AUBURN — Edward Little hadn’t played in a game in a while, and the Red Eddies were hungry.

That was bad news for a young Lewiston team that likely had some rivalry jitters to begin with.

Ashlee Arnold scored more points by herself — 19 — than the entire Lewiston team did all game, hitting four 3-pointers along the way, and Kory Norcross added 16 as EL raced past Lewiston 68-18 in an early-season KVAC showdown.

“I think the toughest thing for Lewiston is that we had only played one game in 14 days,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “We’re just sick of practicing, and we just came out on fire. We just came out with it being a combination of our rival, and just wanting to play, and then the kids that we brought off the bench, they played just as hard.”

The EL starters established themselves early. Two buckets in the first minute prompted Lewiston coach Mike McGraw to burn a timeout early. Another few baskets forced McGraw to take another, and by the time 5:05 had expired in the opening frame, the host Eddies led 18-0.

“All I know is we can play better,” McGraw said. “We have to be better than we were defensively, and we have to pass the ball more crisply.”

The Blue Devils’ careless passing led to nearly 20 Edward Little steals on the game.

“What I really loved is how hard we played, especially defensively,” Jipson said. “We’re young. We start a couple of sophomores and a freshman, and we’re going to have some growing pains in our fair share of games, too.”

EL led 20-2 after the first quarter, and held the Devils to just a free throw in the third in building a 38-3 advantage.

The Eddies opened the third on an 11-0 run and ran the lead to as many as 55 points in the fourth quarter before some of the Lewiston players began hitting their shots. Kayla Hamel led Lewiston with a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth and finished with a team-high seven points.

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