ROCHESTER — The Spaulding High School boys basketball team refused to give up Tuesday night. Winnacunnet one-upped the Red Raiders by refusing to surrender the lead.
The Warriors went ahead to stay midway through the second quarter, and then calmly staved off Spaulding's late charge to claim a 55-49 Division I win.
The Red Raiders (1-4) got to within one in the third quarter and three in the fourth, but could not tie or pull ahead.
Winnacunnet, led by Jack Schaake, Ben Allen and Matt Doyle, seemed to have an answer every time the Red Raiders charged.
The 6-foot-6 Schaake scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, while Allen added 14 points and Doyle chipped in with 10.
"You look at all our games this season, including the Christmas tournament, they've all kind of been this way," said Winnacunnet coach Jay McKenna. "The kids feel very comfortable in that situation. They remain very calm and they're confident in each other that they're going to make plays."
Spaulding sophomore sharpshooter Dante McKenney led all scorers with 18 points, 13 in the second half, to keep his team within range. Arie Breakfield added 16 and Isaiah Rose tossed in nine.
"In the first half I didn't shoot very well," McKenney said. "I thought about it, worked on my shot a little while we were warming up. I just relaxed and had a nice rhythm."
Winnacunnet improved to 4-0, having won all of its four games by no more than seven points.
Spaulding's McKenney and Breakfield hit a pair of desperation 3-pointers in the final 32 seconds, but Doyle made a layup on a pass from Travis Arsenault to break the Spaulding press, and Allen hit both ends of a one-and-one with 6.2 seconds to play. The Warriors converted 5 of 6 foul shots in the final 1:23.
"You got to keep pushing and we didn't push hard enough," McKenney said.
Winnacunnet led 22-18 at the half, using a late 6-2 run to break a 16-all tie. Arsenault buried a short corner shot, and then Schaake scored a pair of inside buckets to make it 22-16 at 1:38.
Spaulding's Keagan Calero drove for two to cut the lead to four. The Red Raiders missed a pair of foul shots with two seconds to go that could have sliced the margin to a deuce.
McKenney's trey and a Breakfield dunk cut the lead to 31-30 at 2:42 of the third. The Warriors responded with a Doyle 3, and ended up carrying a 36-32 lead into the fourth quarter.
"That was kind of how the game went," said Spaulding coach Tim Cronin. "We'd make our run. We'd make our run. But it wasn't enough. We didn't have a good matchup for Schaake. We tried to double him, but he went through us. He had his way."
Schaake's inside presence was huge.
"In the second half, we shot a little better," he said. "It really opened up the middle, so I was able to get inside and make moves without the extra man coming to help."
Rose's shot in the lane at 4:57 sliced the margin to 42-39, but again Winnacunnet was able to answer.
Allen drove for two, drew the foul and hit the freebie to get the margin back to six, 45-39, at 4:29.
The Red Raiders cut it to four several more times but could never get over the hump.
The Warriors saw to that.
Winnacunnet plays at Bedford Friday. Spaulding could easily be 4-1 or 3-2 with three of its four losses by a total of nine points. It is off until next Tuesday when it has another tough contest, hosting defending champion Portsmouth.
WINNACUNNET 55, SPAULDING 49
WINNACUNNET (55)
Allen 5-3-14, Schaake 7-3-17, Waterhouse 2-2-6, Doyle 3-3-10, Kacmarcik 1-0-2, Arsenault 3-0-6, Welch. Totals: 21-11-55.
SPAULDING (49)
Calero 2-0-4, McKenney 7-0-18, Rose 3-2-9, Connelly 1-0-2, Breakfield 7-1-16, Hudson, Manzi, Gooley, Connelly, Bernier, Dube. Totals: 20-3-49.
Winnacunnet 14 8 14 19—55
Spaulding 9 9 14 17—49
3-Point Goals—Winnacunnet 2 (Allen, Doyle), Spaulding 6 (McKenney 4, Breakfield, Rose).