BOOTHBAY HARBOR — Boothbay watched Thursday night’s movie before. Less than 24 hours earlier, in fact, when the Seahawks gave away a double-digit lead and lost at Monmouth on an overtime buzzer-beater.
This time, in the comfort of their own gym, the Seahawks found the sequel more satisfying. Winthrop ran out of time before Boothbay ran out of gas.
Kyle Ames sank four free throws in the final 7.8 seconds to stave off a wild Winthrop rally, and Boothbay snapped a two-game MVC boys’ basketball losing skid with a 61-57 triumph.
Abel Bryer led Boothbay (9-4) with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Ames added 14 points, Carter Babcock 12 and Jacob Leonard 10 for the Seahawks, who shot 54 percent from the field to overcome 26 turnovers.
“We played as a team. We passed the ball where we needed to and played unselfishly,” Bryer said. “All the running we’ve done at practice and wanting to win just kept us going.”
Shadowed for most of the night by Boothbay defensive stopper Nick Gorey as the inspiration for the Seahawks’ diamond-and-one gambit, Jacob Hickey nonetheless knocked down eight 3-pointers and finished with 29 points for Winthrop (9-2).
Hickey hit three from beyond the arc in the final 2:16 and narrowly missed two others in transition, courtesy of Spencer Steele thefts, that would have tied the game. His half-court heave cut the deficit to three points with 1.5 seconds to go.
Winthrop coach Todd MacArthur was assessed a technical foul for calling a timeout the Ramblers didn’t have, and the Seahawks escaped. The damage was done long before that, however. Boothbay led by seven points at the half, 10 late in the third quarter and 57-46 with 2:39 remaining.
“Defensively it was probably one of our worst performances in the time I’ve been here,” MacArthur said. “One of the things we know about our defense is it takes five guys to run it, and right now we’ve got four, four-and-a-half. Not all five guys are committed to rotating at once, and when we don’t have that, there are big holes.”
When life was going well for Winthrop defensively, its full-court and half-court pressure rushed Boothbay into turnovers. When the Seahawks found those holes, they wound up with countless uncontested layups and short baseline jumpers.
Boothbay never trailed after answering Hickey’s opening transition hoop with four unanswered buckets set up by four consecutive Winthrop turnovers.
In addition to Gorey and substitute Dan Drummond’s tireless work on Hickey, the other Seahawks shared the duty of limiting Winthrop center Anthony Owens to 11 points and seven rebounds.
“That was the theory, to try to not let him be the one to beat us and try to take (Owens) out on the low post,” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “When it went in, we tried to double down on him. We weren’t going to guard the other guys on the outside if they didn’t want to shoot. It worked this time.”
Hickey’s quietest quarter was the second, when he was held to a single 3-pointer. All six Boothbay players scored in that period, Bryer the lone repeat offender.
Owens’ hoop off a Nate Scott steal brought Winthrop within three at the two-minute mark, but Ames’ offering from the right corner and Bryer’s cash-in via the offensive glass made it a 30-23 Seahawks’ cushion at the break.
“We’ve seen box-and-one. The diamond-and-one was something we really hadn’t seen,” MacArthur said. “We just need other guys to step up, and they’re hesitant. We’ve got to get comfortable in that setting.”
The third quarter ended similarly. Hickey’s bomb from the right corner cut the gap to 38-35. Ames’ fast break bucket after a Babcock board, Bryer’s 3-point play and Leonard’s layup after an Ames steal ratcheted it to double digits for the first time.
Steele (eight points, seven steals) sank the only non-Hickey trey for Winthrop to get the Ramblers within three again, 45-42, at the 6:48 mark. The Ramblers’ run ended there, as Bryer and Ames connected on consecutive trips for Boothbay.
Four different Seahawks later scored in an 8-0 surge that nearly put it out of reach. Hickey rallied the Ramblers with back-to-back 3s, but they were more than a minute apart.
“He’s an amazing player,” Bryer said. “There’s not much we could do against him, but we did our best and it showed.”
Hickey’s steal led to two Owens free throws and a 57-54 deficit with 33.4 seconds to go. Steele’s consecutive swipes gave Winthrop two opportunities to pull even.
Had that happened, Pinkham admittedly would have felt as if he were watching a tape.
“I was very concerned. I didn’t use any substitutes to speak of. We must be in pretty good shape,” the venerable coach, closing in on career win No. 600, said. “We struggled against pressure, but we got it done. They’re a good team. We had to play well.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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