AUGUSTA — The Monmouth Academy boys basketball team expected a classic defense from Winthrop in its tournament opener. What the Mustangs got was something completely different.
Instead of their usual press, the Ramblers came out with a 1-1-2 zone supplemented by someone guarding Monmouth’s top scorer, Levi Laverdiere. Yet what’s driven the Mustangs to success recently has been their ability to adapt in the clutch — and Monday night, they did so again.
No.2 Monmouth (15-4) grinded out a 32-29 victory in a defensive battle with rival No. 7 Winthrop in a Class C South quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center. The win sends the Mustangs to Thursday’s semifinals against No. 6 Madison.
“We did everything we could, and it was just enough to win,” said Monmouth coach Wade Morrill. “It was a little bit humbling to go up against that, but we’re grateful for the challenge it presented us. We grew up a lot tonight.”
How Monmouth did it
• The Mustangs held Winthrop to 10 field goals on just 26 attempts, which was enough to offset their 11-for-43 performance from the field.
• Aiden Oliveira made four clutch free throws in the fourth quarter. That kept the Mustangs up three on Winthrop (11-9) going into the final seconds, and Monmouth sealed the win by forcing Braden Branagan to miss a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer.
What it means
• Monmouth advances to the regional semifinals for the fourth consecutive season. The Mustangs have won nine tournament games on the Civic Center floor during that span, including five straight dating back to the start of last year’s state title run.
• Winthrop executed its game plan just as coach Todd MacArthur hoped, but Monmouth’s defensive success denied the Ramblers a trip to the semifinals.
“I apologize to all the fans in the building, but the game plan for us was to make it ugly, and we accomplished our goal there,” MacArthur said. “We wanted to take away their bigs and were willing to sacrifice those shots outside (with the exception of) Levi.”
They said it
“You’ve got to hand it to Winthrop because that was a great game plan. … One thing I’ve learned in my years of coaching is, when you get to Augusta, you’re always going to win an ugly one; there’s going to be a game where you don’t play your best, and the other team challenges you. Hopefully, that was our ugly one.” — Wade Morrill
“I’m proud of my kids for being disciplined and executing. I’ve talked to them all year about those two things, I thought they did that. I told them (after the game) that if you would’ve told me we’d be down one score with 4 seconds left with the ball, I would’ve taken it. We just came up a bucket short.” — Todd MacArthur
“We definitely had to adjust to their weird defense. They put a really good defender on me (Carter Rivers), so it was hard for me to get open, but we had to push and keep going.” — Levi Laverdiere
Stat leaders
• Winthrop: Chan Ring (eight points, six rebounds), Cole Bard (six points, five rebounds, three blocks)
• Monmouth: Levi Laverdiere (11 points), Jacob Harmon (eight points, six rebounds)
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