But the chance to make his first varsity start Friday night brought out the best in the 6-foot-1 junior guard, who scored 14 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter as the Red Eddies rallied past Bangor 67-62 at Red Barry Gymnasium.

“It was just adjusting to the refs and being able to get to the line,” said Iman, who made 11 of 15 free throws and added five rebounds and five assists. “Being more aggressive with the ball got me to the free-throw line more.”

Sophomore Darby Shea came off the bench to add 14 points, nine in the final period as EL outscored Bangor 26-13 over the last six minutes of play.

Junior Jared Norcross Plourde contributed 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Red Eddies.

“It was a game of runs,” said returning Bangor head coach Carl Parker after his first game on the Rams’ sideline since 1985, “and unfortunately they had the better run.”

Senior forward Justin Smith made 6 of 11 3-point tries while pacing Bangor with 24 points and eight rebounds. Senior point guard Ethan Dorman added 14 points, five assists and three steals and junior forward Peter Kemble worked the offensive boards to finish with 12 points and seven rebounds.

This marked the first game for both teams in the newly created Class AA under the five-class statewide format adopted by the Maine Principals’ Association last spring.

The fact that both teams fielded relatively inexperienced lineups led to a matchup of surges and counter surges between the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rivals.

“We’re both going to be better by the end of the year,” said EL head coach Mike Adams. “We both have kids that haven’t been varsity basketball players yet, but kids from each team stepped up and had really good games for this early in the year and the supporting players around them put those players in position to have good games.”

No one had a bigger game than Iman, whose older brother Yusef led EL to back-to-back Eastern A championships in 2009 and 2010 before going on to play at the University of Maine at Farmington.

“He’s shied away from offense a lot, and I’m trying to get him to be more aggressive,” said Adams. “I’ve actually said to him in practice that if you’re going to be our best player you have to be our best player all the time, not just in spots. He was slow to start tonight, I didn’t think he had 31 but he had the ball and he made things happen for us.”

Smith made four of his 3-pointers in the first half, including one to start an 11-3 run fueled by defensive pressure that gave Bangor a 29-24 lead at the break.

Another 3-pointer by Smith capped off a 7-0 run that gave Bangor a 45-39 edge entering the fourth quarter, but Edward Little amped up the pace of the game and induced seven Bangor turnovers over the final eight minutes of play while Iman and Shea provided the necessary late offense to rally the Red Eddies.

“I thought we were tight to start the game, even our veteran guys, but in the second quarter we settled down a bit,” said Parker. “The fact of the matter is maybe we got a little tired, too, but Mike’s kids also made free throws better than we did.”

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