Boys basketball: Winthrop edges Hall-Dale in tight Capital City Hoop Classic battle

AUGUSTA — With not a single senior to its name, the Winthrop boys basketball team is one of the youngest around. Still, as Todd MacArthur reminded his players Thursday afternoon, there are expectations.

With less than a minute left in what would be a 55-53 Winthrop victory over Hall-Dale in a Capital City Hoop Classic battle, MacArthur’s team was in the exact kind of late-game situation in which young teams often fold. The longtime head coach’s message to the Ramblers:

“No more of this ‘we’re young’ bullcrap,” MacArthur told his crew in a team huddle with just 58.4 seconds left, his team leading by five. “This is the situation we need; we’re going to do this.”

How they did it wasn’t perfect, but the Ramblers grew a lot in pulling out this victory over a Mountain Valley Conference rival at the Augusta Civic Center. The Ramblers never trailed in the second half, bouncing back from a bitter loss to Old Orchard Beach in their previous contest.

“We needed this one,” said Winthrop junior Braden Branagan. “It wasn’t ‘we want this’; it was ‘we need this.’ We lost our last game scoring nine points in a half, which was really upsetting for us, so to come back and win this one at the Civic Center against a rival, we needed this one.”

The first few minutes were an offensive struggle with Winthrop (3-1) failing to score for the first 4:08 and Hall-Dale failing to break the Ramblers’ intense press. The Bulldogs ultimately took a 12-8 lead into the second quarter as they outrebounded the Ramblers 13-8 in the opening frame.

Hall-Dale (2-2), though, never stretched its lead past four points in the second quarter, and a Winthrop run eventually came. The Ramblers took their first lead at 21-20 with 1:30 to play in the half and took a 27-22 lead into the break as Cole Bard drained a 3-pointer in the final seconds.

“(Rebounding) was what we’ve been working on all week, so that first quarter, I wasn’t very happy with what transpired out on the court,” MacArthur said. “It didn’t showcase right away, but sometimes you’ve got to relax, discuss it and go apply it. I think our guys did; they used their lower body to go out and get physical.”

Hall-Dale’s Ben Nathan puts a shot up over Winthrop defender Colton Baird during the Capital City Hoop Classic on Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Fueled by a six-point burst from Carter Rivers, Winthrop took the game’s only double-digit lead with a minute and a half left in the third quarter at 42-32. Hall-Dale would end the third on a 6-0 run, and after back-to-back Zach Brown buckets early in the fourth, the Bulldogs trailed by just a point at 43-42.

Leading 45-44, though, Winthrop got the clutch shots it needed courtesy of Branagan, who sank back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch the Ramblers’ advantage back to seven with 4:35 to play. Hall-Dale never got back within a possession until a 3-pointer from Brown at the buzzer provided the game’s final points.

“I had airballed my first 3 and missed my second 3, so that felt good,” Branagan said. “I like to think of myself as a humble shooter, but I love shooting; it’s one of my things. To come around at the end of the game with my teammates rallying and us all working together, that’s a great feeling.”

Rivers led all scorers with 18 points for Winthrop, which also got 10 points and 11 rebounds from Bard and nine points and six rebounds from Chan Ring. Hall-Dale got 13 points from Brown, 10 points and 14 rebounds from Ben Nathan and 12 points and four rebounds from Karter Eldridge.

Hall-Dale had its chances, earning its share of possessions in the final minute and getting some decent looks from midrange. Yet the Bulldogs struggled to finish at the rim and also had trouble getting and making free throws, converting just two to Winthrop’s 13.

“We had too many missed opportunities,” said Hall-Dale head coach Chris Ranslow. “I haven’t had a chance to digest the film yet, but I’d say we missed in excess of 20 layups. I’d say they also shot 25 more free throws than we did, and when you look at those two metrics, you’re just not going to win a close basketball game.”

Although Winthrop outrebounded Hall-Dale 20-12 in the second and third quarters, the Bulldogs beat the Ramblers 11-7 on the boards in the fourth even with Nathan benched for much of the period with four fouls. Hall-Dale finished with 36 rebounds to Winthrop’s 35. Both teams had 16 turnovers.

There’s plenty of room for improvement, then, for a Winthrop team that had some rough moments in the fourth quarter even as it ultimately pulled out the win. For MacArthur’s squad, though, getting there is a process, and no matter how they did Thursday, the Ramblers got to that finish line.

“We can’t rush the process, but you can have certain situations in close games that can help improve you drastically quicker,” MacArthur said. “As long as we can have these games and figure out how to come out on top, that’s huge, and today, we figured out how to win.”