LEWISTON — Lewiston built a comfortable lead in the first half thanks to the scoring of Logan Flewelling, but slowly, Greely made the Blue Devils sweat a little bit in their Unified basketball quarterfinal on Thursday.

Greely cut a double-digit deficit into a single-digit Lewiston lead, but Flewelling did his best to make sure the Blue Devils advanced, and they did, with a 62-54 win to reach the Unified semifinals.

“We got a big lead and, as typical in Unified, we try to give everybody a chance,” Lewiston coach Bill County said. “All of a sudden I look up at the clock and we are up by five with a couple minutes left.”

Flewelling scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in the first half to give the Blue Devils a 37-24 halftime lead. He then scored a few quick baskets in the first couple of minutes to help Lewiston keep a 47-38 lead with about 14 minutes left in the second half.

Lewiston did a lot of the dirty work in the paint, grabbing rebound after rebound on both ends. Flewelling and the team were told to keep doing the little things down the final stretch.

“To get rebounds and move the ball out there and get steals,” Flewelling said.

Lewiston had built a strong lead, but Greely wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Nine different Greely players scored at least one basket, with Madison Conklin scoring a team-high 10 points.

Even though Lewiston was bringing down seemingly every rebound, Greely took advantage of the possessions they were able to get. With about 11 minutes remaining, Greely’s Emily Boudreau hit a baseline jumper to bring the Rangers within five points.

Lewiston’s Edwin Rivera grabbed three offensive rebounds and hit two layups within 1:20 of each other to keep the Devils just outside of reach. Their dominance down low was what set them apart.

Down 11 points, Greely went on an 8-0 run with 7:40 left in the game. Coleby Rose and Charlie Saffian each scored four points to make it 55-52 with 3:40 left.

That’s when Lewiston turned back to Flewelling to help ice the game. And ice it he did.

Flewelling hit a layup with 2:10 remaining, stole the ball and hit a free throw, and then finished with a layup with 20 seconds left to put the game away.

“Logan’s the real deal,” County said.

The Blue Devils had seven scorers Thursday. Breck Gagnon had 10 points and Za’Mond Smith, Owen Vincent and Rivera each chipped in six.

County’s son, Josh, scored a basket in the first half.

“It’s outstanding, I love the cooperation,” Bill County said. “My son gets a chance to play, he grew up with a coach his whole life, so for him and those kids to get an opportunity to play is so great. Those kids who are scoring those goals feel so good about them.”

Greely coach Derek Soule had a similar sentiment after the game.

“In Unified basketball, it’s more about the experience and the camaraderie,” Soule said. “The players, partners, watching them develop relationships. I could care less what the score is. I love playing Lewiston, I think we have similar philosophies because the scoreboard isn’t the highest priority.”

The crowd was loud and each school’s fans cheered, no matter the color jersey that scored.

“It’s a good crowd,” County said. “Once they come out and see it they get enamored with it and we get a lot of repeat visitors because of how cool a thing it is.”

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