The Windham boys’ basketball first team squad, comprised of all freshman players, traveled to play Gorham on Monday, July 29 and ended the summer with a victory.
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| Windham freshman Colton McLeod goes up for a layup on Monday, July 29 in the final game of the boys' First Team basketball summer season against Gorham. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
“I think one of the biggest things is they stayed composed,” said Windham First Team coach Cameron Brown. “We’ve had a lot of close games this summer and there’ve been times we kept our composure and times we kind of lost it. It reflects on the scoreboard when we play within ourselves and we know what we want to do; towards the end of the game, don’t get too sped up, those are the things that have been successful for us. Just being down three, you know [Gorham] is going to go for a quick three-pointer ... the biggest thing for us was high hands without fouling and they executed really well.”
Windham was slow to start, but this would all change later in the game. Gorham held a small lead but Windham’s Quraunte Pender put the Eagles on the scoreboard.
After battling hard, Windham came within one point of a tie game. They worked hard to get rebounds, though Gorham kept the lead by getting several turnovers. Windham was rebounding and tied the game at 14. Gorham took the lead 18-16 at the half.
“They had the lead most of the first half and that was tough,” said Windham’s Boston Krainis. “But moving the ball, cutting, spacing, and obviously Jalen [Stephens] with the big three [-pointer] at the end and we were able to pass it around, move it in the last two minutes and finish up the game there.
In the last 30 seconds, Windham looked to see who was open, tried to get open, moved around and waited until Gorham fouled – they just didn’t want to turn the ball over.
Pender tied the game at 18 in the second half. Gorham still led, but the game was within reach. Windham snagged a few rebounds, and Gorham led by four with six minutes remaining.
Windham’s Parker Frost hit a three-pointer and Windham is now down by one point with just four minutes left. Stephens sunk a three-pointer with a minute left in play.
“We really took pride on defense when they were driving down the court,” said Windham’s Mason Rulman. “We tried to make no turnovers while on offense, that helped us win. We focused on what we were doing, not trying to make mistakes, we were able to get to the basket and score. We put a lot of work in at practice and it shows when we come out here and play.”
Coach Brown said that his biggest takeaway from the summer season is that the team came in and they wanted to learn, they wanted to get better; and they put themselves in situations so they could get better.”
He said they know what this program can be, and they want to be a part of it. <
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