That balance has fueled an undefeated start for the Auburn-based Red Eddies that continued Thursday night with a 67-49 victory over Bangor in their Class AA North encounter at Red Barry Gymnasium.
Junior forward Darby Shea and senior guards Jarod Norcross-Plourde and Samatar Iman each scored 17 points for coach Mike Adams’ club, 10-0 on the season, and five different Red Eddies had at least three assists as Edward Little totaled 20 assists for its 25 field goals.
“I liked the balance in the scoring having three guys with 17,” said Adams, whose team moved to the top of the AA North standings last month after scoring the Portland trifecta with consecutive victories over Deering, Cheverus and defending state champion Portland.
“We moved the ball well, and we’ve said all along that our strength is as a unit, not as individuals. When we play together we’re pretty good,” he said.
Sophomore guard Damien Vance paced Bangor (2-7) with 15 points, freshman guard Henry Westrich scored 12 points, and senior center Ian Nagle added 11.
Coach Carl Parker’s Rams are in the middle of a brutal stretch of their schedule with homecourt losses to Portland and Edward Little to be followed by road trips to Saco on Saturday to face Thornton Academy and to South Paris on Monday to play Oxford Hills — the four opponents in that stretch began Thursday night’s play with a combined 29-4 record.
Bangor’s first 11 shots against Edward Little all came from beyond the 3-point arc, and while just one of those shots went in, the Red Eddies made five of their first six field-goal attempts to build a 13-3 lead midway through the opening quarter.
Parker called his second early timeout, and the Rams soon began working the ball inside, with Nagle scoring three baskets to help rally Bangor within 17-13 by the end of the period.
But while Bangor struggled from beyond the arc, Shea was heating up.
Shea made four of his five 3-pointers for the game during the second quarter, helping Edward Little outscore Bangor 23-7 to take a commanding 40-20 halftime advantage.
Bangor used consecutive baskets by George Payne, Marc Hutchings and Vance to draw within 46-31 late in the third period but could not sustain the comeback as Edward Little countered with seven straight — including a 3-pointer by Iman and a spinning drive by Shea — to extend its lead back to 53-31 with less than seven minutes left in the game.
Edward Little finished the night 6-of-10 from beyond the 3-point arc and 25 of 46 from the field overall and limited Bangor to a 5-of-27 night from 3-point land and 20 of 55 overall — all while committing just eight team fouls in the game.
“Defensively we got after it pretty good,” said Adams.
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