Monday couldn’t have been a much better day for the Bangor Christian School community.

The boys and girls basketball teams both won their regional playoff games, and starting guard David Chrisos woke up after spending the last four days in a drug-induced coma.

“When we went in this morning [8 a.m.], he’d regained consciousness and his eyes were wide open,” said Don Chrisos, David’s father. “He recognized me and I brought Gary [Colson] in, and he said, ‘How you doing coach?’ He wanted to know when our next game was.”

Colson was a little hesitant to answer, but after the nurse encouraged him to answer his leading scorer, he said this:

“It’s about three hours away David, but you don’t look like you’re in any condition to play,’ ” Colson recalled. “So he said, ‘I’ll be up and running soon.’ ”

Don Chrisos said his son is improving by leaps and bounds after being hospitalized with a bruised lung, a concussion and a cut to his head after he was involved in a car accident Thursday morning.

“The nurse was asking him all kinds of questions, like how old he was, where he went to school and where he lived,” Chrisos said. “She asked where Longmeadow Drive was and he said, ‘Oh, it’s right off Washington Street. You take a left at Calvary Baptist. I was like ‘Whoa.’ She asked him his positions in basketball and baseball and he answered everything.”

When asked if he was in any pain, David told his father he had an awful headache.

After answering all the nurse’s questions, David said he’d like to attend the Patriots’ semifinal game Thursday. Evidently he had no doubt his team would win, which it did with an impressive 79-54 victory over Washburn.

“Maybe he can, depending on the doctors,” his father said hopefully. “They might just as well say we have to take him home and put him to bed for a week. He’s the type of kid I’ll have to chain down, though. We’ll see what they say.”

Colson also was cautiously optimistic.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’d love to see him here, even if it was just for five or 10 minutes. It would be a great emotional injection for us.”

David’s teammates were understandably elated by the news of his improving condition. It certainly made it easier for them to play and focus on Monday’s game.

“It was quite evident right from the time of the accident what he would want us to do,” said senior center Pat McCleary, who has played with Chrisos for six years. “The guys on the team have known him for quite a long time and they know he doesn’t like to lose. … At all.

“If he could have, he would have gotten right up out of that bed and played with us. We had to win to make sure that maybe he could be with us on the bench Thursday.”

The players all wrote Chrisos’ number (34) on their sneakers, the cheerleaders painted it on their faces, and plenty of fans brought signs with Chrisos’ name and number on them. The team draped his home jersey over the first chair in its bench area.

Perhaps the biggest cheer of the game came during the player introductions, when Chrisos’ name was announced.

“He’s been a big part of our team all season and we wanted to make sure he stayed a big part, even if he couldn’t be here,” said tri-captain Matt Conley, who’s been Chrisos’ good friend since second grade. “He hates to lose, and knowing that made this a lot easier to do.”

Win one for Ordie

The Jonesport-Beals Royals knew they had their work cut out for them against annual tourney contender Central Aroostook of Mars Hill.

The 14-5 Panthers were deeper and had plenty of speed and athleticism to bring to bear against the big but much slower Royals, who didn’t even have a true point guard in the lineup.

What they did have, however, was some extra motivation supplied by head coach Ordie Alley, who has been struggling with health problems including a neuro-muscular autoimmune disorder called myasthenia gravis plus prostate cancer. He was receiving treatment to prepare for prostate surgery last March when he contracted pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator.

Players and fans alike are hoping Alley’s 34th season as the Royals’ head coach won’t be his last, but no one knows for sure.

“I wanted to win this for him,” said senior captain Alvin Beal. “That was my plan coming in because I don’t know how much longer he’ll be here and he’s a real good coach. I don’t know what to say about him. He’s just good.”

Beal delivered by producing a game-high 33 points and 20 rebounds in the Royals’ overtime win over the Panthers.

Alley was visibly shaking after the game, but blamed his illness for that rather than nerves.

“I’m not nervous. It’s not the nerves, it’s just this disease that causes me to shake a bit,” he said.

Alley was noncommittal when asked about his long-term future.

“I don’t have any plans right now. I’ll be back for the next game. I know that,” he said with a laugh. “I feel a lot better this year than I did last and I’ve coached every game except two this year.”

Last season Alley’s son Troy coached the team. Now with Ordie back with the team, Troy is at his side as assistant and junior varsity coach.

“Having Troy with me is a big, big help because he takes them on the long trips and practices and stuff,” Alley said. “He’s basically the same exact coach I am. He coaches the same way, we get along good, and he’s been quite a godsend to me.”

Final minutes meaningful

When Southern Aroostook High School coach Jon Porter put one of his captains, senior guard Holly Toothaker, into their Eastern Maine Class D quarterfinal against Woodland with 2:38 remaining, it was an inconsequential substitution in terms of the game’s outcome.

The game long had been decided in Woodland’s favor.

But it did mean a lot to Toothaker.

She had paid her dues for three years and become a starter for the first time this season only to be sidelined by a knee injury suffered against Ashland on Jan. 14.

When she returned to practice several weeks later, she reinjured her knee. She did play 20 seconds in the Lady Warriors’ 64-53 tournament prelim win over Central Aroostook of Mars Hill but hurt it again during a shoot-around.

“I was surprised when coach put me in today,” said Toothaker. “I didn’t expect to play at all. But I’m glad he did.

“I couldn’t move very fast,” added Toothaker, who will attend the University of Maine in the fall.

She now will take time off to rest the knee and said it should be OK with rest. She intends to play on the Southern Aroostook softball team this spring.