Windham is close to locking down the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, but Cheverus and Portland also should be in the mix for the regional championship.

PostedYesterday at 4:06 PM

UpdatedJanuary 31

Steve CraigPress Herald

Blake McPherson, center, is a tri-captain on a 14-2 Windham boys’ basketball team that is ranked No. 1 in the Class AA North Heal points. Last year, the Eagles won just five games. Brianna Soukup/Staff

There isn’t much separating the top three in Class AA North boys’ basketball.

Which is all the more reason why Windham High’s 55-51 win at Cheverus on Tuesday was significant for the Eagles. Combined with No. 3 Portland’s upset loss Tuesday at Oxford Hills, the win should be enough to secure the No. 1 see for Windham (14-2).

With Class AA now divided into two seven-team divisions, the top seed in the North and South will each receive a regional quarterfinal bye. Getting a path directly to the semifinal also means Windham won’t have to face No. 2 Cheverus (13-3) or No. 3 Portland (12-3) until a regional final.

Windham has beaten Cheverus twice, by a total of nine points, and split its two games with Portland, losing last week at the Expo, 55-54.

“It’s going to be tough regardless,” said Windham Coach Chad Pulkkinen. “You play an Edward Little or an Oxford Hills (at Cross Insurance Arena), every game is going to be tough down there. But the No. 1 seed is important, especially for us with some injuries we’re trying to get over.”

Cheverus and Portland could flip-flop spots. They meet in the regular-season final. But after the top three, no team in AA North has a wining record. So it’s reasonable to think Portland and Cheverus will both win home quarterfinal games and end up playing a third time in the regional semifinal, while Windham as the No. 1 seed will face the winner of the 4 versus 5 quarterfinal.

“Having the No. 1 seed helps out a lot because we get a bye straight to the semis,” said Windham senior tri-captain Blake McPherson. “But it also means we just need to prepare 10 times more because we’re going to be facing up against a way better team than we would be if we didn’t have the 1 seed.”

Windham also gave evidence it possesses another trait that can be necessary for a long tournament run: having a bench that can compensate when starters are hurt, tired, or in foul trouble.

The Eagles were without junior starter Creighty Dickson on Tuesday because of a cracked rib. Dickson leads the team in rebounding and is a key complementary scorer. Pulkkinen said Dickson probably could have played against Cheverus but the decision was made to rest him. In his absence, Conor Janvrin scored a team-high 12 points off the bench. In addition, senior captain Erik Bowen was nursing an injury that had kept him out of last week’s one-point loss to Portland at the Expo.

The season has already been an impressive turnaround for Windham, which went 5-13 a year ago then lost its playoff opener. But the confident Eagles are far from satisfied, McPherson said.

“We’re not worried about winning games now. We’re just here to win the whole thing. That’s our goal,” McPherson said.

Cheverus will still have plenty to say about the outcome of the AA North region. The Stags feature Leo McNabb, a dynamic player off the dribble. McNabb scored 33 points against Windham with an old-school stat line, making 13 two-point baskets, no 3-pointers (in fact, Cheverus as a team didn’t make a 3) and seven free throws.

The key will be getting more players involved on a consistent basis, said Coach Richie Ashley. In the second half, McNabb scored 20 straight Cheverus points.

“We had a lot of other opportunities to score. It wasn’t like (McNabb) was shooting it every single time,” Ashley said. “We had good looks inside, layups, put-backs, shots of that nature that we normally make. In the first half we had a spurt and our spurt was because we were getting the ball inside. We’ve got to do a better job of capitalizing, getting the ball inside, and taking advantage of a point-blank layup.”