The Eagles score 13 of the first 19 points in the fourth to break open a tight game in a rematch of last year’s Class AA final.

Communities:

• Windham,
• South Portland

Posted Yesterday at 10:44 PM

Drew BonifantStaff Writer

WINDHAM — A packed house at Windham High School was roaring as a rematch of last year’s Class AA boys basketball state final was playing out as closely as anticipated.

And then, to delight of those fans, Windham made the sort of big-moment push that it has made many times before over the last three seasons.

Tyrie James scored 21 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, and A.J. Moody and Sean LeBel added 13 apiece as the Eagles used a big fourth quarter to defeat South Portland, 68-53, in a matchup between the winners of the last four Class AA championships.

South Portland, which got 18 points freshman Leonel Despacho and 17 from Gabe Jackson, won titles in 2022 and ’23, while Windham won in 2024 and ’25, beating the Red Riots 55-52 in last year’s final.

“This is one of the best teams in the state right now, so we had to come in with a great mindset,” said Moody, who along with James is one of Windham’s two seniors. “They know their mindset, we know ours, and it was just a battle. It was a dog fight.”

Both teams came in with 6-1 records and were ranked in the top three in the new Class A South region — Windham in second, South Portland in third. And a matchup that was expected to be tight was just that, with the teams swapping leads 10 times and playing to a 42-42 tie in the final minute of the third quarter.

And then Windham made its move. James knocked down a pull-up jumper to give the Eagles the lead going into the fourth, and two LeBel free throws and a three-point play by Moody to open the fourth put them ahead 49-42.

Darius Johnson and Jackson responded with baskets for South Portland, but LeBel knocked down a corner 3, James got the roll with a runner, and after a Despacho basket, James converted another three-point play for a 57-48 lead with 5:10 to go.

“Every game that these good teams are playing, there’s a run in the game and that’s decided the game,” South Portland coach Kevin Millington said. “Whoever goes on that 10-(0), 12-0 run, and that’s what happened to us. We were in the game, in the game, and then we couldn’t score and they did.”

Windham let a 16-point lead slip away in its only loss, against Sanford, but the Eagles closed this one out over the final minutes.

“We’ve been in a moment where we’ve been up … (and) down, going into the fourth,” James said. “We understand sort of what we have to do to hold that lead or grow it even further.”

The big fourth quarter for James, which included a circus layup to answer a Despacho jumper with just over four minutes left, helped ensure there was no rally by the Red Riots.

“I feel like we were just moving the ball well,” he said. “We weren’t trying to hold it and stall, we were just going into our offense fluently.”

Colin Janvrin added 10 points and nine rebounds for Windham.

Freshman Israel Muzela had nine points and six rebounds, and Johnson grabbed 14 rebounds for the Red Riots.

Windham raced out to a 10-2 lead, but eight straight Despacho points tied the game, and Jackson scored 12 points in the second quarter to lift South Portland into a 32-28 lead.

“We had to control the glass, control transition, and I thought our guys did a really good job of that,” Windham coach Chad Pulkkinen said. “I saw a different fight out of our guys tonight, which I was proud of. They answered the bell.”

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

South Portland at Windham

Friday, January 2, 2026

Windham 68, South Portland 53

STORY

Windham boys basketball uses big fourth quarter to down South Portland