WINSLOW — Justin Martin’s dominance through the first three quarters of Friday night’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference season opener held Maranacook at bay. Winslow’s defense in the fourth quarter put the Black Bears away.

Martin, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, scored 30 points and pulled down 20 rebounds and the Black Raiders limited Maranacook to 1-for-14 shooting in the fourth quarter in a 73-57 win.

Martin grabbed seven offensive rebounds to pick up several second-chance points for Winslow. But it was on the defensive boards where he made sure he had a bead on the ball.

“I felt like I really had to step up on the boards, especially on the defensive boards because we couldn’t let them get second chances,” he said.

“I’m not hoping for that to be a typical game for him,” Winslow coach Jared Browne added. “But he’s worked so hard to get to where he is right now; it’s really nice to see him finally putting it all together. He’s going to have a really big year.”

Nason Lanphier added 19 points for the Black Raiders. Kyle Wilbur scored 21 points and Kent Mohlar added 17 points and nine rebounds for Maranacook.

The Black Bears trailed by as much as 14 in the first half, but battled back to within six at halftime. They then scored the first seven points to take their first lead on a Wilbur 3-pointer with a little more than a minute expired in the third quarter.

Martin’s drive to the hoop tied the game at 47, then Lanphier converted a steal into a spinning layup at the other end to put the Black Raiders in front for good late in the third.

Wilbur’s 3-pointer made it 55-52 with 1:21 left in the third. The Black Bears didn’t score again until he banked another 3 from the top of the key with 3 minutes, 8 seconds to go in the fourth, ending a string of nine missed shots to start the quarter for Maranacook.

“I think our shot selection was pretty poor. I think we forced a few,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “We penetrated well to the paint, but I think we should have kicked some (out). Instead we shot and our feet weren’t set and Martin’s in there. He alters a lot of shots and he deflects a lot of shots.’

“The first half, we allowed way too many face cuts, way too many backdoor cuts and dribble penetration way too easy,” Winslow coach Jared Browne said. “In the second half, we took a lot of pride in our defense. We moved our feet, kept guys in front of us, didn’t gamble as much and we did a really good job of closing out on their shooters.”

In the meantime, Colby Robertson, who scored seven of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, and Trenton Bouchard (eight points sparked an 11-0 run that gave Winslow what turned out to be an insurmountable 66-52 lead.

“When teams focus on Justin Martin and Nason Lanphier, we need a third guy to step up,” Browne said. “We’d been looking for that in the preseason, and tonight Colby stepped up in the fourth quarter. He made some big plays for us and really gave us that spark to push us up.”

“We played pretty well in the second half,” Martin said. “In the first half, we let up a lot of threes and let them drive to the hole. But in the second half, we stepped up.”

Martin showed the completeness of his offensive game with 28 points through the first three quarters, hitting from outside and inside, slashing to the basket and putting back rebounds. He hit a 3-pointer to put the Raiders up 8-2 early and drew two quick fouls on Maranacook star forward Cam Brochu, who never really got untracked (two points, six rebounds).

“He’s a beast. He’s tough to stop,” Schmidt said of Martin.

Winslow led by nine at the end of a fast-paced first quarter. Lanphier added to that with a 3-pointer and Martin drove the baseline for two that made it 29-15.

Mohlar sparked a 10-0 Maranacook run with a 3-pointer, followed by a steal and layup for a three-point play by Wilbur. The Black Bears started taking the ball to the hole and were able to get to the free throw line to pull within two with 1:47 to go in the half.

“I think we realized that we could get to the ball into the paint in the second quarter and we started to utilize the whole court, not just the 3-point line,” said Schmidt, whose team shot 7-for-26 from 3-point land for the game.

Randy Whitehouse —621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33