WINTHROP — Maranacook might not play another quarter of basketball as well as it played Thursday night’s third quarter.

The Black Bears outscored Winthrop by 20 points in the third period, erasing a halftime deficit and rolling to a 70-50 win in a boys crossover matchup at Poulin Gym. Senior Keagan McClure netted a game-high 25 points for Maranacook, which used a deep bench and an impressive 27-3 run right after the break in awakening from a sleepy first half.

“We came in at halftime, and we knew we were better than (Winthrop),” McClure said. “We had to keep our composure. Our coaches grind that into our mind. We want to run teams out of the gym — that’s our mantra.”

After a first half that saw the Black Bears (7-1) turn the ball over 18 times and connect on just nine of 23 field goal attempts, it was a different squad that emerged from the locker room.

Maranacook turned the ball over only four times in the third quarter and shot 10 of 15 from the floor (66.7 percent). McClure was at the center of it all — scoring 19 of his points in the second half and finding open teammates every time the Winthrop defenders collapsed to him off dribble-drives.

“I think it’s just instincts,” McClure said. “When I was younger, I was really small and I was a pass-first point guard. I still kind of go by that.”

“We always want to play fast. We want to push,” Maranacook coach Travis Magnusson said. “Every single chance we get, we want to go. Good running teams, you don’t always get it in the first half, but if you keep wearing them out eventually you’ll get the stretches like the one we had.”

Winthrop (5-3) led 26-22 through two quarters, with big men Cole Bard (18 points) and Chan Ring (16 points) punishing Black Bear turnovers at the other end.

Maranacook’s Elijah Freeman, left, plays defends as Winthrop’s Cole Bard shoots during a boys basketball game Thursday in Winthrop. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

But until Bard drilled a three-pointer with 31 seconds to play in the third to finally end Maranacook’s 24-point swing, the Ramblers couldn’t replicate what they’d done in the first half.

Even after falling behind by 20 with a minute remaining in the third, the Ramblers rallied to get as close as 56-46 with a pair of Carter Rivers free throws with 4:27 left in the contest.

“We’re a pressing team, and I didn’t want to press (Maranacook),” Winthrop coach Todd MacArthur said. “Why speed them up? We try to play fast, but they’re so much better at our style of basketball that we’d be foolish to try and play that brand of basketball with them.

“It worked for the majority of the game, but that third quarter was gross. We’re still a team that’s struggling to play four quarters of basketball.”

Brandon Chilton added 15 points for Maranacook, with Elijah Freeman and Wyatt Folsom chipping in nine apiece.

It was the type of balanced scoring attack — five different players hit field goals in the third — that the Black Bears want to see night in and night out.

“We are definitely a team of runs. We do do that,” Magnusson said. “It was really good, unselfish basketball. We got a lot of deflections, we turned them over a little bit and we passed the ball really well. I thought guys made the extra pass. We played with so much energy and intensity, we fed off our bench and it was great to see for us.”

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