AUBURN — The comfortable double-digit lead suddenly didn’t feel so comfortable.
After opening up the advantage Wednesday night, the Edward Little girls’ basketball team watched Brunswick close the gap to end the third.
It forced the Red Eddies to refocused for the final quarter, and that’s just what EL did in a 55-50 win over the Dragons.
“I was nervous, but we’re a team and we work hard together,” junior forward Brooke Reynolds said. “So I knew we were going to come out in the end.”
EL responded with a strong final quarter and built the lead back up to 13. The Red Eddies then held off Brunswick’s hopes for a rally to sweep the Dragons, ranked third in Eastern A.
“Brooke and Eraleena (Hairston) had huge baskets down the stretch,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “Losing Tatiana (Harriman), who’s an offensive threat, was really big. We didn’t hit some shots that we’ve been hitting.”
Emily Jacques led EL (11-1) with 15 points while Harriman had 13, including a trio of 3’s. She fouled out in the fourth. Reynolds had 12, including the first six of the game. Kory Norcross added seven, six of which came in the fourth.
Brunswick (7-5) got 25 from Lyse Henshaw. She had 13 in the final quarter. Madeline Suhr had 11 despite battling foul trouble and Gillian Dohering added nine.
It was the third straight loss for Brunswick, which played at Mt. Blue Tuesday night and are without guard and top-scorer Julia Champagne. She leads the KVAC in scoring with 22 points per game.
The Dragons had to manage without her and struggled at times with about 30 turnovers, but Brunswick settled in to give EL a bigger battle than it might have expected.
“With high school kids, a lot of things are emotional,” Jipson said. “The last time we played them, it was 67-66 and double overtime. We were ready for the Champagne kid. We were all fired up. I give credit to the Brunswick kids. They played really hard and played like they had nothing to lose.”
After building a 37-24 lead in the third, the Dragons rallied and were within 37-31. Doehring had five points during that stretch and Suhr put back a rebound to make it a six-point game. EL shot just 3-for-17 in the third.
Despite the let down in the third quarter, the Red Eddies wasted little time responding in the fourth. EL hit its first three shots and finished 6-for-11 while Brunswick missed its first five shots.
“I think we’ve learned from past year,” said Norcross. “So we focus on the certain flaws that we have. If we get down on ourselves, we know we need to make changes and work on it and come back stronger.”
Norcross hit a corner jumper to start the quarter. Then Harriman drilled a 3. Jacques followed with a fast break basket and the lead suddenly swelled to 44-31.
“Once we got those baskets, we weren’t as nervous,” Reynolds said. “We played like ourselves again.”
Henshaw wasn’t going to give in so easily though. She led the Dragon’s comeback and hit a pair of 3 to spark Brunswick. Suhr also hit a 3 that came after a Henshaw rebound and the Dragons were within 46-40 with 2:07 left.
Hairston scored on a pass from Reynolds to make it 48-40. The Dragons cut it to five points four times in the closing minutes, but EL got key baskets to maintain the lead. Reynolds scored on a rebound and Norcross hit four free throws down the stretch to thwart the Dragons’ hopes.
“They shot the ball really well,” said Jipson of the Dragons. “We were not doing a good job defending their 3-point shooters.”
EL had an early six-point lead but Brunswick was within 12-9 after the first. The Red Eddies opened the lead in the second. EL did a better job defending the perimeter shot and rode the hot hand of Jacques, who scored 10 points in the second. She had six points during a 10-0 run that made it 28-13. A Henshaw 3 cut it to 28-16 at the half.
Baskets by Henshaw and one from Kolby Levesque got Brunswick within 10 early in the third, but Jacques fed Hairston for a hoop. Then Harriman hit a jumper and Norcross sank a free throw to make it 37-24 late in the third. EL would then go nearly three minutes without scoring as Brunswick surged from behind to end the third.
kmills@sunjournal.com
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