WINTHROP – For the first eight minutes, they looked a bit like Ramblers caught in the headlights.

The Winthrop girls’ basketball team appeared distracted and diffused in the first quarter Tuesday night but that’s been par for the course this season for the Ramblers.

“This happens to us every game,” said Winthrop coach Ray Convery. “We have a hard time getting going. It’s funny. We practiced the last couple days and all of a sudden we get out there and forget what we were supposed to do, but that’s typical of a team that’s been struggling.”

It also didn’t take long for the Ramblers to get their bearings and reaffirm their mission. Winthrop shook off the early struggles and produced a strong second half in a 37-20 victory over Madison.

“We’re still in the process of figuring out what’s going on,” said Convery. “We don’t recognize things. We get all discombobulated about what kind of offense we’re running. That’s what happens with this group. After a little while, we get organized and get going.”

Kelsey Ouellette led the Ramblers (6-2) with 11 points, including seven in a second quarter in which Winthrop erased a five-point deficit and built a 17-14 lead at the half. Lindsay Gordon added nine. Erika Rice had five while Anna Smithgall, Katie Michelsen and Nicki Scott each added four.

” I think we just got more intense and stopped throwing the ball away,” said Ouellette, a junior guard. “We got it together more.”

Madison (5-3) got six from Bianca Stoutmayr and five from Cecile Thibodeau. The Bulldogs shot just 2-for-21 in the second half and were held to just six points. Winthrop did a nice job slowing down the Bulldogs. The Ramblers got up on the shooters and took away any penetration or inside game. Madison had 11 turnovers in the second half.

“We did a great job defensively and we rebounded well,” said Convery. “We talked about their strength being their quickness. So we weren’t going to press them and open the floor. Our strength was our size, and we kind of took advantage and got a lot of offensive rebounds, which we hadn’t really been doing.”

Winthrop started the game with four turnovers in its first five possession and finished with 15 in the half. The Ramblers struggled against the Bulldog’s zone and shot just 1-for-11 in the first quarter. Madison built an 8-3 lead but two free throws by Ouellette trimmed that to end the quarter.

In the second, the Ramblers used a 12-4 run to erase a 10-5 deficit and take a 17-14 lead. After a Thibodeau hoop, Smithgall hit two free throws. Ouellette followed with a fast break basket and a short jumper. Madison got a score from Jen Brown, but Rice hit a 3-pointer and Ouellette added a steal and free throw around a Stoutmayr drive.

“I think we stepped it up and didn’t throw the ball away as much,” said Ouellette. “We started getting it together. We were running our offense more, and we got the fast break going a little bit.”

In the third, Winthrop broke it open with 12 straight points. Gordon had seven points during that stretch but Scott added a three-point play and Rice and Michelson chipped in to build a 31-17 lead.

“We got better and better all the time,” said Convery. “That’s they way we are. Once we get into the game, and we understand what’s going.”