WINDHAM — From crushing defeat to stirring victory, in a matter of seconds.

Stella Jarvais drove to the basket for a layup with 12 seconds remaining, lifting the Windham girls basketball team to a 41-40 victory over Gorham in a Class AA matchup Thursday night.

Windham improved to 4-3. The Rams, who took the lead on a Julia Reed 3-pointer with 25 seconds to go, suffered their first loss and fell to 7-1.

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“It just feels like a level of accomplishment, especially with having all the close games we’ve had,” Jarvais said. “We needed to get some of these harder games.”

They nearly didn’t. Windham led by 10 late in the second half, but just like in a two-point loss to Edward Little and and overtime loss to Oxford Hills, the Eagles appeared headed for another gut-punch defeat when Reed (18 points) sank a 3 from the left corner.

Rather than call a timeout, Windham coach Brody Artes let the Eagles play it out, and they quickly advanced the ball up the court and got it to Jarvais in the corner. The senior forward cut toward the hoop and evaded the closing defense to lay the ball up and in for the go-ahead basket.

Gorham’s desperation heave missed at the buzzer.

“I think we go through a lot of plays like that in practice anyway, so I just had to be patient and go up strong,” said Jarvais, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. “(The situation) doesn’t sink in for me. I’m just looking to get the ball in the basket. … I knew that if I got the ball, I was going to drive. That’s my forte.”

Windham trailed by three before pulling even on a Jarvais three-point play with 2:33 to go. The Eagles took the lead at 39-37 on a pair of free throws by Denali Momot, setting the stage for Reed’s and Jarvais’ heroics.

“We’re a super resilient group,” said Artes, whose team dropped an earlier matchup with Gorham despite a tie score with four minutes left. “We knew that we could come in here and compete with them, and if we stayed organized and stayed together and played within ourselves, we’d have a chance at the end.”

For Windham, the win serves as a statement the Eagles could be ready to compete in Class AA North after going 18-20 over the past two seasons.

“Absolutely. This league is wide open,” Artes said. “I think there are 10 teams in AA that could win the whole thing, and I definitely think that we’re one of them. Gorham is certainly one of them as well, but on any given night, anybody can beat anybody. A lot of scores recently have shown that.”

His players feel the same way.

“They were No. 1 in the South, and we just felt like we were on the outskirts,” said sophomore Mackenzie Delewski, a key part of Windham’s tough interior defense along with Stella and Marley Jarvais. “But we’ve had a lot of close games, and it really shows that we’re here to play and we are a contender.”

Gorham coach Laughn Berthiaume saw Reed and Lauren Dunbar (nine rebounds) help key a second-half rally that nearly kept his team undefeated.

“One of the things that we have to develop as a team is some grit and toughness,” he said. “It’s hard to always teach in practice, sometimes you need those game situations to be able to bring that out. I was happy with how they responded. … I was proud of how they battled back.”

A Marley Jarvais (seven points) three made it 28-19 Windham with 4:16 left in the third, but Dunbar answered with a three and Reed hit a jumper to close the gap. After Addie Caiazzo hit a three to make it 31-24, Payton Thibodeau had a short jumper and Reed hit from distance to make it 31-29 going into the fourth.

Windham seemed to gain momentum when Isabella Vassoler’s 3-pointer bounced around the rim before rolling in for a 34-29 lead with 4:40 left, but Reed knocked down her third 3-pointer of the half, Logan Doughty had a basket and a free throw and Winni Moreland banked in a shot for a 37-34 lead with 2:44 to play.

“We’re still looking for some consistency, so it’s been choppy,” Berthiaume said. “But I think we’re getting there. It’s having real, competitive games in a row. We’ve had a couple in a row now where we have to develop that sense of time and score situations.”