It’s been six years since the Windham boys’ basketball team played in a regional final. In high school sports, six years is an eternity. With Thursday’s 57-44 win over Lewiston, the Eagles are finally going back.
“All these guys were young. They were in the stands. So now they’re playing for a regional championship, which Windham’s never won,” Windham Coach Chad Pulkkinen said. “We’re excited for the opportunity.”
Top-ranked Windham (17-2) will face third-seeded Portland (16-4) at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena.
No. 4 Lewiston ended the season at 8-12.
Windham beat Lewiston twice in the regular season, although the Eagles needed to outscore the Blue Devils 26-5 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 12-point victory in the second meeting. Having won 7 of 9 games after a 1-9 start, Lewiston entered with confidence, Coach Elgin Physic said.
“They’ve improved so much over the season. They played Portland hard a couple weeks ago. They took down a pretty good Oxford Hills team. We know they’re tough,” Pulkkinen said. “They beat us for three quarters the last time up at their place. We had to have a real good fourth quarter to beat them. We weren’t taking them lightly tonight.”
Tyrie James, a sophomore, led the Eagles with 16 points – 13 in the fourth quarter. His 3-pointer with 6:10 to go snapped a 7-0 run by Lewiston that pulled the Blue Devils within 40-36.
“Q (Quinton Lindsay) drove, and he kicked it (out). I was open and just decided to shoot it. We kept building up to that. The whole game, we just needed that one run to solidify the win,” James said.
James converted a three-point play to push Windham’s lead to 52-40 with 3:40 remaining.
“We just needed to settle. We wanted to play our game. I think we moved the ball well,” James said.
Physic said his team’s plan was to try to limit Windham’s drives and kick-out passes, and get out on the Eagles’ shooters.
“I thought we did some of that, but I don’t think we did enough consistently. They move the ball so well. They play so well together,” Physic said.
Windham’s tight defense forced 23 turnovers and forced the Blue Devils into difficult shots.
“They got us out of our offense and forced some tough shots, and some of the easy shots we couldn’t get to go down,” Physic said.
Blake McPherson added 15 points for Windham, while Creighty Dickson had nine points and 19 rebounds.
Jeffrey Randall led Lewiston with nine points. Lonnie Thomas and Abdiraham Dakane each had eight.
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