AUGUSTA — Fourth-seeded Waynflete took control of the second half and rolled to a 60-45 victory against top-ranked Dirigo in a Class C South boys’ basketball semifinal Thursday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Flyers (18-2) will play second-seeded Winthrop (17-3) for the regional championship at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday in Augusta.

Waynflete played a nearly flawless second half to avenge a 58-36 loss to the Cougars in a regional semifinal last season.

“We knew that we wanted to deal with their pressure (defense),” Waynflete Coach Rich Henry said. “Even in the halfcourt, they’re really up on us so it took some time to get comfortable dealing with that, but once we got comfortable we were able to do some things.”

Dirigo opened a seven-point lead midway through the first quarter.

“Even though we’ve got experienced players, it’s something to play on this court against that team,” Henry said. “The guys were keyed up – you could tell in the first quarter – and they did a magnificent job of settling down.”

The Flyers used a 10-2 run at the start of the second to take a 21-18 lead.

With 1:30 left in the half, Gavin Hebert hit Dirigo’s fourth 3-pointer of the first half to make it 23-21.

The Flyers took a 24-23 lead when center Yai Deng hit a 3-pointer with about a second left for his first basket of the game.

“I was just in the place I was supposed to be in,” he said. “I knew (Milo) Belleau was going to give me that shot and we needed it. It was going to give us momentum.”

Deng scored 11 of his team-high 14 points in the second half, helping Waynflete gradually pull away. Abel Alemayo scored 13 points and Will Nelligan 10 for Waynflete.

Riley Robinson had a game-high 19 points for Dirigo (18-2).

“They did a great job on our key guys defensively and took away a lot of the things we like to do, and that hurt us,” Dirigo Coach Travis Magnusson said.

The Flyers did a good job limiting Robinson, a candidate for Mr. Maine Basketball who scored more than 1,800 points during his high school career

“We just tried to contain him and make him work for his shots,” Henry said. “You can’t stop him. You just try to manage the fouling and keep him off the line, scoring three-point plays.”

Waynflete used a strong inside game to open an eight-point lead in the third quarter. It hit 7 of 11 shots to move into a 40-32 lead.

“Yai (Deng) and Christian Brooks had really good games inside, particularly in the second half,” Henry said.

Brooks, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who guarded Robinson for most of the game, scored all eight of his points in the third quarter on jump hooks from the lane.

The Flyers got even more deliberate with their offense in the fourth quarter, when they took only four shots but hit all of them.

“We’ve got some pretty good shooters and they’re conscientious about taking good shots,” Henry said. “We just like to take our time on offense,” Deng said. “We don’t like to rush shots.”

Waynflete sank 10 of 15 free throws in the final three minutes.