Mt. Blue senior Ryan Backus’ tournament experience last year was a painful one. A MRSA infection in his foot limited his effectiveness and the Cougars got upset in the semifinals. This year, Backus is healthy and hoping to lead the Cougars to a quarterfinal upset over Edward Little Saturday.

FARMINGTON — Walking onto the Augusta Civic Center floor is supposed to be one of the best moments of a high school basketball player’s life. It isn’t supposed to be one of the most painful.

The last time Ryan Backus left the Civic Center, he was on crutches. He entered the building hours earlier in the same fashion. The 90 minutes he spent in between, on the court, were some of the most excruciating of his young life.

An infection in his foot limited Backus’ effectiveness and, combined with some other illnesses on the team, led to Mt. Blue being upset by Lawrence in the Eastern A semifinals.

“Before the game, they thought it was just some bone injury, but it ended up being MRSA (an antibiotic-resistant staph infection),” Backus said. “It was painful. It was so swollen. It barely even fit in the shoe.”

He missed two games this season with a recurrence of the infection, but now he is healthy and eager to jump in with both feet for what might be his toughest test so far this season, battling against Edward Little’s outstanding frontcourt of James Philbrook and Bo Leary in tonight’s Eastern A quarterfinal (5:30 p.m., Augusta Civic Center).

A little over 6-foot-2 and lanky, Backus is more of a finesse player than most of the big men he faces. But he more than holds his own in the paint against players who are three or four inches taller and 15 or 20 pounds heavier.

“He has great instincts, great reflexes, a surprising quickness and very long arms,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey said. “He’ll get to balls that other people won’t and he rebounds very well.”

An all-conference quarterback last fall, Backus was the sixth-leading rebounder in the KVAC this year and is an excellent defender. But with the Cougars changing their style this year to get more points from their frontcourt, they also needed more offensive production from him. He ended up being their leading scorer, but it took some time to pull him out of his offensive shell.

“I won’t say he was reluctant (to score) at first, but he didn’t step up aggressively to do that,” Bessey said. “I think the first two games he took three shots.”

Backus admitted he got caught waiting for a talented sophomore class, led by center Cam Sennick, to emerge. He focused on taking more of a vocal leadership role at first, but then a talk with Bessey reminded him he needed to back up his words with action. 

“I knew they needed some time to figure it out, so definitely having a more vocal role was my job,” said Backus, who has applied to West Point but is also considering Maine Maritime, where he would like to continue playing basketball. “(The scoring) came a few games into the season when I was told if I wanted to be more of a team player, I needed to be less of a team player by shooting the ball.”

Bessey said it hasn’t been hard to get Backus to assert himself since then.

“What you see with him, kind of reserved, is just about what you get,” he said. “But he has this look in his eyes when it comes game time that makes it clear to you he is a competitor.”

Bessey expects to see that look again Saturday night. 

“The game before his foot infection (a quarterfinal win against Morse), he had 22 rebounds. He’s played well in Augusta both as a sophomore and as a junior,” Bessey said. “So if he has a breakout game, that would be something that might give us a shot at those Red Eddies.”