Windham’s basketball coaches insist they aren’t gluttons for punishment.

That the Eagles, both girls and boys, started this season by hosting arguably the best teams in Maine was just the luck of the draw.

Windham’s boys opened the winter schedule Monday with a 76-35 home loss to Cheverus. The Eagles girls started off with McAuley at home Tuesday, and lost 83-32.

“Our captain, Ashley Fitzgerald, hit the nail on the head in the locker room,” said first-year girls coach Wayne Martin after his team’s defeat. “She said, ‘You can’t let this set the tone for the season. We just played the best team in the state and at times we looked good and at times we looked bad. But we played hard.’ She told them, ‘We go into Friday’s game (at Portland, 7 p.m.) looking to get better.'”

Millington, whose boys rebounded with a 67-63 win at South Portland Tuesday, was concerned that fans who were expecting more left the first home game disappointed.

“We haven’t been good the last couple of years,” he said. “But this year you hear good things about Windham, then you come to the game and we lose by 40.

“We’re a good basketball team,” he said. “But they are a great basketball team. After Cheverus and Deering, we’re as good as anybody else.”

BOYS FALL BEHIND EARLY

With a quick 8-2 lead in the opening minutes, Cheverus set the trend early Monday. Both team’s created their share of turnovers early on, “but we didn’t convert any of them into points,” Millington said. “They make you pay. They converted the turnovers into points.”

The visitors turned on their offensive firepower in the second quarter, stretching a 15-8 first period lead into a 42-18 halftime advantage.

That second period was easily the most productive for Cheverus captain Sean Costigan, who tallied 15 of his 17 points in that span.

Teammate Graham Whitelaw ran a crisp show at point guard and ended the night as the game’s leading scorer with 25 points.

The Windham coach was pleased with the play of his two key floor leaders. Junior guard TJ Tandberg (the team’s high-scorer in the South Portland game with 20 points) and center Will Clemmer, who led Windham with seven points each Monday. In the loss, nine Windham players scored points.

Clemmer, a 6-foot-4 senior, should match up well with most centers in Class A, but Cheverus had a big edge in that department with 6-foot-11 center Kyle Robbins posting up most of the night. The height advantage doesn’t tail off much from there with Costigan and Kendrick Kipikas both standing 6-foot-6.

Millington conceded he “shut it down early” in the second half, seeing the writing on the wall.

“It was more strategic than just getting other guys a chance to play,” he said, noting that he didn’t want to have both a loss and an exhausted team just one game into the season.

Windham’s boys play next at home today (Dec. 16) against Portland.

GIRLS’ GAME PLAN DERAILED

The Windham girls got an early shot in the arm when Sharma Wing hit a three-point field goal to bring her team to trail just 6-3 early in the opening moments.

“I thought we were going to settle down after that,” Martin said. “But we didn’t. We had a game plan and we practiced it. We just didn’t follow through.”

The Windham girls fell behind 24-9 after a quarter and the McAuley kids, keyed by 6-foot-2 forward Ashley Cimino (17 points), never let up. The home team trailed 45-18 at halftime, then 63-20 after three periods. McAuley guards Sarah Oliver and Abigail Wentworth added 13 points each and forward Carolyn Freeman pitched in 11 points for the visitors.

Windham was led offensively by Allyson Noble’s 14 points and Darcey Webster’s nine. Wing, Taylor Graves, Riley Graves and Fitzgerald also scored for the Eagles.

It was the second blowout in a row for McAuley, which defeated Cheverus 77-33 two days earlier.

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