AUBURN — With three minutes remaining in regulation, Edward Little found itself down by six points to a Lewiston team that had already defeated it earlier in the season. 

It was senior night at Edward Little High School, so of course the Red Eddies turned to their seniors to help force overtime and later pull away for a 64-59 victory over the Blue Devils.

“They contributed the way they have for four years,” EL coach Chris Cifelli said. “Emily (Piper) hit some big shots in the first half to either give us a lead or keep us in it, Caroline (Hammond) is our big defender, and Hannah (Chaput) and Chantel (Ouellette) made some big shots.”

Both teams ended the regular season at 5-13.

After a 3-pointer from Lewiston’s Maddy Foster, who seemed to score every time she had the ball, Ouellette answered immediately with a layup to pull within 49-45 with three minutes remaining. 

On EL’s next possession, Ouellette drove again and made a layup while getting fouled. She didn’t make the free throw, but Brooklyn Alexander grabbed the offensive rebound and passed to a cutting Ouellette who made another layup to tie the game at 51-51. 

“Our coach is super big on being positive and kept picking us up, saying, ‘You’ve got this, you’ve got this,’” Chaput said. “I think Chan hit two or three layups in a row and that really gave us the energy that we needed.”

Lewiston’s Jordyn Rubin answered with a trey in the right corner on the ensuing possession to put the Blue Devils, but EL answered right back with Chaput drilling a 3-pointer in the left corner to add to her 22-total points on the night, tying the contest at 54-54. 

“We wanted to execute on offense and we got that corner look for Hannah,” Cifelli said. “We talked about it, her sophomore year she did it in the playoffs and made big shots and then she did it again with a big time shot.”

Lewiston had the ball with six seconds left in regulation when Ouellette stole the inbounds pass but came up short on the potential game-winner. 

Heading into overtime, the Eddies had their previous loss to their rivals on their minds. 

“We really weren’t expecting (the loss to Lewiston),” Chaput said. “It really made us push harder every single day after that game because we wanted to get it back at the end of the year. We really looked forward to playing them again.”

In the extra period, Chaput opened the scoring almost immediately with a baseline floater to help the Eddies go up 56-54. Ninety seconds later, Chaput scored again off an assist from Ouellette to put her team ahead 58-54. 

After a Lewiston free throw by Rubin, Erin Cowie hit a layup to put EL up 60-55. Lewiston had a couple of chances on offense, but Ouellette grabbed back-to-back rebounds and then hit two free throws to seal the game. 

“He was just trying to tell us to go to the rim and score quickly and I didn’t want to go out on my last night here and lose to Lewiston,” Ouellette said.

Over the course of regulation, Lewiston and EL went back and forth all game. 

The Blue Devils were led by Maddy and Lauren Foster, who scored 21 and 12, respectively. Rubin finished with 15 points.

Maddy Foster scored 10 of her points in the fourth quarter to will her team into overtime. 

“I told the girls in one of the timeouts to just recognize who has the hot hand,” Lewiston coach Lynn Girouard said. “Maddy hit big shots, Lauren, Jordyn, they all were huge. The game could’ve gone either way. Both teams had crucial turnovers. I love those types of games. That was fun.”

Ouellette finished the game with 17 points, while Alexander hauled in 10 rebounds, many of which came in clutch moments. Chaput hit two 3-pointers early in the first quarter to get her big night started off on the right foot. 

“At the beginning I felt like I was (shooting well),” Chaput said. “In the middle I was kind of like, ‘Uh, let’s go, Hannah,’ but towards the end our team just kept picking each other up and that really helped because negativity spreads fast so we were all trying to stay positive with each other. It turned out well.”

At Thursday night’s boys basketball game at Lewiston High School between the Red Eddies and the Blue Devils, Lewiston will be holding fundraisers for Kevin Collins, a long-time coach for the school including football and track and field, who is battling cancer and is currently in hospice care.

The Blue Devils are encouraging everyone to wear black to support everyone affected by cancer to the game at 7 p.m. Also, the school will hold a 50/50 raffle, a “chuck a duck” contest and a percentage of the gate proceeds will go to the Collins family to help during this time.

 

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