“We’ve been playing with fool’s gold for a while, coming down and jacking up 3s. We haven’t gotten as many paint touches as we’d normally try to get,” Adams said.
The Red Eddies fell into that trap in the middle two quarters of Monday night’s rivalry game and gave Lewiston life late in the third quarter. Then the leadership of a couple of seniors and the electric athleticism of a sophomore pulled Edward Little out of it in the fourth quarter of a 56-39 win.
EL improved to 9-0, while Lewiston dropped to 1-8.
Four different Eddies reached double figures in scoring, led by sophomore Wol Maiwen with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Junior Darby Shea added 12 points and eight rebounds, while seniors Samatar Iman and Jarod Norcross Plourde chipped in with 11 points apiece.
“This is a great feeling,” Iman said. “This is our last time at home with Lewiston, and a great way to finish it off for our senior year. We had a great crowd today, so it was a fun game overall.”
Ibn Khalid led the Blue Devils with 15 points, seven rebounds and four steals, while Garrett Poussard added 11 points, six rebounds and three steals off the bench.
Lewiston trailed 19-6 after one quarter and 29-15 at halftime. But led by Khalid, the Devils came out re-energized for the third quarter and chipped away at the lead, getting as close as 32-24 when Khalid found Poussard for a hoop with 3:17 left in the period.
Edward Little shot 1-for-12 from beyond the 3-point arc for the night and turned the ball over five times in the first four minutes of the second half. Shea’s runner early in the third was the only hoop the Eddies made for more than seven minutes of the period.
“You can see what happens when you come down first-pass and take those shots, when you’re not making them,” Adams said. “We had seven assists in the first quarter and one assist in the second and third quarters. That’s not what we are.”
Iman reminded the Eddies they needed to go back on the attack with a spinning drive to the hoop that put the lead back into double digits with 51 seconds left in the third.
Norcross Plourde picked up where his fellow senior left off, scoring the Eddies’ first six points of the period inside. Iman followed with another drive to make it 42-26.
“We both drove to the hoop and took more inside shots,” said Norcross Plourde, who pulled down nine rebounds. “That’s what coach was preaching to us.”
Maiwen followed the seniors’ lead, scoring six of his eight points in the quarter after the Devils cut it back down to 10 with 2:57 left.
“They’re really good. That Maiwen kid is special,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “Their 1-3-1 (zone, with Maiwen at the top) bothered us for a little bit. We figured it out, though. I thought we got some decent shots and didn’t force many and they came out of it.”
“Overall, it was a good performance by both teams,” Iman said. “Everybody stepped up in the fourth quarter. Wol stepped up huge today.”
The teams combined to attempt 119 shots, and the large bi-partisan crowd added to the excitement.
It didn’t look like the Lewiston faithful would have much to cheer for after a poor start that included eight turnovers and 2-for-9 shooting in the first quarter.
The Eddies, meanwhile, came out aggressively on both ends — led by seven points and a couple of steals from Iman — to take a 13-point lead.
“Defensively, I was pleased with what we did,” Adams said. “We gave up 39 points and we defended. The Khalid kid is really, really good, and Madore is strong inside.”
“I’m proud of how hard our kids battled. They could have easily tucked their tails in after that first quarter and this game would have been over at halftime,” Farrar said. “I thought we defended better the last three quarters. We had some breakdowns, but overall the effort was consistent tonight.”
Maiwen earned the Gordon “John” Gillette award, given annually to the MVP of the game.
The rivals meet again in Lewiston on Jan. 31.
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