AUBURN – A smidgen of offense was all it was going to take, and for less than two minutes in the third quarter Tuesday night, the Lewiston girls’ basketball team had it.

The Blue Devils strung together 10 straight points in one minute, 31 seconds. It turned a one-point lead into a 38-27 advantage that held up in a 54-41 victory over Edward Little.

“We got it moving, and that was the difference,” said Lewiston coach Jim Hood. “We’ve still got a ways to move ourselves along. If we play aggressive like we did in the third quarter, we made some big baskets. We didn’t throw the ball away. We had 14 turnovers in the first quarter, and you can’t throw the ball around 14 times and expect to be ahead.”

EL (0-2) never recovered from that Lewiston surge. EL got as close as 46-40 in the fourth on back-to-back baskets by Kelsey Nicolas, but free throws by Tracy Bradley, Danielle Willey and Caitlin Anthoine padded the lead down the stretch.

“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well,” said EL coach Jim Ladd. “We’ve been struggling offensively in the last three or four games. We scored 60 in the preseason and now we have all we can do to score 40. We have good shooters and people that can score, but right now, we’re not putting the ball in the net.”

Kelsey Varney led Lewiston (1-1) with 20 while Bradley finished with 10. Nicolas led EL with 15.

“Varney’s a good player, and she was the difference” said Ladd. “I told the kids that Bradley and Varney are the keys. If we can limit their good shots we can play with them.”

Both teams had struggled to find some consistency on offense in the first half. There were four ties and numerous lead changes. EL tied the game, 25-25, early in the third on a Nicolas basket. Varney followed with 3-pointer with 5:37 left. After an Ashley Gaylord basket, Lewiston ran off 10 straight.

Lewiston’s defense tightened up and took advantage of EL miscues. It gave the Blue Devils running game the fuel it needed to spark the decisive surge.

“They tried skipping and moving up top, and we overplayed it a few times,” said Hood. “We did alright with it and got the steal out of it that we wanted.”

Willey started the run with a jumper. Varney then converted a steal and drew a foul. She missed the free throw, but put back the rebound for a 34-27 lead. Alison Coleman hit a jumper, and Allison Morin scored on a steal to give the Blue Devils an 11-point lead.

“They were more aggressive than we were in the second half,” said Ladd. “Their intensity really picked up. We didn’t box on people on foul shots. It was little things like that that we’re not doing.”

A 3-pointer by Kate Dargie early in the fourth was part of a 7-2 run that got EL within 46-40 with 1:09 left.

“We’ve got to start playing a little bit better on the defensive side and get a lot better on the rebounding side,” said Hood. “If we do that, I think we’ll be okay.”