WHS boys’ basketball shows improvement against Lewiston

By Matt Pascarella

Windham’s varsity boys’ basketball stepped onto the court against Lewiston at home for the second time this season on Thursday, Feb. 2, which was Senior Night and Windham Youth Basketball Night. Windham turned in a strong effort and kept it close, but Lewiston remained a few points out of reach and won 54-47.

Windham junior Blake McPherson is aggressively first to
reach the ball during a prep basketball game against
Lewiston at Windham High on Thursday, Feb. 2.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

Windham seniors Owen Combes and Chase Wescott were presented with a small gift as a thank you for their dedication to Windham Athletics throughout their high school careers.

“I’m proud of Chase and Owen and their commitment to the program,” said Windham varsity boys’ basketball coach Chad Pulkkinen. Those are two outstanding kids who are going to be successful at the next level in life and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do in the future.”

Combes received the Windham Youth Basketball Little Eyes Upon You Award presented by Maine Optometry. This award goes to a senior that demonstrates commitment to the youth in their community.

“It meant a lot from the youth,” said Combes. “I know they appreciate me helping them out playing basketball and it was a great to see I’m a good role model on and off the court.”

Right from the start, Windham showed Lewiston they came to play when Eagle defense blocked a shot. Lewiston took a small lead, but soon the game was tied at 16. Windham defense kept the game close. Windham sunk a buzzer beater before the end of the half but trailed 27-22.

In the second half, a lot of Windham players hit three-pointers including Combes, freshman AJ Moody, juniors Blake McPherson and Erik Bowen and sophomore Creighty Dickson. Every time Lewiston pulled away, Windham was right there to remind them this was not their game to walk away with.

Windham had a two to three-point deficit for most of the second half; foul shots gave Lewiston the chance to pull ahead.

“Our effort was there,” said Wescott. “I felt like we battled hard. It all comes down to rebounding and the ball going in the hoop – some shots weren’t falling. Some calls weren’t going our way, but we stayed together through it – that’s all we could do.”

Wescott said Lewiston got too many offensive rebounds. Windham turned the ball over a lot in the first half; and if you take away those, the score might be different.

“We had great effort, great defense. We just got to focus on the bigger things like rebounding and transition defense,” said Combes. “We got their two best players out of the game early and got good shots. The ball just didn’t fall for us tonight; ball movement was there, and our help side defense went really well.”

According to Combes, if Windham stopped Lewiston from getting more offensive rebounds, getting more defensive rebounds and boxing out better, maybe they could have flipped the score.

Windham improved significantly from earlier in the season when Lewiston won 82-67.

“Our guys battled really hard tonight, they did some damage in the paint, but getting back into transition was a focus and the kids battled; rebounding-wise ... today I thought we did a good job. Windham fought hard the second half – we got a lot of really good looks. Sometimes the ball doesn't drop but the guys worked their butt offs to get wide-open shots for us to have a chance.”

Pulkkinen said when you’re down one possession with just 3 minutes left, every time you turn the ball over it’s hard. Lewiston’s a good team and Windham hung in there with them.

He said he was proud of how his guys played their hearts out for Chase and Owen. <