PITTSFIELD — Owen Williams didn’t score 37 points again. But the senior guard’s performance Thursday night was impressive for a different reason.
Williams shook off an illness to score 22 points, Dom Wilson added 17, and the Maine Central Institute boys basketball team got the best of Winslow again, beating the Black Raiders 64-53. The game was a rematch of a Dec. 30 contest, which MCI won 71-45.
“We had great performances from the rest of the guys who stepped up, Dom Wilson had a big night,” MCI coach Josh Tardy said. “We were able to get through the game with Harrison and Owen in foul trouble, and we survived it. Winslow’s a good team, they’re well-coached, we knew they were going to make their run. They made it interesting.”
The Huskies were sharp that night, and they were sharp again Thursday, improving to 7-3 even as standout guard Gavin McArthur sat with an illness of his own.
Tardy said it wasn’t a coincidence two of the teams’ best games all season came against the same opponent.
“They want it, and they’re competitors. They want it bad when Winslow’s in the gym, it’s the rival,” he said. “At the same token, they’re friends off the court. There’s a mutual respect.”
Winslow (5-5) found a stride in the second half, but coach Ken Lindlof said it was too little, too late.
“We didn’t come in here really with a sense of urgency,” he said. “It took for us to dig a deep hole, and then we started playing with a lot more energy. It just seemed like we couldn’t get out of our own way, couldn’t overcome our own mistakes.”
MCI took a 25-15 halftime lead, then leaned on its go-to players to close the deal. Williams, Wilson and forward Harrison Sites (12 points) scored all but seven of the Huskies’ second-half points, and from 2:18 to go in the third until less than three minutes remained in the game accounted for all of them as MCI turned a 37-26 lead into an insurmountable 57-40 advantage.
“It was our veterans, and our veterans took over,” Tardy said.
Williams, who had a blistering second half en route to the 37 points in the first matchup, started slower Thursday but found a rhythm in the second half. He scored seven points in the third as MCI worked to a 44-26 lead, and added seven more in the fourth to help close the door.
“I don’t really know what’s going on, I’m just not feeling great. … I just thought coming in that I could do it,” Williams said. “We’re sitting pretty in the Heal points, and it’s just overall a good team win.”
Williams also added a team-high 13 rebounds.
“He’s a quiet leader for us, and he stepped up big tonight,” Tardy said. “He made some big baskets for us, he rebounded the ball, and he just played when he didn’t feel well. He played hard. You wouldn’t have known that he was feeling bad.”
The team also got a boost from Wilson, who knocked down four 3-pointers and helped make up for McArthur’s absence.
“(Tardy) was telling me all week that I needed to step for what we’re missing,” Wilson said. “They were really keying in on Owen, and that presented me with wide-open looks. I just hit my shots.”
The Huskies also aced the challenge on defense, specifically in their handling of star Winslow scorer Colby Pomeroy. The senior scored 16 points to go with 10 rebounds, but had only two at halftime as he consistently ran into double teams on the perimeter from Williams and guard Ryan Friend.
“We were playing a zone, but … it was a zone with an understanding of wherever Colby was, someone needed to be,” Tardy said. “Colby’s a cagey player, he moved around, he was in different places. We had to make adjustments to where he was. He’s a great competitor.”
Jason Reynolds added 14 points for Winslow, while Andrew Poulin had eight. Reid Gagnon grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.
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