PARIS — One of the best players in Class AA North made the difference in Friday’s season-opening matchup between Edward Little and Oxford Hills.
Senior forward Diing Maiwen scored the final four points of the game to lift the Red Eddies to a 61-60 victory.
“They have the best player on the floor, and we didn’t do a good enough job realizing that he’s going to impact (the game like) that,” said Joe Oufiero, Oxford Hills’ first-year head coach. “That’s not the kids, that’s me. That’s me making sure they know scenarios and situations and what needs to happen down the stretch there.”
Oxford Hills led 60-57 with about 35 seconds remaining. The Red Eddies tried to tie the game with a handful of 3-point attempts, but they kept missing and then getting offensive rebounds.
Eventually, Maiwen drove to the basket and was fouled. He made one of two free throws. Edward Little quickly got the ball back, and Maiwen again attacked the hoop, and again was fouled, but this time the shot fell to tie the game. Then he hit the go-ahead foul shot with 14 seconds remaining.
“I feel like at the end, we just started to get very antsy and we started shooting a lot, but we still worked hard,” Maiwen stated. “We got, I think, five or six rebounds in a row, getting the ball back and just finding open guys, and we were able to get the ball down low. We got a steal, got the and-1.”
Maiwen, Edward Little’s top returning scorer, finished with a game-high 23 points.
“I mean, Diing’s going to get a lot of attention, but when he’s on, you know, he’s kind of our motor,” Edward Little Coach James Philbrook said. “He impacts both ends of the floor, offensively, defensively. You (have) to know where he is. You know, obviously some monster dunks, you know, some good blocks and great rebounding. He’s just a dog, and he’s our motor.”
Maiwen revved up the Eddies early in Friday’s game, throwing down a thunderous dunk and then receiving a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
He had a handful of other dunks that helped create momentum in the first quarter. He also swatted an Oxford Hills shot in the opening eight minutes.
In the second quarter, Maiwen showed off his passing skills by feeding Christian Rodriguez for a 3-pointer just before halftime to give the Red Eddies a 32-26 lead.
Maiwen showed his long-range abilities with two 3-pointers in the third quarter.
“I definitely think, like, in Maine, he’s basically the best two-way player,” said Edward Little junior Cedric Makelele, who finished with 15 points. “He gets it done on the defensive end and the offensive end. And, you know, with all this stuff that he has, he definitely can, like, contribute to everything.”
Maiwen said the Vikings changed the way they defended him throughout the game.
“I think even in the beginning of the game, they weren’t really sitting in the zone,” Maiwen said. “They’re just having one guy on me, but then toward halftime and the rest of the half, they started to have two, three guys looking at me in a 2-3 zone. So that was just about moving the ball around, getting into the right open areas so we can catch the ball, move it and find open guys.”
The Red Eddies built an eight-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, but Oxford Hills erased it and took a 54-53 lead. Senior Carter Holbrook led the rally with a couple of timely shots, including a 3-pointer.
Holbrook led the Vikings with 18 points.
“He competed,” Oufiero said. “Brady Delamater and Brayden Murch had four fouls for most of that fourth quarter, and they played like it didn’t matter that they had four fouls, and that’s what good teammates do. We just have to get back after it and make some shots down the stretch there and I think we’ll be OK.”
Brady Roy added 16 points for Oxford Hills. Oufiero said Roy also defended Maiwen well in the fourth quarter.
“Brady Roy, for us, did a nice job on him,” Oufiero said. “I mean, as good as I think anyone will do athletically. And, you know, he could jump with him. … I thought Brady did a good job.”
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