DIXFIELD – There was nothing subtle or subliminal about Dirigo High School’s message Tuesday night.

After two years as a top seed good enough to lose a heartbreaker in the Western Class C tournament final, the Cougars are clearly the big cat entering this February’s fray.

Reigning state champion and potential semifinal opponent Winthrop harbored little more than a puncher’s chance in its only Mountain Valley Conference regular-season shot at the unbeaten Cougars. Dirigo played smothering defense and unselfish offense and reaped the whirlwind with a 74-41 rout in a boys’ basketball game.

Tom Knight erupted for the kind of game the faithful who jam DeFoe Gymnasium have come to expect: 32 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots. What makes Dirigo (15-0) dangerous, however, is the talent around its unassuming, 6-foot-9 star.

Aaron Fenstermacher fashioned 14 points. Eric Bolduc brandished lockdown defense along with his 10 points. Tyler Chiasson notched nine points. Nic Crutchfield contributed a hodgepodge of five points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. Sixth man Tyler Gates gave out seven assists.

“It’s a good win when you get that many people involved,” said Dirigo coach Gavin Kane. “Actually I’m a little surprised at the difference in the score. We expected this to be a very tough battle. Our kids responded well to the challenge.”

Dirigo scored the last 11 points of the first quarter – nine by Knight – to amass a 21-9 lead. That ballooned to 35-17 at halftime and 57-31 after three. The Cougars shot well above the 50 percent threshold until deep into the fourth quarter and committed only six turnovers all evening.

Knight enjoyed what would have been a career game for 95 percent of high school players in Maine (21 points, 11 boards) before intermission.

“If you think about all the runs they had tonight, Knight was involved somehow,” said Winthrop coach Tyler Hunt. “He outlets and starts their fast break. He does everything. Everything is fed through him. We didn’t have an answer for him tonight, or the team. They’re darn good.”

Zac Farrington led Winthrop (10-4) with 17 points. Ten of those came in the third quarter. Nobody else finished with more than two field goals or six points for the Ramblers.

With Knight blocking two shots before he even got into the scorebook, Dirigo harassed Winthrop into 3-for-13 shooting in the first quarter and 5-of-19 in the half. The Cougars forced 11 turnovers compared to its own two in that sequence.

“We just couldn’t put the ball in the bucket,” Hunt said. “We had a great game plan coming in, mixing it up, trying to take care of Knight, packing it into the paint. They just a had a better game plan.”

Nine first-period assists told the story of Dirigo’s disciplined ball movement against Winthrop’s ever-changing defenses.

“That’s better than we’ve played lately,” Fenstermacher said. “We came out and our shots were going in. We just kept swinging it and waiting for something to open up.”

Andrew Smithgall’s 3-pointer and a subsequent drive twice brought the Ramblers back within single digits in the second quarter. Dirigo answered with 10 consecutive points, fueled by Knight’s traditional 3-point play on a feed from Chiasson and Fenstermacher’s open 3-pointer by way of Crutchfield.

The Cougars’ splendid supporting cast took turns taking advantage of the Ramblers’ attention to Knight.

Chiasson and Bolduc each scored four points in the opening stanza. Fenstermacher knocked down another 3-pointer in the third period, when he combined with Bolduc and Crutchfield for 16 points.

“We needed to come out strong,” said Bolduc. “We stuck our shots. On defense we just hustled the whole time. It’s definitely a great feeling to win like that against a great team.”