WINSLOW — His team allowed 33 points in the first half, but Winslow High School boys basketball coach Jared Browne wasn’t concerned with the Black Raiders’ defense.
“I told our guys at halftime that if we keep playing defense like that, keep contesting shots and keep boxing out, good things are going to happen,” Browne said. “And they did happen.”
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Winslow’s tenacious defensive effort finally paid off in the second half, when the Black Raiders held Gardiner to 20 points. The result was a key 65-53 win for Winslow, which expanded its lead in the Eastern Class B Heal Point standings with the victory.
Winslow improved to 13-1 while Gardiner fell to 11-3.
“I think we beat ourselves. We got away from our game plan. We wanted to work inside-out, and we became individuals, everybody trying to do it themselves,” Gardiner coach Jason Cassidy said. “In a big game, that sometimes happens.”
Gardiner led by as many as six points in the first half, and Eli Fish’s 3-pointer with one minute, 24 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Tigers a 33-32 halftime lead. Winslow opened the second half with a 10-1 run to take the lead for good.
“We just had to find the key players and lock them down,” Winslow senior guard Josh Kervin said, citing Seth McFarland (eight points) and Bradley Weston (12 points) as two Gardiner players the Black Raiders focused on defensively.
“The first half, I don’t think we played that badly defensively. We forced them to take some tough shots. They hit some contested ones. We made them take the shots we wanted them to take, they just happened to make shots. In the second half, we kept defending them,” Browne said.
Forward Justin Martin had 32 points and 13 rebounds for Winslow, but other players stepped up for the Black Raiders, too. Bobby Chenard grabbed 12 rebounds. Kervin scored 11 points, all in the second half, and nine coming in the fourth quarter when Martin was on the bench with four fouls. Kervin went 7 for 8 at the free throw line.
“I just felt like I had to drive the lane, get contact and get to the line. Easy points,” Kervin said.
“We were allowing dribble penetration, right down the middle,” Cassidy said.
Keanu Earle scored nine points for Winslow, and Dylan Hutchinson came off the bench to score seven, including a big 3-pointer late in the third quarter that pushed Winslow’s lead to 47-36.
“One guy goes down, we’ve got other guys who can step in. We’ve got some talent on the roster,” Browne said. “We’re going to use our depth and keep this run going. Our guys are smart basketball players.”
Jordan Lamb led Gardiner with 13 points.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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