WINSLOW — As the coaches for the Winslow boys basketball team prepared for their Eastern B preliminary round game with Oceanside, they naturally looked at the regular season meeting between the teams. Shea Davenport scored 20 points in that game, leading Oceanside to victory.

The Black Raiders adjusted their defense Wednesday night, and held Davenport to 10 points. But this left things open for Ben Wallace, who had 28 points as Oceanside pulled away for a 69-57 victory.

“During the week last game, we were focusing on him (Wallace), and he didn’t hurt us — and (Davenport) did hurt us,” Winslow coach Jared Browne said. “We switched the defensive matchup for this game. Ben Wallace, I give him credit. He stepped up. His team needed him to. He hit big shots.”

Wallace also had nine rebounds, and made 12 of his 17 field goal attempts. The 10th-ranked Mariners (12-7) will play No. 2 Medomak Valley on Friday in the quarterfinals, while seventh-seeded Winslow ends the season 12-7.

Most of Wallace’s 28 points were on drives to the basket that ended with him pulling up for a soft jumper or taking the ball all the way for a layup. Despite his sublime performance, Oceanside never led by more than six until the final two minutes.

While Winslow couldn’t fully contain Oceanside’s offense — the Mariners shot 54 percent from the floor — the Raiders matched baskets for most of the game. Justin Murray had 19 points and Austin Ireland had 16, mostly on nice moves inside. Oceanside needed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by David Harrison to lead 35-31 at the half.

Winslow shot 7 for 9 from the floor to start the third quarter and still trailed by one. The Raiders finally took the lead on a steal and layup by Murray with 3:45 left in the third quarter.

Things settled down after that, but Oceanside had too many scorers with Wallace, Davenport, Isaiah Stone-Patterson (11 points) and Sam Meklin (eight). The Mariners were playing without junior power forward Tyler Gilson, who was averaging nine rebounds per game when he broke his ankle, but still out-rebounded Winslow by seven.

“He was a key to what we do, but we have plenty of players who are ready to step in,” Oceanside coach Matt Breen said. “This is where your depth comes in handy.”

Winslow was within 60-57 when Murray drove through a maze of players for a layup with 2:20 left in the game, but the overflow crowd wouldn’t see the Raiders score another point. Wallace applied a dagger with a running bank shot to make it 64-57, and after Winslow couldn’t score, the Raiders’ last chance was gone when Murray committed a foul and then was hit for a technical with 57 seconds left.

Winslow graduates Murray, Brandon Labrie and Caleb Hill from the starting lineup, but Browne is still optimistic.

“I think we did better than a lot of people expected us to do coming in,” Browne said. “I really like our chances in the future. These guys saw this game. They don’t want to lose a prelim at home anymore. They’re going to be ready to go next year.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

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