READFIELD — The final horn in this one prompted a bigger celebration than might usually be seen in a regular season game from the Maranacook girls basketball team.

You can’t blame the Black Bears, though — not with the way they needed this win and the manner in which it came.

Maranacook stormed back after trailing for more than 28 minutes Thursday to earn a 35-32 victory over Winthrop. The Black Bears overturned a 12-point third-quarter deficit by holding the Ramblers to eight points in the second half and outscoring them 15-5 in the fourth quarter.

“We really needed this,” said Maranacook senior Natalie Mohlar, whose 10 points in the fourth quarter spearheaded the comeback win. “We all just play for each other, and you can never count us out because we always played so hard. We knew that if we kept our heads up and played hard, we could do it.”

Mohlar’s 10-point fourth quarter was part of a 15-point, six-rebound effort that helped snap a three-game losing streak for Maranacook, which also got six points and a game-high 12 rebounds from Celia Bergdahl. Winthrop’s Ella Rice drained four 3-pointers as part of a 13-point, six-rebound performance. 

Winthrop (6-3) frustrated Maranacook early on, forcing the Black Bears into eight turnovers in the first 3 1/2 minutes. The Ramblers also made plays at the other end of the floor, with 3-pointers from Rice and Kylee Mansir pacing the visitors to an 11-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

“We definitely got off to a tough start, but the key to this team is that they’re very athletic and tough,” Maranacook head coach Karen Magnusson said. “How many teams go down 11-0 and then come out and play harder? We did that, and even though we had that bad start, we were able to settle in.”

Maranacook (6-4) showed as much late in the first quarter as it found some rhythm offensively to climb back to within single digits. Winthrop, however, took leads of 16-8 lead after one quarter and 19-12 late in the half before the Ramblers banked in a pair of jump shots — a long 2 from Haley Williams and a 3 from Rice — to take a 24-12 lead into the break.

Winthrop’s Ella Rice, left, and Madeline Wagner, right, try to block a shot by Maranacook’s Cooper Davis during a Mountain Valley Conference basketball game Thursday in Readfield. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Yet with Maranacook locking down on defense, Winthrop scored just three points in the third quarter as the Black Bears heavily guarded the 3-point line. The Ramblers, who made five 3-pointers in the first half, didn’t make a single one in the third quarter as Maranacook cut the lead to 27-20 entering the fourth.

That tight defense continued into the fourth as Winthrop simply couldn’t penetrate Maranacook’s defense for decent looks. With the Black Bears trailing 28-22 with five minutes left, Mohlar hit a 3-pointer to get the home team back within a possession, and with her team down 29-26 with 2:35 left, she hit another to tie it.

“Defensively, we tried to eliminate 3s because that was what was killing us, and from there, that’s really what did it for us,” Mohlar said. “I just love all the girls on the team — they all mean a lot to me — and when they tell me to do something, I’ll do anything in the world for them.”

With 1:55 remaining, Mohlar drained a pair of free throws to give Maranacook the lead for good. Rice finally scored a basket for Winthrop with 50 seconds left as she hit a 3 to make it 34-32, but after a Cooper Davis free throw with 8.9 seconds left, a steal by the Black Bears prevented the Ramblers from getting a shot off.

In all, Winthrop went nearly 14 minutes without a field goal in the second half. The Black Bears beat the Ramblers 34-25 on the boards, and although Maranacook had 27 turnovers to Winthrop’s 23, the Black Bears were the cleaner team down the stretch as the Ramblers made untimely miscues.

“I think the pressure got to us a little bit,” said Winthrop head coach John Baehr. “We fell in love with the skip pass tonight instead of making the easy pass, and we didn’t do a good job shooting or attacking their gaps. They did a good job on us defensively, so you’ve got to tip your cap to them.”

The win was the first in nearly two weeks for a Maranacook team that boasts very little playing experience from last season outside of Mohlar. Yet even in losses to Madison, Hall-Dale and Mt. Blue in their three previous games, the Black Bears had shown signs of growth that manifested in this comeback, Magnusson said.

“Honestly, we found ourselves in those losses,” Magnusson said. “Even though we lost those games, we got to our identity, and we came away saying, ‘This is the team we want to be.’ I don’t think we win a game like this without having those battles to help us learn and grow.”

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