AUGUSTA — The third time’s the charm.
The Winthrop High School boys basketball team beat Madison Area High School for a third time this season on Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center, this time a 58-42 decision to win the Class C South regional championship.
For the undefeated and top-seeded Ramblers, it marked their first regional title since 2008, the last time it won the Class C state championship.
“This was kind our goal from day one,” Winthrop coach Todd MacArthur said. “We played with the determination that just getting here wasn’t good enough… We wanted to win this, we wanted to extend our season, and we wanted to try and win a Gold Ball.”
The team will try for its fourth state title next Saturday night in Bangor against Class C North champion George Stevens.
Jacob Hickey led Winthrop (21-0) with 26 points, including 15 in the first half as the Ramblers raced out to a 31-16 halftime lead. Hickey was presented with the Harry Edwards Award for the tournament’s most outstanding player.
“Our big goal this year was getting to the state championship. Anything else would have been kind of a lost season, in our opinion,” Hickey said.
Garrett Tsouprake added 19 points in the win.
Madison clawed back in the second half, using a 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter to pull as close as seven points with under four minutes remaining in the game but the Bulldogs (17-4) could get no closer as Winthrop made late free throws. Sean Whalen led Madison with a team-high 13 points, and Evan Bess finished with 10.
The Ramblers closed the game on a 10-1 run to finishing off Madison.
“We don’t ever give up. We keep playing, always,” Madison coach Jason Furbush said. “We didn’t have our best game tonight, but they had something to do with that. They’re a good defensive team.
“They went on a little run in the second quarter, and we never really recovered from it.”
Winthrop previously beat Madison in the regular season and in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game this year.
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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