AUBURN – Even as Edward Little’s lead ballooned to 30 late in Tuesday night’s boys’ basketball game with Leavitt, 350 or so Red Eddies rooters sat on the edge of their wood bleacher seats. Before long, even the Leavitt partisans would join them.

With every make or miss out of the 11 shots Joshua Titus took, the roar or groan replicated that which follows a last-second, game-deciding shot. For five emotional minutes, the Red Eddies senior team manager held a crowd captive in ways LeBron James or Kevin Garnett could never imagine.

Titus, who has high-functioning autism, suited up for Senior Night and scored nine points and collected two rebounds in Edward Little’s 63-38 victory over Leavitt.

It was a scene reminiscent of, and inspired by, Jason McElwain, the autistic Greece Athena High School team manager in New York who scored 20 points in four minutes during a 2006 game and became a national celebrity.

Titus entered the game to a raucous ovation 27 seconds into the fourth quarter with EL up by 25. Just 13 seconds later, he took his first shot, a 3-pointer from the top of the key which bounced off the right side of the rim and off the top of the backboard.

Just as every player is taught, Titus followed his shot, hauled in the rebound and put it back in. Edward Little High School gymnasium exploded.

“I felt pumped, and from there, it was teamwork,” Titus said. “I was wide open for every shot.”

He made three more shots, including a 3-pointer from the top of the key that sent the gym into another frenzy.

“You should see him in practice. He drains them all the time,” Edward Little senior center Sean Daigle said. “We’ve been begging coach to put him in some other games. I’m so happy that they let him play with the varsity.”

Unlike a lot of kids playing their first game, Titus never looked lost on the court. He even showed he knows some of the tricks of the game when he tried to sell a charge by falling to the floor on some minimal contact.

“It’s called playing good defense, which is one of my strengths,” he said.

Leavitt’s players, who joined in the standing ovation Titus received when he was introduced before the game, gave him the room, and the moment.

“For (Leavitt coach) Mike (Hathaway) and his staff from Leavitt to do what they did was really cool,” said Adams, who had discussed with Hathaway his plan to play Titus the day before. “It was the epitome of class.”

“It was pretty cool. Good for him,” Hathaway said. “I told our kids that was something that’s bigger than us. My wife works with autistic kids every day, so I have a little insight on how that goes, and it’s a good send-off for him.”

Yusuf Iman substituted for Titus with 1:50 remaining in the game. Teammates mobbed him as he jogged to the bench while soaking in yet another standing ovation.

EL athletic director Dan Deshaies and coach Mike Adams discussed the idea of having Titus play in a game as far back as last year. Adams told him Monday that he would be in uniform, and if game conditions permitted, on the court for the Eddies last home game. Titus kept it a secret from his parents, Andy and Carolyn.

“He just kept saying,

‘You have to come to the game,'” said Carolyn.

“He was so excited, bouncing off the walls but he wouldn’t tell Mom what he was bouncing off the walls over,” Andy said.

“I just wanted them to be surprised,” said Joshua, who wants to study to be an accountant. “I was very excited because every Senior Night is a memorable night for the senior class.”

Titus isn’t a stranger to athletic competition. He has run cross country and track since middle school. But more than anything, he bleeds maroon-and-white. Even when he isn’t competing, he’ll go to games and meets to cheer for the Red Eddies.

“This punctuates all that Joshua is. He’s always been a team player,” Andy said. “He’s won the school spirit award every year, freshman year all the way up through. In middle school, it was the same way.”

Titus embodied more the just school spirit Tuesday night.

“I’ll never forget this night,” he said, “and the whole EL team will never forget this night, either.”