WINTHROP — Winthrop let slip an early double-digit lead, one that lasted into the fourth quarter, before overcoming Boothbay’s charge in a 75-69 overtime boys basketball victory Tuesday.
Hunter Crocker hit a 3-pointer with one second left in regulation to cap off the Seahawks’ (11-3) rally, but the Ramblers (13-1) regrouped and made enough plays — and free throws — to hold on for the key Class C South win.
“You got to seal the game with foul shots, and we didn’t do that (in the fourth quarter),” Winthrop coach Todd MacArthur said. “But I thought the kids did a good job of moving on without letting it affect their game.
“It would have been easy for us to go into overtime going, ‘Man, we just kind of blew this.’ And we just talked about, ‘Hey, positive energy, positive thoughts, move on, and let’s do what we have to do here in overtime.’“
The Ramblers made nine of 12 free throws in overtime, starting with two from leading scorer Cam Hachey.
Crocker answered with a layup, but Ryan Baird made two free throws, Hachey converted a layup, and Gavin Perkins made a free throw before Crocker made two of his own to round out the Seahawks’ scoring.
Baird made four more free throws and then blocked a Crocker layup attempt with six seconds left.
Crocker scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter.
“We were looking for him,” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “He’s pretty good at cutting to the ball from the opposite side, and if we can get it to him he’s pretty good at scoring. So he did a great job for us. And then he hit that 3 at the end, that was good.”
Hachey scored 14 of his team-leading 23 points in a first quarter that saw the Ramblers go up 21-5 at one point and finish with a 28-10 lead that was capped off by Jacob Carter’s 3 at the buzzer.
“The first half, they shot the ball like hell. You know, in the first quarter I mean almost everything they threw up went in,” Pinkham said.
Boothbay was able to cut its deficit to 40-26 by halftime, as Ben Pearce scored a put-back of Kaleb Ames’ missed 3 to beat the buzzer. Pearce had eight points in the period.
“Whenever we play Boothbay, I don’t feel like we’re ever safe,” MacArthur said. “So we talked about adjustments and things that we had to do, and we probably didn’t execute those in the third quarter and they came on a run.”
The lead was whittled down a little more in the third, to a 53-41 Winthrop advantage entering the fourth. Kaeden Davis, who played with foul trouble all game, scored eight points in the period for Boothbay.
Davis had 17 before fouling out with 1:47 left in regulation. Pearce added 12 for the Seahawks.
Baird finished with 20 points. Perkins added 12 points and Jevin Smith 11 for the Ramblers.
“It’s two great teams playing basketball, and that’s what high school basketball is all about,” MacArthur said. “I don’t care if one team has a 20-point lead, that’s a great basketball game. Two great programs that just went at each other, and that was a great night for high school basketball with these kids.”
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