AUBURN – Who says you can’t start at the top?

Nokomis jumped out to an 11-2 lead and connected on five three-pointers in the first half to lead the Warriors to a 45-28 win over Edward Little at The Heights Friday night.

It was the first official foray into Eastern Class A basketball for the Red Eddies and it came at the hands of the defending regional champions.

Both coaches acknowledged there were a lot of question marks. Both with their own teams and with their opponents.

“They knew as much about us as we knew about them,” said EL coach Jim Ladd. “We didn’t scout them and they didn’t scout us.”

It didn’t take long for the Warriors to take control. The visitors were able to build a 6-0 lead before the Eddies could post a basket.

Nokomis held an 11-4 lead after one quarter, with more than half the points coming from the long ball.

The Warriors continued the pressure on both sides of the ball as the lead continued to balloon. When Michelle Barden hit the three-pointer at the halftime buzzer (her third of the night), Nokomis led 30-11. Ladd, in his first season at the helm, prefers to look at the bright side.

“We won the second half scoring-wise,” said Ladd. “I think that’s important for the kids to know and we stressed that at the end of the game. That is a good basketball team. They are in your face and are very good defensively and that’s how they get to the state championship game.”

Edward Little, despite facing the full court press in the second half did win the scoring battle.

Junior forward Michelle Bernier tallied six of her eight points in the game in the final 16 minutes.

I thought our big people played particularly well at times,” said Ladd. “There are a lot of positives to build on. We had some positive things happen out there.”

“We made some progress of our own tonight,” said Nokomis coach Earl Anderson. “We didn’t make many foul shots in the second half and that would have helped. I thought we didn’t play as well defensively in the second half. We had a lot of lapses.”

Barden and Aimee Paradis paced Nokomis with 10 points each. In addition to Bernier, Lacey Barnies also recorded eight points for EL. Brittney French added seven.

“We know we have a lot of work to do,” said Ladd. “You’re talking two kids coming back from a 4-14 team. This was the first crack for a lot of these kids at the varsity level.”

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