AUBURN – Some wins are sweeter than others. Two such wins in the same season can become addictive.

Edward Little has probably seen all it wants to see of Bangor this season, but sweeping the season series with the Rams is worth savoring, especially with the history the Red Eddies have had with the perennial Eastern Maine power.

“After losing to them last year, especially in the Eastern Maine finals, beating a team as good as Bangor twice in one year, especially on your home court, is always a good thing,” EL’s Corey Therriault said.

Therriault scored 18 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and added nine rebounds and four steals to send EL to a 60-51 decision Friday night.

The Rams (9-5) had won seven in a row since falling to the Eddies, 50-46, two days before Christmas. They held opponents to little more than 35 points per game, so EL knew it was going to have to earn everything it got Friday night.

Yet, save for a little rust, the offense seemed to be flowing pretty smoothly through the first three quarters, as the Eddies shot a steady 53 percent from the floor to open an 11-point lead.

Then a cold snap to start the fourth quarter (1-for-8) allowed Bangor to crawl back into it. Cal Winchester, the Rams’ seventh player off the bench, scored a conventional three-point play and a 3-pointer from beyond the arc to start the quarter. Exactly three minutes later, Clark Noonan (team-high 11 points off the bench) hit a bank shot to give the Rams their first lead since midway through the second quarter.

Yusuf Iman, EL’s starting point guard, re-entered the game immediately, and perhaps not coincidentally, the offense began to click again.

“We needed to get into some more sets and be a little more patient and run our offense a little bit better,” EL coach Mike Adams said. “That’s one of Yusuf’s strengths and he did a good job with that.”

After a James Philbrook free throw tied the game, Therriault gave the Eddies the lead for good with a foul-line jumper with 2:27 to go. Iman then set up Sean Daigle inside for a hoop and later found a cutting Philbrook (11 points) for two that made it 55-49 with 52 seconds remaining.

“I was just trying to push the tempo a little bit, try to get us a fast break. That’s what we were doing in the first half,” Iman said. “I wanted to get in there and get our offense going.”

“Yusuf always brings energy to the court,” Therriault said. “He pushes the ball and finds his teammates in transition.”

The Eddies were able to get into their transition more because they held Bangor without a field goal after Noonan’s bucket.

“We didn’t want to get into a halfcourt game with Bangor. They’re too fundamental, too structured and too well-coached,” Adams said. “We’re not that run-and-gun team we were (last year), but we’re still scoring in the 60s most nights because our defense is causing stuff and we’re still able to push the basketball.”

The Red Eddies (12-2) hadn’t played since beating Brewer last one week earlier, and the layoff showed in the form of 14 first half turnovers. A pair of 3-pointers by Nate Frazier gave the Rams a 19-15 lead early in the second quarter. But Dominique Bailey and Iman (six points each) sparked a 9-0 Eddies run to give them a 24-22 lead at the half.

Therriault went off for 12 points in the third quarter as EL appeared to be pulling away. Iman found him on the break for a layup to make it 35-26, then the lead went into double digits for the first time when Bailey saved his own offensive rebound from going out of bounds to Bo Leary, who laid it in to make it 38-28. Leary helped increase the margin to 11 at the end of the third with a nice tip-out to Therriault for a wide-open 10-footer along the baseline.