PORTLAND — Not sure if the Shrine Circus will usher its elephants, tigers and leopards, oh my, into Cumberland County Civic Center this spring. But it was easy to get a kink in your neck Saturday night scouring the premises for the guy with the shovel.

Because something stunk in here.

On the surface, Cheverus’ 56-51 win over Edward Little for the Class A boys’ basketball championship wasn’t the ol factory offense.

Take nothing away from the Stags. They led this one by 19 points before Auburn’s Chris Camire was done clearing his throat after a brilliant bang-out of the national anthem. Cheverus’ size and quickness gave EL fits. It unleashed a record fusillade of 3-pointers, giving Griffin Brady, Louis DiStasio and Peter Gwilym the opportunity to prove that the purple-and-gold were anything but a one-man team.

Sadly, however, this game, this tournament and this 2009-10 season will be remembered henceforth as a one-man show.

One that isn’t even over yet.

And that isn’t fair to anyone.

Just in case you flipped to Maine Public Broadcasting five minutes before tip-off after emerging from a three-month coma, or your home hasn’t been wired and equipped to receive Al Gore’s greatest invention this side of global warming, here’s the skinny:

Cheverus’ co-captain is a 6-foot-3, senior guard named Indiana Faithfull. ‘Round these parts, some spit and sneer before muttering the “senior” part of that equation.

Faithfull has unteachable court cleverness, a feathery jumper with limitless range, a deadly first step off the dribble and an unselfish streak six miles wide.

He also allegedly carries a transcript that says he completed one high school equivalent semester in his native Australia before his four years at Cheverus, which made him ineligible when February’s calendar page saw the light of day.

Ineligible, due to a clear violation of the Maine Principals’ Association rule restricting high school athletes to eight consecutive semesters.

Cut. And. Dried.

Well, not exactly. Faithfull’s family took the issue to Superior Court, contending that the MPA’s rule discriminated against him on the basis of his national origin. Justice Joyce A. Wheeler issued a restraining order allowing him to participate in Cheverus’ three regional tournament wins.

The MPA’s appeal wasn’t heard in the week leading up to the state final, either, furnishing Faithfull’s opportunity to unleash a season-souring assault on the Red Eddies.

Faithfull erupted for 23 points, scoring 10 of the Stags’ 17 in a frantic first quarter and seven of 10 to seal it in the fourth. His distribution dropped the ball into Brady, DiStasio and Gwilym’s hands for countless open 3s. His sticky fingers seemed to strike just in time, every time, short-circuiting one of EL’s many second, third and fourth-quarter surges.

Great high school player. Projects himself as a great kid. Probably the victim of an honest mistake by Bob Brown, his coach and one of the best Maine has ever known.

None of which makes it right.

Wondering where the universal indignation is. If you pluck a few blades of the surprisingly visible grass outside and toss it up to see which way the wind’s blowing, the statewide objection to a redshirt college freshman leading his team to a state title is 50-50, at worst.

Perhaps it’s a sign of how permissive our society has become, or how easily swayed we are by someone’s image. Thirty years ago, the only sympathy for Faithfull and Cheverus’ plight would have been confined to a two-mile radius surrounding its Ocean Avenue digs.

You don’t have to be an old-timer to remember Travis Mayo, a Winthrop star who turned 20 in the middle of the Western Maine tournament in 1984. The MPA’s rule again post-teens was clear. Mayo sat.

My own high school baseball team missed out on a tournament berth because we won four games one season before somebody discovered that one of our senior outfielders repeated his freshman year after withdrawing from a parochial school. There’s no crying in baseball. There were no appeals. Games were forfeited.

Now, it’s always somebody else’s fault. Not the family’s. Not the school’s. The big, bureaucratic MPA is everybody’s easy target. Putting fairness to everyone else ahead of disputed fairness to one player and one team is a thankless job.

But it goes beyond basketball. Nobody ever gets dismissed on merit any longer, do they? Hell, no. Call in the civil liberties lawyers and hold everyone hostage with threats and intimidation.

Never mind common sense.

Never mind the 5,000 fans who paid up to $7 per fanny to survey the action across a level, albeit temporary court in this (for now) hockey arena.

Never mind Edward Little, which earned the right to play for a state title against a school operating under the same rules.

Never mind Cheverus, which might not want to believe it now but just won a ninth Gold Ball that will shimmer a little bit less brightly than the others.

Or did it? Sadly, this thing’s still in limbo. Unless the MPA drops its appeal (please, no, if only on principle), this state championship presumably could be overturned by a judge’s gavel in a week or a month.

Talk about a stench.

Keep the clothespins handy.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist. His email is [email protected].