AUBURN — Emily Grund figured playing point guard might be in her future.

The junior guard just wasn’t planning on it being her immediate future.

“I kind of knew for next year that it might be the kind of role I would be stepping into, but I’m a little surprised that it happened a little sooner than I expected,” said Grund.

The future is now for Grund and her Red Eddies. The second-seeded Edward Little girls’ basketball team takes its first major test tonight after a crash course in dealing with adversity. While cruising along to a second-seeding in Eastern A, the title-hopeful Red Eddies were dealt a severe blow. Their captain, point-guard and likely Miss Maine basketball candidate, Kirsten Prue, was deemed out for the season because of a foot injury. EL has had to regroup and rebuild its hopes ever since.

“For me, I had to jump into the role of the point guard,” said Grund. “It’s a much bigger mental and emotional role. The whole team is coming together a little more and working as hard as ever trying to push through.”

Teams like Oxford Hills (Megan Joyce) and Messalonskee (Arianna Perry) lost key starters this season but have had most of the year to adjust and compensate. EL only learned of Prue’s injury a few weeks ago and lost four out of its last five games.

“It’s been hard,” said senior forward Kayla Cummings, who along with Prue is a KVAC First Team all-star. “Our keys have kind of changed from being a more offensive team to fine tuning defensively. We’re getting there definitely. Every day in practice and in games, we’re making lots of progress.”

This was a year that EL’s depth and balance of talent was expected to be a key factor in its success, but not like this. EL has a solid post game with Cummings, Crissy Lewis and Dawna Daigle. With freshman Ashlee Arnold’s addition to the perimeter, EL also has threats on the outside. Prue has always been the court general that has orchestrated what EL did offensively. She handled the double teams with her deft passing skills. If she wasn’t knocking down key shots, she was making the right pass to the open player. Without her, EL misses her execution, her skills and her leadership.

“We were 30-4 in Kirsten’s last 34 games and we’ve gone 1-5 without her,” said EL coach Craig Jipson, whose team has just two seniors. “I also think it’d be easier for them to take if we were getting blown out, but in none of the games have we been blown out. They’ve got that mentality that we’re good enough to be right there, but now it’s a major change.”

Grund has taken on a larger role handling the ball. So has freshman Kate Sawyer, who also plays the point. Handling the press and getting the ball distributed has become more of a factor for EL than it ever was with Prue in the back court. EL also has to find ways to execute offensively, whether it be feeding the post or setting up quality shots from the outside.

“It’s been a struggle, but every practice and every game without Kirsten we’re learning to do it without her,” said Grund. “We miss her a lot on the floor and off the floor, but I think we’ve gotten better with each game. ”

EL averaged 55 points before Prue’s injury and have scored 36.8 since. They not only lost Prue’s 15 points per game but her ability to make players around her better. Her absence has also meant that more EL players are seeing time they hadn’t gotten previously. It has made for a lot of catching up and learning as EL geared up for tourney time.

“Kirsten’s presence on the floor provides so much confidence for all of us,” said Cummings. “We just have to find that ourselves and get into a rhythm. We all have enough talent to definitely get it done, but we have to find that within ourselves.”

EL plays Friday against seventh-ranked Hampden, which lost to EL 46-33 in the regular season. The Broncos went 5-13 last year and are 1-5 against the Eastern A field. Hampden, led by KVAC North Second Team pick Julia Snyder, doesn’t have the tourney experience EL has. It could be a beneficial matchup for a revamped EL squad.

Despite the adversity, EL has held tough. In their first game without Prue, EL lost to Messalonskee, 47-41. That was after losing to the Eagles 45-40 at home earlier in the year. They lost to Oxford Hills by two, after beating the Vikings only by one. Losses to Morse (48-40) and Mt. Ararat (35-31) were also close.

“We keep knocking on the door of everyone,” said Cummings. “We haven’t gotten blown out by anyone. The fact that we’re right there just lets us know that we have just one more little hump to get over before we get to the tournament.”

While many expected EL’s demise to soon follow, the Red Eddies shrugged off any such thought. They’ve worked hard to prepare themselves for the tourney and want to be ready to prove themselves. They know tonight is their ultimate chance.

“We’re still the No. 2 team, and people should be afraid of us, I think, ” said Grund. “The kids on our team, I don’t know of anyone that works harder. We have so much heart and everybody should be scared of us because of that. We have sometime to prove. We’re going to show them we haven’t missed a beat.”

Edward Little’s Ashlee Arnold, center, and Emily Grund listen to head girls basketball coach Craig Jipson talk about defensive plays during practice Thursday afternoon. The team has come up against adversity after loosing their captain, point-guard and likely Miss Maine basketball candidate, Kirsten Prue, because of a foot injury.