The No. 2 Westbrook Blue Blazes and the No. 3 South Portland Red Riots hooked up in a classic matchup in the Class A boys semifinals at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Wednesday night.

Both teams traded leads throughout the game, and it seemed fitting that it took a four-minute overtime period to finally decide things.

When the final buzzer sounded, it was the Blazes who came out on top, beating the Riots 72-66, much to the delight of the large Westbrook fan base at the game.

Westbrook now heads to the Class A Western regional finals to face the winner of the Cheverus/Windham game which was played immediately afterwards. The game will be played Saturday night at 9 p.m. at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Dominic Borelli led the Blazes with 26 points in the game, including 13 in the final quarter and the overtime period. South Portland’s Keegan Hyland also had 26 points in the contest.

After the game, Borelli said the win meant a lot to the Blazes, especially after last season’s disappointing tournament loss to Portland. “This was a huge win,” Borelli said. “We wanted to come out and prove we were a legitimate team.”

This one was a shootout throughout, with both teams coming up with big plays just when they needed them. It looked like Westbrook was going to jump out to a big lead in the first half, getting 3s from Andrew Beckwith, Nich Jobin and Sean Murphy, but South Portland, led by Hyland, came storming back, cutting a 17-10 Blazes’ lead to just one point. The Riots took the lead late in the second quarter when Jon DiBiase fired a long pass to Matt Lee to give South Portland a 26-25 lead going into the half.

South Portland got some breathing room in the third as Hyland picked a couple of big buckets and the Riots’ Spencer Bowring brought the large South Portland crowd to their feet with a long 3 from the corner at the buzzer and the Riots led 43-38 going into the fourth.

The fourth quarter turned into an offensive show as Westbrook started to cut into the Riots’ lead. With 6:47 left to go in regulation, Borelli nailed a 3 from near-NBA distance to cut the South Portland lead to 49-45. After a Hyland layup made it 51-45, Jobin hit a 3 of his own and the score was 51-48.

Once again it was Hyland’s turn to shine. With 5:35 left, he stole the ball and went the length of the court and sunk a reverse layup to give the Riots a 53-48 lead. But as was the case all quarter, Westbrook had an answer as Jobin hit a 3 from NBA distance to cut the lead back to 53-51.

Jobin and Hyland would trade 3s about a minute later and South Portland was clinging to a 56-54 lead with 3:02 left.

Leading 58-56 with just under a minute left, South Portland made a rare mistake, losing the handle on the ball and turning it over. The Blazes made them pay for the error as Jose Nouchanthavong hit two free throws on the other end to make the score 58-58, where it would stand at the end of regulation.

Borelli took over in the opening minutes of OT, scoring the Blazes first four points to give Westbrook a four-point cushion. That proved to be enough for Westbrook as they survived two 3-pointers from Hyland to hang on for the win and the date in the regional finals.

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