LEWISTON — Lonnie Thomas helped seal the deal for Lewiston.
The junior scored eight of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter in the fourth-seeded Blue Devils’ 52-43 win over fifth-seeded Oxford Hills in a Class AA North quarterfinal game Thursday.
“In past games, in the second half, we haven’t been as aggressive in the fourth quarter as we needed to,” Thomas said. “We sped it up this quarter and got the points we needed to win the game.”
The fourth-seeded Blue Devils (8-11) will take on top-seeded Windham (16-2) in the regional semifinals at 3:45 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said the Vikings (7-12) had opportunities Thursday night to move on in the tournament.
“It’s tough if you don’t have these games all year, so it was a tough away to lose tonight,” Graffam said. “We couldn’t make a shot tonight and we did exactly what we wanted to do defensively. We just couldn’t score enough points tonight.”
Graffam said the team played a lot of tight games down the stretch but didn’t have many close games in the first half of the season.
The Blue Devils entered the final quarter with a 39-38 lead, but both teams were hesitant to make a mistake.
“In the fourth quarter, we tried to get defense and we scored when we needed to score,” Lewiston coach Elgin Physic said. “We got defensive stops when we needed to get defensive stops.”
After a Thomas bucket, Oxford Hills’ Holden Shaw scored four straight points to give the Vikings a 42-41 lead.
Shaw had nine points in the game.
When it felt like the Vikings (7-12) were heating up — they shot well in spurts — they got cold down the stretch.
“After we were leading 42-41, we had five chances with the ball and we couldn’t score,” Graffam said. “When they had the three, you knew that was the turning point.”
Thomas had a 3-pointer and a bucket to put Lewiston up 46-42. Michael Klick and Abdirahman Dakane had two-point baskets, while Thomas and Jeffrey Randall each hit a free throw at the end.
Dakane finished with 11 points.
Carter Holbrook got the momentum started for the Vikings early in the first quarter by hitting back-to-back 3s for a 6-0 lead.
“I know he could shoot, but man, there were a couple, he wasn’t near the line,” Physic said. “He was feeling it early and we said we need to get out on (Holbrook). We started to make him uncomfortable.”
Holbrook hit two more in the quarter and only scored two more points the rest of the game to finish with a team-high 14 points.
“He hasn’t been that hot, but he has had flashes of that,” Graffam said of Holbrook. “We were up by nine and we had opportunities to be up 12, 14, but once again we went into a situation where we turned the ball over.”
Brayden Murch helped the Vikings’ effort with 10 points.
Thomas did his best to answer Holbrook by scoring Lewiston’s first seven points.
“I was just trying to pick up my guys because they had a guy that was hot,” Thomas said. “So, we needed someone who got points. To get that for our guys was really helpful.”
He finished with nine in the first quarter.
However, the Vikings took a 16-12 lead after the first eight minutes.
Lewiston forced some turnovers throughout the first half and started to chip away at the deficit in the second.
“We tried to get the ball inside more,” Graffam said of limiting the turnovers. “We turned the ball over throwing it in there. Lewiston is a good defensive team and even if we did get it inside, we missed at least five layups and several foul shots.”
Dakane, Caden Boone and Klick helped the Blue Devils to a 30-27 lead at halftime.
“He had some points and he had some assists,” Physic said of Dakane. “Again, he was getting double-teamed and he found the open guy. In the first quarter and the first half, he forced it a lot. I thought the third and fourth quarters he settled down.”
After hitting four 3-pointers in the first quarter, Oxford Hills only had one in the second quarter.
Foul shots and two buckets from Brady Roy helped the Vikings cut the deficit to 39-38 after three quarters.
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