AUBURN — Edward Little has been working on finding itself and playing its style of basketball. The Red Eddies needed a reminder of what that is at halftime of Saturday’s rivalry matchup against Lewiston.

The Eddies bounced back in a big way, overcoming a 14-point halftime deficit to earn a 50-48 Class AA North boys basketball victory on their home court.

“We were taking quick shots and we weren’t playing our offense,” Edward Little junior Diing Maiwen said. “We came out the second half with just, ‘Let’s do us, what we’ve been practicing …’

“And then we just did. We executed very well and did what we did.”

Edward Little trailed 35-21 at halftime, and that score went unchanged for nearly three minutes in the third quarter.

Maiwen ended the scoring drought with a free throw with 5:19 left in the period. Less than a minute later, Eli St. Laurent drilled a 3-pointer, and soon after that, he hit another.

Then TJ Kramarz stole the ball and threw it up the court to Maiwen, who threw down one of his two thunderous dunks in the game.

“I came in this game thinking, it’s going to happen today, it’s going to happen today. I had to put on a little show,” Maiwen said of his dunks.

The first dunk completed a 9-0 run that cut the Blue Devils’ lead to 35-30.

Lewiston’s Abdirahman Dakane made two free throws to halt Edward Little’s scoring run, but it didn’t slow the Red Eddies down.

Akol Maiwen, who is the younger brother of Diing Maiwen and former Edward Little star Wol Maiwen, made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 37-33 and spark another Red Eddies run.

Akol Maiwen, a sophomore, started playing varsity minutes a few days ago. He entered the game midway through the third quarter and remained on the floor until the final minute alongside Diing Maiwen, St. Laurent, Marshal Adams and Kramarz.

“Different guys stepped up tonight,” Edward Little coach Mike Adams said. “Akol came in, he just started getting some varsity minutes against Bangor. He’s practiced really, really well. That’s a kid that dedicated himself to being there every day in the summertime. And those things matter. It makes a difference.

“And he came in and gave us some, some huge minutes in the fourth quarter.”

The Red Eddies continued to display their more patient, methodical motion offense, and as they passed the ball around the horn, Diing Maiwen was left open near the hoop, and he took a pass and threw down another dunk.

He finished with 15 points, including nine in the second half.

“We did a good job of finding him,” Mike Adams said. “With the guards that we have, you know, if teams are going to key in and focus on that, you know, we should be able to find opportunities like that.”

Edward Little’s guards, Marshal Adams and St. Laurent, then showed why defenses need to pay too much attention to them.

Adams hit a 3 to give the Eddies their first lead since the first quarter, 38-37. Then St. Laurent made his third trey of the third quarter to cap an 11-0 run and give Edward Little a four-point lead.

St. Laurent made six 3s in the game and finished with a game-high 23 points. Marshal Adams hit two treys and scored eight points.

“They were keying on Marshal a little bit more. That created opportunities for Eli,” Mike Adams said. “And, again, that’s who we are. You know, if you want to take something away, we have other things and guys who have strengths. And we hopefully will find those guys and make the most of those opportunities. And he did a great job of getting good reads tonight.”

After scoring 21 points in the first two quarters combined, and a slow start to the third, the Red Eddies poured in 20 points over the final five-plus minutes of the third period.

“We just kind of settled in the first half,” Mike Adams said. “The second half, we did a better job of looking for each other and creating opportunities for guys that can score and do things that we can do. Then defensively, you know, we were a lot stronger.”

Lewiston’s Jeffrey Randall closed the third-quarter scoring with a basket to send the game to the final quarter with Edward Little leading 41-39.

The teams stayed close throughout the fourth quarter. Lewiston tied the score a few times but wasn’t able to regain the lead.

Joao Samba made a free throw with 46 seconds remaining in the game to get the Blue Devils within two points.

Mike Klick made a steal with about 10 seconds remaining to give Lewiston a chance to tie the game or take the lead.

The Blue Devils called a timeout with 7.6 seconds left, then a foul with 1.5 seconds to play gave them the ball out of bounds on the baseline, but Lonnie Thomas’ turnaround jumper fell short.

Thomas didn’t miss much in the first half. He set the tone early, making three 3-pointers, including a long, high-arching heave at the buzzer, and scored 11 points in the first period.

“He was good,” Lewiston coach Elgin Physic said. “He’s been working hard.”

Dakane added eight points and the Blue Devils took a 20-13 lead into the second quarter.

Thomas banked in another basket early in the second, then Marshal Adams drained a long 3 for Edward Little to make it a 22-16 game.

After that, Lewiston began pulling away. Thomas, Caden Boone and Randall combined to score nine consecutive points, pushing the Blue Devils’ advantage to 31-16.

“The first half, we made a lot of shots. Second half, we didn’t make so many,” Physic said. “… We turned the ball over less the first half, we turned the ball over more, and also, too, we scored less in the second half.”

Thomas was active on the boards in the second quarter and finished with eight in the first half to go along with his 17 points. He finished the game with 13 rebounds.

REBOUND TO REBOUND

“We just came out with a lot more intensity,” St. Laurent said of the second half. “We knew we could come back on these guys. We knew we’re just as good as some of the top teams in the conference, and we knew we could play and come back and win.”

The Red Eddies’ increased intensity was evident in their rebounding. Diing Maiwen contributed seven rebounds to his 15-point effort, but in the second half, Karmarz pulled down most of his team-high nine boards and Akol Maiwen grabbed four.

“They played great. Everybody steps up when they get on the floor,” St. Laurent said.

The victory is the second in a row for the Red Eddies (3-6) after enduring a six-game losing streak.

Mike Adams and St. Laurent said that the team is referring to this current stretch as their second phase of the season.

“We’ve hit the second phase and we’ve really flicked the switch, and we’re playing really well right now, playing good ball,” St. Laurent said.

The Eddies ended their skid with a 67-35 win over Bangor on Thursday, but Adams said they started to turn the corner in a 55-50 loss to defending state champion South Portland on Dec. 28.

“South Portland, even though it was a loss, was a step in the right direction,” Adams said. “You know, we said, ‘This is much better, this is who we are. And if we do this, we can play with anyone.’

“Obviously we still have things that we have to do better. But we have a huge week next week against two of the best teams in the state, with Scarborough and Cheverus. So, now, you know, I might eat my words, but let’s see where we’re at, you know, can we play with the best?”

Edward Little hosts Scarborough (7-2) on Tuesday and Cheverus (7-2) on Friday. The Red Storm are ranked fourth in the Varsity Maine poll and the Stags are third.

Lewiston, like Edward Little, is experiencing growing pains this season, having lost key players from last year’s AA North semifinalist team.

Saturday was their fourth straight loss, but Phsyic said the Blue Devils are making strides.

“We’re coming around a whole lot,” he said. “We just got to be able to finish. We got to play, again, 32 minutes, you know what I mean?

“It’s tough, but again, it’s indicative of a team that hasn’t had a lot of experience. So we’re just hoping to keep getting better day by day, go from there.”

Boone finished with 13 points for Lewiston, and Dakane, who played the final 10 minutes with four fouls, scored 11 points. He also had three steals and four rebounds. Randle contributed four points and five rebounds.

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