PSAL SEMIFINALS: Lewis 58 – Midwood 49

Francis Lewis has been in this position before.

A year ago at this time, Lewis was on its way to Madison Square Garden to play perennial girls high school basketball powerhouse Murray Bergtraum in the PSAL girls final.

Francis Lewis lost that game to the eventual state champs.

Now they have a chance for redemption. Both Francis Lewis and Murray Bergtraum won yesterday to set up a rematch of the 2004 final.

“We know how good they are,” said Francis Lewis coach Michael Eisenberg after his team’s 58-49 win PSAL semifinal win over sixth-seeded Midwood at St. John’s. “We don’t have to tell them to be ready. The kids know the players. Now it’s just a question of ‘Are we good enough?’ ”

If you listen to Vionca Murray, the answer is yes.

“We’re gonna go in there and play hard,” Murray said. “We’re not going there to play. We’re going there to win.”

The second-seeded Patriots are going to have to play better than they did yesterday if they want to beat Bergtraum, who topped Lehman 64-43 in the other semifinal game.

Without improvement, “We don’t win,” Eisenberg said.

A favored Francis Lewis pulled out to a 10-point third-quarter lead over Midwood before floundering in the final period.

In the middle of the fourth, with starters Murray and Jessica Fuller mired in foul trouble, Midwood went on a 6-0 run to knot it at 45-45. But the Patriots were able to pull away with brilliant free-throw shooting, going 10-for-12 from the line in the final three minutes.

Diatiem Hill led Francis Lewis (15-0) with 14 points and Natalia Alexander added 12. Murray, the Patriots’ leading scorer coming into the game, had been battling a cold all week and finished with six points.

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Bergtraum’s Epiphanny Prince led all scorers in the second semifinal game with 25 points. Helena Sargeant added 11 points for the Lady Blazers.

For Lehman, Louvini Hayes scored 15 points and Shari Cordero had 14 points.