Winthrop's Braden Branagan shoots the ball over a couple of Waynflete defenders during Friday’s game in Winthrop. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

WINTHROP — Winthrop boys basketball coach Todd MacArthur understands the season is long and can be full of ups and downs, but if the Ramblers want to improve their playoff seeding, the time is now.

“Absolutely. It can be a process, but if you don’t win games and get Heal points, it’s all for nothing,” MacArthur said. “You can go through changing periods and building your team, but you’ve still got to get Heal points.”

The Ramblers improved their standing in Class C South by defeating Waynflete 52-41 on Friday.

“This was one of the games that we kind of circled here in the last week,” MacArthur said. “It’s a big game for us to try to win because we don’t want to fall any further down the standings, because if you do, then teams move ahead of you and now you’re climbing a big mountain. That’s something we don’t want to do.”

Waynflete (5-6) entered the game seventh in the Heal point standings, while Winthrop (6-5) was eighth. After the victory, the Ramblers moved up to fifth, while the Flyers dropped to eighth.

The Winthrop players understand that seeding is important in the tournament because so many teams are capable of making a playoff run.

“Yeah, definitely. I think Coach said it best,” senior Braden Branagan said. “Each team this year has a chance to go to the tournament and do something. There’s not one team (that) can dominate all of us, but once it comes tournament time, we’ll be ready for it because these games are just all about tournament time.”

Nonconference fun

MacArthur said he enjoys nonconference matchups, like Friday’s, at this point of the season because they’re against the type of opponents Winthrop will likely see during tournament week in February at the Augusta Civic Center.

“So to go against a team like that or a program like that,” he said of Waynflete, “you’re going to get better when you play them. So it’s important for us to play those southern schools, because they’re in that tournament. So you get to see them, and if you beat them, you keep them below you. So those are important things when it comes to the final standings.”

The Ramblers are members of the Mountain Valley Conference, made up mostly of schools in central Maine, while the Flyers are in the Western Maine Conference, with has a lot of schools from Cumberland and York counties.

“It’s kind of nice seeing them because they play a style of basketball … like a lot of southern teams play,” Branagan said of Waynflete. “They move the ball around really well, a lot of shooters. They shoot the ball well, and they do a lot of 1-on-1 stuff. … So that’s good for us to face teams that do this stuff.”

Branagan scored 12 points, including three 3-pointers, while Cole Bard had 17 points for Winthrop. JJ Carlo led Waynflete with 15 points, and Jed Alsup scored 13.

Winthrop has three more MVC games, then finishes the regular season with four out-of-conference games: at home against Traip (WMC), at Richmond (East-West Conference), at Old Orchard Beach (WMC), and then against Waterville (KVAC) in Winthrop.

Waynflete, meanwhile, only has one more nonconference game against Hall-Dale of the MVC.

MacArthur said that when the Ramblers won state championships in 2019 and 2020, they started playing their best basketball around this part of the season.

“We found ways to win early on and have really dominant records, but I always thought that they were a better version of Winthrop come late January, early February, and that’s kind of what we’ve been known for is we’ve gotten better through the season,” MacArthur said. “I hope that that’s what this year presents, is that we’re a better version of Winthrop basketball at the end of it.”