PORTLAND – Moments after losing to Cheverus in Monday’s Class A West regional final, Bonny Eagle senior guard Steven Simonds was self-effacing as he looked back on his four years with the Scots.

“I played well (throughout my career), but I could have played better. It’s sad looking back after all that. It’s kind of disappointing,” he said.

While the pain of the loss was still fresh Monday, it can hoped that in the coming days and weeks, as the pain of such a close defeat begins to fade, that the co-captain may come around to another opinion.

Simonds has nothing to be disappointed over, and everything to be proud of. Despite the way it ended, this was one heck of a great year for Bonny Eagle boys’ basketball, and the finale to a stellar career for Simonds, who averaged 11.9 points per game this season, and was one of the deadliest snipers from outside in Western Class A.

“These are great kids,” said Bonny Eagle Head Coach Phil Bourassa of his senior class. “They kept this team together. They were the glue. Every single one of them has just an unbelievable personality. (And I am struck by) just what a bunch of great kids they are. It has been a great pleasure being their head coach for two years and as an assistant before that.”

There were signs of what a power this team would become right from the first game. The Scots were down 10 at halftime at Deering back on Dec. 10, but rallied with 11 straight in the third for a 44-41 win. It was the start of a three-game winning streak for the Scots, who began the year 7-2. Good, but not nearly as good as they would become.

“In our first game of the season just starting off at Deering, we were down 10 points to them at the half, and then we came back to win it,” said Bonny Eagle senior center Levi Meggison. “We knew going into that game that they were a top competitor, so when we won, we knew that we were going to be a top competitor as well.”

But the real turning point of the season, the game that gave the Scots the energy, the drive and the will to be the No. 2 team in the West, was actually a loss. Bonny Eagle traveled to Sanford on Jan. 17, and was tied with the Redskins with just four seconds left when Sanford’s Jon Schroder hit a jumper off an inbounds pass to lift his team to victory.

“After that game against Sanford, when Cole (Libby) broke his finger, I was like ‘oh, jeez,’” said senior forward Jeff Amell. “But we put it together after that. We won 11 straight games, and we played (Cheverus) as hard as we ever have. So I think the season was as good as we could have done.”

“After that loss to Sanford – losing on a last second shot – we knew after that we just did not want to lose again,” added Meggison.

And they didn’t lose again in the regular season. Bonny Eagle wouldn’t sip from the bitter brew of defeat for a month and a half. During that time, they wracked up victory after victory, bowling over playoff teams like Portland, South Portland and Westbrook twice. It wasn’t until the Stags barely escaped in the final seconds on Monday night that Bonny Eagle’s momentum came to a halt. Until that point, they seemed like an unstoppable force.

But, as fate would have it, they were stopped. And now Bourassa has the unenviable task – shared by nearly all coaches across the league every year – of sorting out what to do for next season. He has powerful junior guard Cole Libby back, and, what’s more, perhaps the most dynamic and talented freshman in the state in Dustin Cole.

“He is a one-man press breaker,” Bourassa said. “There is no question; he is a phenomenal little player, and I am exited to see him progress. We’re excited about next year. But there is a lot of work to do in the offseason.”

Unfortunately, that work has come to an end for this senior class. They gave it their all, and – in the end – they came up four points short. But four points is just a drop in the bucket in what has otherwise been a monumental, spectacular season.

“We were a team that knew we were better than people thought,” Simonds said. “We were a team that we knew people were going to overlook. But we went places.”