WINSLOW, Maine — This winning thing is becoming contagious at Winslow High School.
Relatively fresh off an undefeated run to the Class B football state championship in the fall, several of those same players are now key contributors to the Black Raiders’ basketball team. Winslow improved its record to 9-0 on Friday night with a 62-45 victory over Medomak Valley of Waldoboro before a standing-room-only crowd.
Winslow got big offensive nights from three of its seniors, as the backcourt tandem of Colby Robertson and Nason Lanphier combined for nine 3-pointers and 35 points while forward Justin Martin — one of the catalysts of the football team — added 18 points and eight rebounds.
“I’d say it took about a week and a half to get the conditioning back (after football),” said Winslow boys basketball coach Jared Browne, “but they’re smart players. They came out all summer and we’re basically running the same stuff we did all summer.
“But that was preseason and we’re now starting, I think, to play pretty well.”
Conditioning certainly wasn’t an issue for Winslow early in this battle of the top two teams in the Eastern B Heal point ratings, as the Black Raiders employed an aggressive man-to-man defense that had the younger Panthers scrambling offensively for much of the contest.
Aided by two early 3-pointers from Lanphier (16 points, six assists), Winslow bolted out to a 13-4 lead before Medomak Valley’s Micah Williamson hit a scoop shot with six seconds left to provide a positive end to a first period during which the Panthers made just three of 13 shots while committing five turnovers.
“We had to play really aggressive on defense,” said the 6-foot-6-inch Martin. “We’re not a big team muscular-wise so we have to play aggressive to make up for the lack of that, and this is the best team we’ve played so far so we had to step up on that end.”
One key to that defensive effort was Winslow’s focus on Medomak Valley forward Nicholas DePatsy, a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference all-star as a sophomore.
DePatsy scored a team-high 16 points but was dogged by multiple defenders throughout the game, with Josh Kervin and Trenton Bouchard drawing the primary assignment after Martin drew his second foul late in the first quarter.
“They did a hell of a job guarding DePatsy,” said Martin. “He hit some deep 3’s with hands in his face, which is what great players do, but other than that we pretty much shut him down.”
DePatsy, a 6-foot-3-inch junior, helped draw his team as close as 17-14 midway through the second quarter and then within 27-23 with a 3-pointer late in the period, but when Lanphier banked in a 3-pointer from the left of the key with 1.6 seconds left before intermission, Winslow had regained the game’s momentum.
The Black Raiders quickly extended their lead early in the second half, initially as Robertson (19 points, 5 of 9 on 3-pointers) saved a ball bound for a backcourt violation and whipped a one-handed pass to Lanphier for a 3-pointer to give Winslow a 10-point lead 34 seconds into the third quarter.
After DePatsy fed sophomore center Cameron Allaire for an answering layup, Martin made three free throws after being fouled while shooting from beyond the arc, igniting a 15-3 run that Robertson capped off with a 3-pointer that gave Winslow a 48-28 lead.
“We didn’t play the greatest offensively in the first half but our defense definitely played well,” said Martin. “Our offense stepped up in the second half and we pulled out the win.”
Yet Medomak Valley (7-2) kept battling, pulling as close as 49-38 on an Allaire layup with 6:34 left in the game before Winslow responded with 11 unanswered points — including six by Martin — to put the game away.
“They were down 12 to Lincoln Academy and 14 to Gardiner and came back and won both games,” said Browne, “so we talked at halftime about not letting our guard down because they’re a good third-quarter team.
“We pride ourselves on being a great third-quarter team and an even better fourth-quarter team, and I thought we executed that tonight.”
Williamson finished with 10 points and six assists for Medomak Valley, while Allaire scored eight points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
