AUGUSTA — Going into its game Jan. 23, the Maranacook boys’ basketball team had three wins, all season.

Now, in the space of nine days, the Black Bears have beaten three double-digit winners from the Mountain Valley Conference and will face a fourth with an improbable Class C West championship at stake.

No. 8 Maranacook stifled and dominated No. 4 Winthrop, 64-39, in the semifinals Friday night at Augusta Civic Center, storming the title game from deep in the bracket for the second consecutive February.

Levi Emery scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to snuff out Winthrop’s faint comeback aspirations.

“He played his height and a few inches above that,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said of Emery, a 6-foot-4 junior. “He’s stronger than he looks. He’s tall, he’s athletic, and he is absolutely playing fantastic under the boards.”

Kent Mohlar added 14 points and Kyle Wilbur 13 for Maranacook.

The Black Bears (10-11) take on the No. 2 Dirigo Cougars at 8:45 p.m. Saturday. Prior to walloping MVC champion Winthrop, the lone KVAC club in the field knocked out St. Dom’s in the preliminary round and top-seeded Boothbay in the quarterfinals.

“We knew Winthrop was a similar team to us,” Emery said. “We knew it was going to be a good game. Their shots weren’t falling as well, and we were pretty lucky to get ours to go in. Even with a 20-point lead, I knew it would only take them so many minutes to get back in it.”

Dakota Carter topped Winthrop (16-4) with 12 points.

The Ramblers scored the first 15 points and never let off the accelerator in a quarterfinal rout of Madison.

“Tonight was the complete opposite,” Winthrop coach Todd MacArthur said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well. We did get them in foul trouble, which was a nice thing, but they’re tough to keep off the glass.”

Maranacook jumped out to a 10-1 lead, harassed Winthrop into nine consecutive missed field goals to open the game, and held the Ramblers to two points in the second quarter and eight in the half.

Cam Brochu was saddled with foul trouble much of the evening, but not before he scored courtesy of the offensive glass and drained a 3-pointer to give the Black Bears a 5-0 lead.

Carter interrupted the scorching start with a free throw. Mohlar matched Brochu with a second-chance bucket and a trey, making it 10-1.

“I was really happy with our defense,” Schmidt said. “We worked hard. We rotated. We communicated very well. They didn’t get any easy looks, I didn’t think. Our defense was the difference in that first half, especially.”

Winthrop closed within eight at 14-6 to end the quarter.

Sophomore Wilbur, shooting star of the opening rounds, buried another 3-pointer to stop a mutual dry spell of nearly three minutes to start the second period.

After Anthony Owens scored the Ramblers’ only basket of the quarter, Emery delivered twice down low, Wilbur nailed another trey, and Ty Smith added a layup off the bench to punctuate a 9-0 finishing kick.

“He seems to have a knack for timing.” Schmidt said, “and tonight, against a very good team, (Emery’s) timing was outstanding.”

The Ramblers hinted at a comeback, rattling off off the first seven points of the third quarter.

Ben Allen’s free throw cut it to 28-18 with 5:10 left. Maranacook baskets by Mohlar and Emery stemmed the tide. Mohlar piggybacked that with a steal and another layup.

“If we weren’t down by so much, maybe we make an adjustment where we don’t gamble as much,” MacArthur said. “We made a statement early this year that if we were going down, we were going to go down being who we are. This group has been part of this program four years. They’re going to go down their way.”

Sophomore Jacob Hickey added nine points for the Ramblers. Seniors Allen, Carter, Matt Sekerak, Taylor Morang, Nick Schlosser, Joe Fay and Jake Rioux played their final game in Winthrop green-and-white.

“I’m just thankful. I hope that in five years, 10 years, 15 years, that I still have this relationship with them,” MacArthur said. “They’ve given me everything they could in terms of basketball. It’s pretty special as a coach to know that you’re going to have a group of friends down the road.”

koakes@sujnjournal.com