Funny thing is, Garrett Clemmer was supposed to foul the ball handler, not steal the ball. But Windham’s junior guard did the latter, went in for a layup and gave his team a five-point lead with half a minute left.

The play effectively secured the win for No. 7 Windham in Tuesday night’s Western Maine Class A prelim boys basketball game against No. 10 Gorham at Windham High School. The Eagles (12-7) have a quarterfinal date with No. 2 Westbrook (16-2) at 9 p.m. on Saturday night at the Portland Expo.

Gorham wrapped up its season at 6-13.

While the Rams never led after the first quarter, they hung around. After Mason Roy banked in a jumper from straight on with 42 seconds remaining in the game to cut Gorham’s deficit to 43-40, Windham’s Nick Taylor missed the front end of a 1-and-1. The Rams got the rebound and called timeout with 32 seconds left and a chance to tie the game on a 3-pointer.

The ball went in to Roy in the backcourt, but Clemmer picked his pocket and went in for two points.

“They were down three and our coach told us to foul and make them earn it from the foul line. He didn’t have his hand guarding the ball, so I just went for the ball,” said Clemmer, who had a game-high 19 points.

“Big time players play big in big games,” said Windham coach Kevin Millington. “Garrett had a big year. I told the players before the game that these big-time players have signature moments, and if you’re a great player, you’ll have a signature moment. Garrett had the play that sealed the game.”

After Clemmer’s hoop, Gorham turned the ball over again and Adam Szklany made a free throw for Windham’s final point.

The game wasn’t a pretty one, as both teams struggled to get in an offensive flow. Missed shots and turnovers ruled the night – many of which were forced by the tough half-court, man-to-man defense both teams employed for the majority of the game.

Neither team scored for over two minutes after the opening tip. Clemmer’s putback and foul shot put Windham up 3-0 with 5:35 left in the first quarter. Gorham scored the next six points, but went scoreless over the final 3:30 of the first and trailed 11-6 at the end of one. Clemmer had seven points in the quarter.

The teams played to a 10-10 second quarter, as five different Rams scored baskets. The Eagles got six of their points from the free throw line, from where they had 13 attempts in the quarter. Gorham finished the first half with 14 fouls to Windham’s three. The Rams did not get to the line until Alex Graves was fouled on a breakaway with seven seconds left in the half.

“It was our game plan to attack the basket,” Millington said. “I thought we did a very good job of that. Unfortunately, we didn’t convert a lot of those layups and we shot about 50 percent from the line, which we’ve done all year. We did what we wanted to do, we just didn’t convert there.”

Leading 21-16 to start the second half, Windham extended its lead to 30-21 on Brandon Guerrette’s floater with 3:31 to go in the third. But Gorham closed the quarter on a 6-2 run and it was 32-27 entering the fourth.

It became a one-possession game on Roy’s jumper with 4:20 left, which made it 38-35. After a stop on defense, Gorham had two shots to cut the deficit to one, but could not convert. Windham finally dove on a loose ball and called timeout. Clemmer sank a pair of free throws after being fouled on a putback attempt, Gorham missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and 5’5″ Adam Szklany got loose inside for a layup to give the Eagles a 42-35 edge with 2:20 remaining.

With 1:20 to go, Graves hit a 3 from the left corner – the Rams’ only 3-pointer in the game – to make it 42-38. After Nick Taylor made one free throw for Windham, Roy made it 43-40 on his bank shot.

Roy had a team-high 16 points for Gorham, 10 coming in the second half. Graves finished with 11, seven in the fourth quarter.

Save for Clemmer, no Eagle scored in double figures, though seven other players scored points. Millington said 10 of his players were battling the flu, with two major contributors dealing with severe cases.

“Nate Dixon and Andy Brix gave a noble effort, but they were dying out there,” Millington said. “They could barely give us any time. But we have a very deep team and a lot of guys gave us time. Nolan Allen, our freshman, had to play tonight and he didn’t back down. He went right at them. The guys manned up when they needed to.”

Gorham, which returned no starters from last year’s squad, began the year 0-6, but played .500 ball the rest of the regular season to earn a playoff spot in Josh Longstaff’s first year as coach. The Rams graduate four seniors from the roster: Ben Moody, Doug Woods, Ron Verrill and Luke Sieferth.

“You’ve really got to give them credit for the way they battled,” Millington said. “They’re a 6-12 team, but they don’t play like it. They play very hard, and that’s a tribute to the kids and the coach.”

The Windham-Westbrook quarterfinal will be a rematch of last Friday’s regular-season finale, when the Blue Blazes held on for a 55-51 home win behind 25 points from Nich Jobin and 11 from Dominic Borelli. Clemmer paced the Eagles with 24 points. Westbrook won 41-38 when the teams met in Windham in early January.

“Third time’s a charm,” Millington said. “We’ve had two really good wars with them. They’re a fantastic team, very well coached and they’ve got some great players.”