AUGUSTA — You don’t have to be a star, baby, to keep the Edward Little High School boys’ basketball team alive in this show.

The Red Eddies’ four-year run as an annual Eastern Class A title contender has been a marquee-driven endeavor. But suddenly there’s no Troy Barnies. There’s no Corey Therriault. At times, no James Philbrook, and even now the turf toe-stricken senior isn’t nearly the picture of health.

So how does EL keep winning here at Augusta Civic Center, where the Red Eddies chased away Mt. Blue, 59-44, in Saturday evening’s quarterfinals?

“I think we have a deeper bench than last year,” said senior Yusuf Iman, one of two returning starters from the team that won last year’s regional title. “This was a 12-man victory today.”

At the very least, it could be argued that the fifth, sixth and seventh men made the difference between a berth in the semifinals and a seat in the grandstands.

None shone more brightly for more meaningful minutes than freshman Quin Leary.

The third of his brethren to take this court in recent years, Quin might have been overshadowed by more seasoned sibling Bo, who coupled 14 points with 12 rebounds Saturday. But the younger Leary’s own eight points and five boards were dwarfed by what he did in Philbrook’s absence due to foul trouble.

“Nobody even has a clue what he meant to us defensively,” said EL coach Mike Adams, a former Maine Mr. Basketball at Mt. Blue who defeated his mentor and former coach Jim Bessey for the first time in a non-preseason game. 

Leary’s initial basket of the game gave EL its first lead, 10-9, to cap a critical run after Mt. Blue rattled off the first nine points.

Four fourth-quarter free throws also helped dull the Cougars’ roar.

“To score eight points off the bench in a game like this,” said Cody Nicholas, “that was huge.”

Nicholas conveniently and humbly omitted himself from that assessment. But it was the junior sixth man who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers late in the second quarter, transforming a tenuous Eddies lead into a 29-18 cushion at the break.

He scored his entire eight points in that period.

“Cody is the X-factor. I’ve been telling him that all season,” Iman said. “People aren’t expecting it from him, but he always comes up huge.”

Nicholas, who played only a few token seconds at the end of games during last year’s playoff run, traces his developing lack of a perimeter conscience to an early-season game against Mt. Ararat when Iman was out of the lineup.

“I started that night and had 10 points,” Nicholas said. “Early in the season I had really low confidence, but ever since then it’s gotten stronger and stronger.”

Iman was the quiet, sometimes forgotten starter for last year’s Eddies. In 2009-10, that distinction belongs to Timothy Mains.

“I really don’t shoot much,” said Mains, a slender, 5-foot-9 junior guard.

Mt. Blue wishes he didn’t let it fly at all. Mains cashed in a steal and layup late in the third quarter, then drained a 3-pointer to land EL’s opening haymaker of the final period.

EL’s bench outscored the Mt. Blue reserves, 16-9. The Eddies will require similar depth and balance in order to handle perennial nemesis Bangor on Wednesday.

“Those kids gave us just what you want out of your bench,” Adams said.

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