, close the half strong, and put the Ramblers in a huge deficit.
Instead, 12 turnovers kept Winthrop in the game, and the Ramblers turned up the intensity in the second half for a come-frombehind 55-52 victory.
Winthrop improved to 4-2, while the Wolverines dropped to 3-2 and are scheduled to play in the Biddeford Holiday Tournament Dec. 27- 28.
“We had opportunities to put them away, several possessions where we left at least 10 points on the court by committing turnovers,” said Lawrence, whose Wolverines finished the game with 24 miscues in all.
On the other side, Winthrop shook off a horrible first half in which the Ramblers made just four of 21 shots, committed 13 turnovers and scored a pedestrian 16 points through 24 minutes.
Still, Winthrop was down just 23- 16, and in the Ramblers’ locker room, coach Todd MacArthur wrote a big zero on the chalkboard, signifying the number of transition points Winthrop scored in the first half.
“Credit to Dana and Wiscasset because they are a great half-court team, half-court defensive team, and we just want to get out and go, something we were not able to do in the first half,” said MacArthur.
“We went to the locker room and our coaches stressed how much our defense was lacking, and we had to come out and play defense, stressing the backside rotation, and we started hitting our shots,” said Winthrop’s Matt Sekerak, who scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the second half. “We shot and played horribly in the first half. We made an adjustment to their zone, and we attacked it, getting open shots or lanes to the rim. This game was circled on our schedule. Just a great win for us.”
Night and day
After neither team shot the ball particularly well in the first half (Winthrop four of 21, Wiscasset eight of 23), both squads lit it up in the third. The Ramblers were nine of 13 in the frame, while the Wolverines put in nine of 16 opportunities and still led 41-38 heading to the fourth, though the Ramblers closed the frame on a 7-2 run to cut an eightpoint deficit down to three.
“They got a little more physical and turned the tempo up, and we just didn’t handle pressure well enough,” said Lawrence. “Night in, night out, there is a whole group of teams that play like this. They are a good opponent, and we would love to play them 10 times. They just executed.”
A key technical foul on Wiscasset early in the fourth kept Winthrop’s momentum going, with Jacob Hickey making both shots to make for a 41-40 game, and moments later Hickey drilled a short jumper to give the Ramblers their first lead since an early first quarter 7-6 edge.
“They picked up their offensive intensity and it got to us,” said Wiscasset forward Dale Peaslee.
The Winthrop run continued as Sekerak drove the lane for two points, and a pair of free throws by Sekerak with 4:17 remaining gave the Ramblers a 48-42 lead.
Wiscasset refused to fold, answering with a 10-4 run, capped off by an NBA-range 3-pointer from Travis Padilla with one minute left on the clock for a 52-52 tie.
“We got our intensity up when Travis made that shot, but Winthrop shut it down after that,” said Peaslee, who watched as Taylor Morang sank a pair of free throws for a 54-52 Ramblers edge.
After Wiscasset miss-fired on the front end of 1-and-1, Dakota Carter made a free throw for a 55-52 lead with 28 ticks remaining.
Wiscasset missed a chance to tie on its next possession, but Winthrop failed on two potential game-clinching free throws to give the Wolverines a chance. But, Padilla’s trey clanked off the rim and out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.
Winthrop shot 66 percent (14 of 21) in the second half, and kept the turnovers to a minimum (seven) while forcing nine Wiscasset miscues.
Hickey had 13 points for Winthrop, with Morang adding 12, Ben Allen seven and Carter six points, six rebounds and three steals. The Ramblers shot 42 percent (18 of 42) and made 18 of 25 from the charity stripe.
Craig paced Wiscasset with 13 points, Padilla had 10 and Chandler Longfellow eight points, six boards, five steals and four assists. The Wolverines went to the line just 10 times, making five, and Wiscasset was 21 of 45 (46 percent) from the field.
Winthrop 55,
Wiscasset 52
At Wiscasset
Winthrop — 7 9 22 17 — 55
Wiscasset — 13 10 18 11 — 52
Winthrop — Taylor Morang 3-6-12,
Jacob Hickey 4-4-13, Matt Sekerak 6-3-
15, Ben Allen 3-1-7, Dakota Carter 2-2-6,
Zach Steele 0-2-2. Totals — 18-18-55.
Wiscasset — Chandler Longfellow 3-1-8,
Dale Peaslee 3-0-6, Matt Craig 5-2-13,
Travis Padilla 4-0-10, Nate Mills 1-2-5,
Thomas Anderson 0-0-0, Cainin Griffin 2-
0-4, Ethan James 3-0-6, Jacob Allen 0-0-
0. Totals — 21-5-52.
3-point field goals — (Wint) Hickey;
(Wisc) Padilla 2, Longfellow, Craig, Mills.
Records — Winthrop 4-2, Wiscasset 3-2.
Up next for Wiscasset — At Biddeford
Holiday Tournament, Dec. 27-28.
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