AUGUSTA — You name it, the Winthrop High boys’ basketball team had too much of it for Traip Academy to handle. Too much size. Too much speed.

Too much everything.

The top-seeded Ramblers took control of their Class C South semifinal late in the first quarter and cruised to a 68-25 win Thursday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

No. 1 Winthrop (19-1) will face Mountain Valley Conference rival Hall-Dale in the regional championship game Saturday night. It’ll be a rematch of last year’s final, won by Hall-Dale.

No. 5 Traip ends the season at 15-6.

Cam Wood, Winthrop’s 6-foot-8 Mr. Basketball semifinalist, led the Ramblers with 19 points. Jared McLaughlin and Ryan Baird each added 12 points, and Cam Hachey scored 10.

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Winthrop Coach Todd MacArthur never expected a win to come so easily.

“To be honest with you, I was really scared of that team. Sometimes, when you watch a lot of film, you become infatuated with a team. I watched a lot of film on that team, and these kids did, too,” MacArthur said. “They’re a real dangerous team in terms of their quickness and shooting ability. They didn’t shoot well tonight, but I think our game plan tonight, our size and our length, really flustered them. Sometimes things just all click, and they clicked tonight for us. … I always thought speed kills. We did a nice job handling their pressure.”

In a quarterfinal win over Boothbay, Traip made six 3-pointers. Against the Ramblers, the Rangers made just two.

“Don’t let them shoot 3-pointers,” Wood said. “We watched them play Boothbay. They shot a lot of 3-pointers. This game, they didn’t take many. They didn’t make many.”

That had a lot to do Winthrop’s defense.

“They’re so long. They take up so much space, they do a great job of slowing down our pace with their made baskets,” Traip Coach Ed Szczepanik said. “I knew we were going to have to play a lot of half-court offense, but when you play a team like that, there’s not a lot of space left on the court.”

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MacArthur said the defensive effort was among the best he’s seen the Ramblers put forth is his time as coach.

“I just told them I was proud of them,” MacArthur said. “If we’re going to do anything in this tournament, it has to be with our defense.”

Offensively, the Ramblers were able to pound it inside to Wood and Sam Figueroa. When Traip did manage to clog up the paint defensively, the Ramblers’ outside touch was there in the form of seven 3-pointers.

“It wasn’t just their starters. Guys came off the bench and hit shots,” Szczepanik said.

Winthrop began to pull away late in the first quarter. An 8-0 run took the Ramblers from a 7-4 deficit to a 12-7 lead. Winthrop led 17-8 at the end of the quarter, then opened the second with an 11-2 run.

McLaughlin’s 3-pointer, his third of the first half, at the halftime buzzer gave Winthrop a 37-16 lead.

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Will Stuart led Traip with 16 points.

BOYS’ HOCKEY

SCARBOROUGH 5, PORTLAND 2: Pat Clonan poked in the rebound of a Nolan Matthews shot for the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, lifting the Red Storm (10-7-1) over Portland/Deering (8-10) at Troubh Ice Arena.

Portland’s Jake Luce tied the game 54 seconds into the third, but the Red Storm regained the lead on Clonan’s goal at 4:44. Sam Rumelhart and Zach Chaisson added insurance goals.

Clonan finished with two goals, and Chaisson had a goal and an assist. Ethan Jasa also scored for the Red Storm, who are expected to be the No. 4 seed in the Class A South playoffs that start next week. Scarborough would host a quarterfinal against Portland.

Dante Tocci was the other goal scorer for the Bulldogs.

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SOUTH PORTLAND 2, MASSABESIC 0: Gus Lappin scored in the second period and Mitchell Adams added a goal early in the third period as South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete (10-8) beat Massabesic/Bonny Eagle/Old Orchard Beach (11-7) at USM Arena.

Liam McGibbon made 17 saves for the shutout.

WINDHAM 4, MARSHWOOD 2: Holden Anderson had a goal and an assist for Windham/Westbrook (4-14) in a win over Marshwood/Traip/Sanford/Noble (5-13) at USM Arena.

Keegan Watts, Travis Brown and Derek Corbett also scored. Sean White made 18 saves for the win.

Henry Honkonen and Cooper Ross scored for Marshwood.

GREELY 3, LEAVITT 1: Brooks Williams, Andy Moore and Jake MacDonald scored in the second period as Greely (16-2) defeated Leavitt/Gray-New Gloucester/Oak Hill (11-6-1) at the Family Ice Arena.

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Moore finished with a goal and two assists. Caleb Duff also had two assists.

Andrew Topham scored for Leavitt, and Xavier Michaud made 42 saves.

YORK 6, BRUNSWICK 2: Andrew Bertolini recorded three goals and an assist for the Wildcats (13-5), who used a three-goal third period to pull away from the Dragons (9-9) at Dover Ice Arena.

Jake Nelson added a goal and an assist, and Marshall Ford and Joe Neal also scored for York.

Brunswick got goals from Joe Marro and Michael Eno.


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