Matt McCarthy’s absence and foul trouble help derail Winthrop.
By Kalle Oakes
Sports Editor

MADISON – The tone for Wednesday night’s Western Class C boys’ preliminary game at Madison High School was set during player introductions. That’s when Winthrop guard Matt McCarthy was presented as a first-team, all-Mountain Valley Conference performer and scampered to center court.

On crutches, that is.

McCarthy broke his left leg last month in a midseason game against Livermore Falls, and the Ramblers, though safely locked into a playoff spot, never fully recovered.

Starting one freshman and one sophomore and using its bench sparingly, No. 9 Winthrop led at halftime and kept its tournament dream alive until the final four minutes before No. 8 Madison squirmed away for a 64-52 victory.

“We never really got our whole team together this year,” Winthrop coach Steve Hamilton. “But I’m not making excuses. Madison will represent our conference well. I really feel this is a year that a middle-of-the-road team can go down there, play a little defense and surprise everybody. We gave Hall-Dale a tough game, so I felt maybe we could be that team.”

It’ll be a quarterfinal battle of the Bulldogs on Monday night when Madison (12-7) challenges top-seeded Hall-Dale at 8:45 p.m. For only the second time in more than a quarter-century, Winthrop (7-12) won’t make an appearance on the wide-open Augusta Civic Center court that has become its home-away-from-home in February.

Winthrop beat Madison in the season-opener back in December. This time, without McCarthy, who was averaging 27 points per game at the time of his injury, the Ramblers turned over the keys to their high-low game to ninth-grader Mike Gingras (16 points, four steals) and senior big man Joey Burnham (12 points, 11 rebounds) in the rematch.

But foul trouble hurt the Ramblers, who trailed only 51-50 until Matt Stewart (10 points) nailed an open 3-pointer with 4:20 left. Jason Allen and Burnham fouled out shortly thereafter, and Stewart’s salvo became the start of an 11-0 run.

Randy McMullen scored six points in a 28-second span, including four from the free-throw line, and scored 10 of his team-high 24 in the fourth quarter. McMullen also tore down 15 rebounds.

Allen Berry added 22 points for Madison. Berry, McMullen and Stewart all are seniors.

“The seniors took over in the fourth quarter,” McMullen said. “We just pretty much said we wanted the ball. We got more aggressive defensively and kept them off-balance.”

There were seven lead changes in the first half. Winthrop rallied from an early 6-0 deficit on the strength of a dozen points from Gingras and solid, all-around play by Burnham and Allen to grab a 33-30 advantage at the break.

Winthrop upped the margin to five on three separate occasions in the third period before the Bulldogs punctuated the period with an 11-2 surge. Tyler Marandola’s layup, his lone bucket of the night, gave Madison the lead for good with 1:40 remaining in the third.

Hamilton, who coached Jay to the Class C championship in 2002, said he enjoyed what may be his only season with the Ramblers. Winthrop lost all five starters from its Western Maine championship team of a year ago.

“Of course I’m not disappointed. It was a great playoff atmosphere,” Hamilton said. “We’ll take a look and re-evaluate things. The other MVC coaches were gracious enough to give me the Coach of the Year award, and I’ve been chosen to coach the McDonald’s All-Star team. If I am finished (coaching), I’m ending it with some very positive things.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

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