WINTHROP — As if the chance to be the last unbeaten team standing in the Mountain Valley Conference wasn’t enough incentive for Tuesday night’s showdown with Madison, Winthrop knew it only had one crack at the Bulldogs and the heaping helping of Heal points that regular-season victory over them would bring.
With that in mind, Winthrop’s defense starved the Bulldogs and Nate LeBlanc feasted off the bench to give the Ramblers’ offense the spark it needed to improve to 9-0 with a convincing 52-38 win.
LeBlanc, a sophomore, finished with 18 points, including four 3-pointers, while Jacob Hickey added 15 points, eight rebounds and five steals for the Ramblers. Mitch Jarvais led Madison (8-1) with 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“The team just thrived on the defensive end,” LeBlanc said. “We got all of our intensity off of there.”
The Ramblers’ defense was particularly intense in the second quarter and the first four minutes of the second half. In the second period, they forced nine turnovers and held the Bulldogs without a field goal until Jarvais beat the halftime horn with a layup to make it 21-13 Winthrop.
Things weren’t much prettier for the Ramblers at the offensive end in the first half. They missed their first nine shots of the second quarter before Wood broke the drought with a putback.
LeBlanc hit a pair of 3-pointers and fellow sophomore reserve Jared McLaughlin added one of his own to complement the hard work the 6-foot-8 Wood (11 points, eight rebounds) was doing on the offensive boards to give the Ramblers much-needed second chances.
“We didn’t get the ball up and down like we’d like. They limit your possessions,” MacArthur said. “Fortunately for us, our defense worked with that style. We were able to get stops and make it tough for them to score.”
“We knew the key coming in was taking care of the basketball and rebounding the basketball, and we didn’t do a very good job at both tonight,” Madison coach Jason Furbush said.
Both teams’ offensive woes continued in the second half as Hickey put up the first points with a 3-pointer 2:39 into the third. Taking his cue, LeBlanc knocked down a pair of threes en route to eight points in the quarter to lead the Ramblers to an insurmountable 17-point lead.
“Jake draws the defense in and kicks it out,” LeBlanc said of Hickey. “He does a good job of seeing the floor. I just try to give the spark off the bench. I try to do that every game.”
“That was a team win because we needed our depth,” MacArthur said. “We needed our shooters. Our shooters are young sophomores, and for them to come on the floor and step up and bury those shots really started to extend things.”
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