LEWISTON — On paper, Saturday night at least harbored the potential for the most competitive Edward Little-Lewiston girls’ basketball game in years.

And in many ways, it was. Of course, on paper, nobody scribbled down the idea of Tianna Harriman and Kory Norcross combining for eight 3-pointers in the first half.

Most of those shots rained down from the corners. Many were uncontested. In concert, they drained the life from the Blue Devils early and sent the Red Eddies racing to a 64-29 KVAC victory.

“We have shot really well from the 3 all year,” Edward Little coach Craig Jipson said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We got off to a really good start, and then it seemed like we were on 18 points forever. Once we got over that, we got rolling a little bit.”

Harriman scored 19 of her game-high 21 points in the first half, connecting five times from beyond the arc. In addition to her 17 points, Norcross dished out nine assists.

Emily Jacques (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brooke Reynolds (10 points, 14 rebounds) each added a double-double for the Red Eddies (9-1), who bounced back from their initial loss of the season to Oxford Hills in resounding fashion.

Kristina Blais led the Blue Devils (2-8) with 14 points and four steals. Lewiston hit only two field goals after intermission and shot just under 19 percent from the field.

If you played the degrees-of-separation game, Lewiston’s early-season win over Oxford Hills was an indication that the Devils could hang with EL — No. 1 in Eastern Class A — after years of frustration and blowouts. And they did, particularly for significant stretches of the second and third quarters.

“We (coaches) just kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Are they going to miss one sometimes?’ They’re a good team, obviously, and both Kory and Tianna are up in the top of the league making 3s, so it’s not shocking,” Lewiston coach Mike Labonte said. “It seems like there’s something in the water on that side of the river that enables them to do that.”

EL exploded to an 8-0 lead on the strength of Reynolds’ long pass to Harriman for a layup and 3-pointers by Harriman and Norcross.

How sizzling was the symbiosis between EL’s guards? Norcross assisted Harriman’s first 3-pointer. Next, Harriman returned the favor. Six of the eight first-half bombs were the result of crisp passes from one to the other.

“We set screens to get open and looked for each other,” Harriman said. “It’s like if one (defender) was coming toward me, no one was on her.”

The Eddies used another 8-0 run late in the period to push the lead to double digits.

Norcross drained a 17-footer and then scored a conventional 3-point play to get it started. Harriman applied the punctuation with a 3-pointer for an 18-4 lead with 1:35 remaining.

“We got here early, and we got a lot of shots and a good warm-up,” Norcross said. “That’s what I liked about it.”

Lewiston whittled it to seven, 21-14, with Blais’ inside bucket on a feed from Laurianne Murphy at the 4:43 mark of the second. But five more 3-pointers, combined with Jacques’ basket in transition, inflated the Eddies’ advantage in a hurry.

Norcross hit from the corner just inside the halftime horn for a 37-17 cushion.

“I didn’t think we’d be as big a 3-point shooting team this year as we’ve been,” Jipson said. “Tianna and Kory, they shot very well.”

The Devils stopped the perimeter deluge in the second half, limiting the Eddies to one trey by Molly Murray.

Reynolds and Jacques were the beneficiaries, however, as EL asserted its dominion down low. Reynolds scored all 10 of her points after the break. Jacques scored nine in that span.

“Overall the girls feel like they can compete in 80 percent of the games,” Labonte said. “They didn’t miss anything, so when good teams don’t miss, guess what? You get beat by 30-something.”

Brie Wilson scored seven first-half points for the Devils. The Eddies kept her off the board thereafter.

“Lewiston’s got some really good players. They shoot the ball better than they shot it tonight,” Jipson said. “We just want to be playing our best basketball at tournament time. We have a lot of really, really difficult games left.”

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