AUGUSTA - Believe.

An upset over unbeaten Calais wasn't out of the question, Winthrop coach Dennis Dacus said, if the Ramblers just had some faith.

"Against a 63-0 team, you've just got to believe a little bit," he said.

Winthrop (21-1) put the two-time defending state champions back on their heels with a 20-point first quarter, then held off a handful of subsequent charges and pulled away in the fourth quarter to cap its first championship season in 15 years with a 72-62 triumph at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Ramblers picked up their third gold ball in school history, their first since going back-to-back in 1992 and 1993. In the process, they snapped Calais' 63-game winning streak, the longest in the state, and avenged a 56-49 loss to the Blue Devils on the ACC floor two years ago.

Sam Leclerc closed a remarkable four-year career at Winthrop with a game-high 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Ezra Damm chipped in with 15 points and Andrew Smithgall 10. Sam Bell, Calais' leading score, battled foul trouble from late in the first half on and finished with 16 points. Rod Tirrell added 14.

"We were backpedaling all night," Calais coach Ed Leeman said. "We never could get a rhythm, and it's hard to play from your heels."

The Ramblers came out firing, drilling four of five 3-pointers in the first quarter, two each from Leclerc and Zach Farrington (nine points on three 3-pointers). Farrington's second trey made it 8-6 Ramblers and they never trailed again. Leclerc capped the quarter with his second bomb, which gave them a 20-10 lead.

"Farrington with those first couple of 3s got us going, got the juices flowing, got us believing," Dacus said.

"After I hit the first one I got pumped," said Farrington, a transfer from Mt. Blue. "After I hit the second one, I was like 'We're probably going to be state champions.'"

To be state champions, the Ramblers needed their role players to step up because starting senior forward was relegated to the bench due to a violation of team rules. Farrington and Gingras' replacement in the starting five, Smithgall, did just that.

"We're a deep team, and it was a big hit for us not having (Gingras)," Leclerc said. "But everybody stepped up at the right time."

Besides his offensive contributions, Smithgall contained Tirrell, Calais' leading scorer in the tournament, with an assist from Skyler Whaley off the bench.

"My role was to go in there and shut Tirrell down," Smithgall said. "Skyler came out and played good defense. We didn't allow him to shoot the three. We shut him down and Sam Leclerc shut down Bell."

"We didn't want Tirrell to shoot 3s and make them," Dacus said. "We wanted Bell to work for every basket he got. I really felt they only had two, maybe three scorers, so taking away one or two was the key."

Bell went scoreless in the first quarter, while Tirrell scored just one bucket. Bell started to heat up in the second period (nine points), but Calais (19-1) wasn't able to whittle more than three points off the deficit before he picked up his third foul on a charge with around a minute to go in the half. Winthrop took an eight-point lead into the intermission.

Bell picked up his fourth on another offensive foul just 64 seconds into the third quarter and went to the bench. Yet the Blue Devils were able to get back into the game with a 10-2 run as Winthrop missed nine of its first 10 shots from the field. Tirrell tied it with a hoop with 4:17 to go in the third. Damm responded with a three-point play that put the Ramblers in front for good.

"That's happened to us three times this year," Dacus said. "(Thomas) Knight from Dirigo in one game earlier this year (Winthrop's only loss) went out for the whole third quarter with foul trouble and they got a lead after that. For some reason, when we get guys down, we don't keep stepping it up."

Calais trailed by just one before Leclerc stepped up for his only points for the quarter, a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper that helped give Winthrop a five-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Freshman Cal Shorey made it a 3-point game again with a putback to start the fourth, and with Bell back in the game, the Blue Devils looked ready to take the game down to the wire. But the Ramblers took control with a 12-2 run, sparked by a Leclerc jumper and climaxed with a pretty Smithgall reverse layup off a feed from Leclerc.