AUBURN — Edward Little High School’s senior class, at long last, has its first victory over Hampden Academy.
Since seventh grade, when the Broncos’ now-senior class was dishing out lopsided wins over Edward Little, the Red Eddies’ seniors had never been on the winning side of a matchup with Hampden. That streak ended Monday.
The Red Eddies got their revenge and it was six years in the making. Kaleb Main, Elijah Roe and Mileikis all finished in double figures and Edward Little never trailed in its 69-54 victory over Hampden. The icing on the cake was it made Edward Little coach Mike Adams a winner on his birthday.
“Our kids had never beat them,” Adams said. “Never. They handled us pretty easily on their gym. It felt good to play well tonight and not back down from a very good opponent.”
Edward Little (14-1) found its scoring touch early. It took the Red Eddies just over six minutes to build a double-digit advantage, one they’d hold for the majority of the first half. A 3-pointer by Main made it 16-6 with 1:38 remaining in the first quarter.
The Red Eddies drained seven 3s in the first half and led by as many as 17 at 36-19 with 1:17 left in the half after Roe banked in a trey. It capped a 9-2 run.
“We just came in with a lot of energy and they came at us, but we hit them right back,” Mileikis said. “We played as a team.”
Edward Little led 36-25 at the break.
The Red Eddies were 0-for-3 from long range in the second half, but they exchanged the long ball for high-percentage shots in the paint. Roe scored back-to-back buckets in close to start the second half and Main added another for a 42-28 lead.
The teams traded baskets throughout the quarter, with Hampden’s Nick Gilpin twice cutting the Broncos’ deficit to nine. The Broncos were within 48-39 after three, but couldn’t get the stops it needed in the fourth.
“I don’t know if we had hardly any back-to-back stops tonight,” Hampden coach Russ Bartlett said. “I thought one time in the fourth quarter we did and we took three poor shots trying to get back in the game. We just needed to make a really great possession and take a good shot. If those shots go in, obviously, it cuts into the lead quickly, but the quality of the shots were low when it needed to be a high-quality shot.”
Gilpin netted a game-high 19 points.
The Red Eddies opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run, with Roe and Main again supplying the baskets. When the Broncos cut the lead to 54-46, Roe and Main came up with another timely 6-0 run to stretch the advantage back to 14. The Broncos (12-2) never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
“We’ve never beat them in my time, but we worked hard for this and it’s a really good feeling,” Main said.
Main finished with a team-high 16 points. Roe had 15 and Mileikis added 14. Jensen and Charles Cedre chipped in nine each. Edward Little’s depth helped answer any run Hampden could muster, Adams said.
“Hampden, usually when they make a run like that you’re like, ‘Oh shoot here it comes,’ but different guys stepped up at different points,” Adams said. “Luke Sterling had a nice drive to the basket and Mileikis had a nice putback, Elijah Roe had a nice putback. Charles and Thomas Cedre came in the first half and hit some huge threes for us, so teams can’t focus on one or two guys. If we play well together we’re going to be pretty good.”
The Red Eddies won the battle on the glass in a big way. Jensen missed a double-double by one point, grabbing 13 rebounds to go along with his nine points. Edward Little pulled down 37 rebounds — 13 on the offensive end, many leading to putbacks. The Broncos had 18 rebounds, with just a handful on the offensive glass.
“I thought they were men on the glass tonight and we looked like boys out there,” Bartlett said. “To have any chance you have to keep them off the glass. They dominated us on the glass tonight.”
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