The Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks came into last week off two difficult non-league losses, but got back on the winning track against a pair of divisional opponents.

The Goldbacks dispatched the Pine Bush Bushmen for the second time in two weeks on Friday with an 84-42 win in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I boys’ basketball game at Newburgh Free Academy.

“This feels good,” Newburgh’s Elnathan Johnson said. “It’s better for the younger guys’ confidence coming up after the seniors. It’s good that they’re getting the experience.”

The Goldbacks came into last week having lost two non-league games the previous week to a pair of Section 2 opponents: Green Tech and Mekeel Christian Academy.

They got back on the winning track with a win over Middletown on Feb. 6 and followed that with Friday’s win over the Bushmen.

The win over Middletown – the Goldbacks’ second of the season – officially clinched their Section 9 Class AAA playoff berth with two of their toughest league games remaining.

“It was big for us,” said Johnson, who led the Goldbacks with a game-high 18 points. “Now that we’re in the playoffs, having a game like this where we have a lot of momentum and we’re just winning, the energy is up. That’s going to carry on.”

Jakari Lamb also scored 14 points for the Bushmen and Jaydan Lorenzo scored 14 in this third game back after being ruled eligible to play by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.

Jovani Ali led the Bushmen with 13 points and Robert Lawrence added 10.

“I thought we did pretty well,” Newburgh coach Jason McAllister said. “We had a little bit of a slow start, but we got it together. We’re just trying to focus on the things that we focus on in practice: advancing the basketball.”

The Goldbacks offense was clicking for most of the game as they put up 23 points in each of the first three quarters. They scored 20 points in the fourth.

McAllister said the Goldbacks were lifted by the bench.

“That’s important, not only for this year, but this gives us encouragement for next year,” McAllister said. “We have 13 kids on the team, we have nine juniors on the team.

Those guys who were in there for spot minutes and at the end of the game, they’re going to be the future of our program. All nine of them are great kids.”

However, the future is the subject matter for another time.

The Goldbacks finished the week with a non-league road game against the Arlington Admirals and headed right back to divisional play on Monday against the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders, the only team who owns a win over them.

They’re scheduled to finish the season on Monday with a road game against the Kingston Tigers.

“Those are going to be important games,” Johnson said. “They’re probably going to be our most important games because we only beat Kingston by a couple points, and Monroe beat us by a lot. Those are two important games for us.”