Windham 40
Cheverus 50
The No. 9 Windham Eagles came into Friday night’s Western Class A quarterfinal on a high, having knocked off eighth-seeded Gorham on the road in a prelim match up.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the reward for that win was a date at the Portland Expo with the top-seeded Cheverus Stags, and the Stags showed why they are the top team in Class A by ending Windham’s season by a score of 50-40.
Windham, which was backed by a very loud student cheering section, came out looking like they had another upset on their minds. The Eagles jumped out to a quick 4-2 lead with about 5:50 left in the first quarter when sophomore guard Jonathan Sangillo scored two of his 12 points on a wide-open layup.
But then the Stags turned their play up a notch and quickly took the lead. Employing a full-court press that at times, gave Windham problems, the Stags opened up a 16-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Things got worse for Windham in the start of the second. The Eagles went over five minutes without scoring, going from two Jackson Taylor (who finished with four points) foul shots with 2:25 left in the first quarter to a Sangillo jumper with 5:16 left in the second. By the time Windham got back on the board, the Eagles trailed 21-10.
But, with the scoring drought ended, the Eagles went back to work and tried to cut into the Cheverus lead. Sangillo grabbed an offensive rebound and after being fouled as he attempted a layup, hit a free throw to make it 21-11. Then, less than a minute later, Ryan MacQueston, who led the Eagles with 14 points, got a big steal and tried to go coast-to-coast. He was fouled on the play, and converted one of his two free throws to make it 21-12 in favor of the Stags.
But then the Stags came right back, running off seven unanswered points to make it 28-12 before Taylor hit two free throws with 1:28 left in the first half to cut the Cheverus lead back to 28-14. The half ended with the Eagles trailing the Stags 29-14.
Cheverus threatened to run away with the game in the third quarter, running the score to 33-17 before Sangillo buried a three to bring the Eagles within 16, 33-17.
Garrett Clemmer scored two points on a nice runner with 5:12 left and MacQueston hit two free throws about a minute later, but the Eagles still trailed 39-21.
Refusing to give up, the Eagles kept battling to cut into the Stags’ lead. MacQueston hit a three from the top of the key with just over two minutes left in the quarter and the Eagles trailed, 41-24. Then with just under a minute left in the third, MacQueston cut the lead to 41-26 with two free throws.
As the fourth quarter got underway, the Eagles tried to make a run at the Stags, senior guard Travis Guerette hit two free throws about a minute-and-a-half into the quarter to make the score 44-28, but just as Windham made some headway, Cheverus would get a hoop or two, erasing any gains the Eagles made.
Windham did make some noise at the end of the game, cutting the lead to 13 with three minutes to go when MacQueston found Sangillo on an inbounds pass. Sangillo leaped, and while in the air put the ball in to make the score 50-37.
But that was it for the Eagles, who got their final points on a long three-pointer from senior guard Paul Robbins as time expired to make the final score 50-40, sending the Stags onto the semifinals and ending the Eagles’ season.
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