LEWISTON — Proud as it was of its 4-1 start to the season, the Lewiston Blue Devils were looking for a signature win to close out 2011.

The Devils got it with a balanced offense, strong defense and by controlling the tempo throughout its 59-51 win over Brunswick on Friday night.

Shawn Ricker scored a game-high 14 points and Steven Patrie poured in 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds for Lewiston (5-1). More importantly, the Devils forced 21 turnovers and held Brunswick (4-3) to 32 percent shooting from the floor.

“It’s huge, especially beating a team that EL lost to,” Ricker said. “We were down, losing to EL (last Friday), but coming back tonight and beating Brunswick feels pretty good.”

“We haven’t beaten an elite team yet, and that’s an elite team,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said.

Lewiston never trailed after the midway point in the first quarter. It led by as much as 16 late in the third, then regrouped after some sloppiness led to nine fourth-quarter turnovers.

“Defensively, we like to pick it up, but on offense we forget, you know, turnovers are a bad thing sometimes,” Ricker said.

It didn’t hurt that Brunswick was playing its fourth game this week. The up-tempo Devils are the last opponent a team wants to see at the end of that kind of schedule, and the Dragons tired legs showed at the free-throw line (11-for-18, all in the second half) and 3-point arc (3-for-16).

“The game was a little faster pace than we wanted, but I thought we got some good looks at the basket,” Brunswick coach Todd Hanson said. “Lewiston took advantage of making shots. The real Achilles heel for us was turnovers. I thought in the fourth quarter what gave us a chance was we stopped turning the ball over.”

The Dragons whittled down the 16-point deficit to eight early in the fourth on Garrett Erb’s baseline drive. Patrie answered with a pair of hoops to inflate Lewiston’s lead back to 13.

Free throws by Ryan Black and Mitchell Black (14 points, 10 rebounds) pulled Brunswick within seven with two minutes left. But Donne Agossou found Corbin Hyde for a layup and Hyde made one-of-two at the line 13 seconds later to pump the cushion back up to double digits.

Nine of the 10 Blue Devils who played scored. They got a good mix of points in the paint from Patrie, Cody Mousseau and Jake Dumas, on the perimeter from Ricker and off penetration by Agossou (nine points).

“We’re a pretty balanced team. I think we’ve had a different leading scorer almost every game,” Farrar said.

The Devils took the lead for good when Patrie’s 3-pointer made 9-7 late in the first quarter. A trey from Ricker and putback by Dumas put the margin into double digits for the first time at 30-20, and the Devils led by eight at the half.

“We stopped their half-court offense, which is basically what they like to do, and then we ran the floor, which helped us a lot,” Agossou said

Brunswick managed just six points through the first six minutes of the second half as the Devils gradually expanded their lead. Half of those points came on a 3-pointer by Black that briefly pulled Brunswick within six two minutes into the half, but Corbin Hyde shut down the Dragons’ leading scorer from there, holding him without a field goal.

“I think Corbin’s probably the best defender in our league. It’s a privilege to play against him every day,” Ricker said. “He really discouraged Mitchell Black tonight.”