AUBURN — Through all the nail-biting and frayed nerves, Craig Jipson hoped there were some lessons learned in some of his team’s edge-of-the-seat victories earlier this season.

His Edward Little girls’ basketball team is 5-0 but has won four of those games by an average of less than five points. Those numbers are even exaggerated since the 10-point win over Bangor was a two-point game until the final minutes.

Jipson hoped all that would benefit his team Saturday against Lawrence.

“I told the girls that the best thing for us is that four of our five wins have been wicked close game, even the Bangor game,” Jipson said. “I told them at the half that this was going to come down to the buzzer. I thought being in close games was going to help us. That experience was big for us.”

In a battle of unbeaten, EL managed to fend off the Bulldogs, one of the preseason favorites in Eastern A, for a 46-44 win.

“It’s a huge win,” Jipson said. “Getting them at home, they’re a great team. Our kids took their best punch and stayed right there.”

EL got 12 points from Emily Jacques and nine from Kory Norcross. Eraleena Hairston and Brooke Reynolds each had eight. Lawrence got 19 from Nia Irving and nine from Paige Belanger.

“We didn’t play our game,” Lawrence coach John Donato said. “We were kind of panicky. When you only have one shot at these guys and it’s on the road, it’s tough. Two years in a row, we came down here. So the schedule wasn’t in our favor.”

Lawrence (3-1) struggled against a pesky EL defense. The Bulldogs couldn’t get a consistent offensive flow and turned the ball over 16 times in the second half.

“Defensively, I thought they did a good job,” Jipson said. “The press worked in spurts. They’re a tough team to press.”

EL struggled from the floor at times, shooting 5-for-19 in the third and 2-for-11 in the fourth. The Red Eddies were still able to score to maintain the lead and got some key defensive stops down the stretch.

“Before the game were were a little nervous,” said Jacques. “We saw their record and knew they were undefeated. We just got nervous but played through it.”

EL was up 39-35 entering the fourth, but Lawrence got within two points three times down the stretch. A basket by Brianna Soucy on a feed from Irving made it 41-39 with 3:47 left, but EL answered with a short jumper by Jacques with 3:18 remaining. Reynolds added a free throw soon thereafter to make it 44-39.

Lawrence got a shot jumper from Irving with 1:56 left. Then Soucy sank a free throw with 1:37 remaining to make it 44-42. The Bulldogs had a chance to tie it and had Irving isolated in the post on Jacques. The two sophomores went at it, but Jacques got a hand on Irving’s shot with 45 seconds left.

“I kind of know how she plays,” Jacques said. “I’ve played with her a lot. I just tried to stick with her.”

EL got the ball and Norcross was fouled. Her free throws made it 46-42.

Lawrence got a rebound basket by Irving on a Soucy shot with 31 seconds left. After two missed EL free throws, the Bulldogs had the chance to tie it. Without any timeouts, Lawrence brought the ball down. Reynolds got a hand on the ball to knock it out of bounds, leaving the Bulldogs with just three seconds left. Lawrence inbounded the ball but couldn’t get a quality shot.

“I didn’t have any more timeouts,” Donato said. “We came down and did what we wanted to do. We just didn’t get a good shot.”

EL opened a 16-11 lead in the first quarter. A basket by Hairston and a 3 from Tianna Harriman was part of a 10-4 run that finished the quarter.

In the second, Hairston was a spark off the bench with six points as EL had the lead up to 26-18 by halftime. EL maintained the lead, getting some baskets by Sarah Hammond and Karli Stubbs off the bench. Back-to-back baskets by Irving got it within 36-35, but EL finished the third with three points from Jacques to make it 39-35.

“Emily played phenomenal,” Jipson said. “She had some big rebounds and did extremely well.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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