BANGOR, Maine — The Red Eddies from Edward Little High School in Auburn received 14 points apiece from senior Emily Jacques and sophomore Piper Norcross and turned in a thorough defensive performance to post an impressive 48-33 victory over Bangor in a Class AA North game at the Red Barry Gym on Wednesday night.
The Eddies improved to 10-1 with their eighth straight win while Bangor had its five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 6-5.
Edward Little used a full-court press to force a lot of turnovers and its match-up 1-2-2 zone limited Bangor to a 30.4 percent shooting effort from the floor.
Bangor’s 33 points were a season-low.
“Defense won it for us. We played great all-around defense,” said junior Jordyn Reynolds, who contributed 12 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots in an exceptional all-around performance.
Jacques had five rebounds, five steals and two assists to go with her 14 points and Norcross had two steals and and two assists to accompany her 12 points.
Katie Butler’s 13 points and 12 rebounds paced Bangor and Sarah Bragg had 10 points and five rebounds. Emily Gilmore contributed four points, five rebounds and five assists.
Bangor went a dismal 3-for-12 from the free throw line.
“We did real well on our press with our rotation. We were getting to the ball and trapping,” said Jacques.
“We didn’t play very well in all areas,” said Bangor coach Joe Johnson. “We had a lot of unforced errors and we didn’t shoot well.”
“They pressured us hard the whole game and we aren’t used to that,” said Bragg. “I don’t think they did anything that really stopped us. We just didn’t do what we needed to do. We took the shots we needed to take but they didn’t go in.”
Edward Little coach Craig Jipson said Reynolds “did a real good job denying Butler the ball and that was good for us because we didn’t have to double down on her.”
And that enabled the Eddies to contest Bangor’s outside shots.
The Eddies jumped out to a 14-3 lead behind Jacques and Norcross’ five points apiece but the Rams used a 14-2 run to take a 17-16 lead with 4:35 left in the first half.
Gilmore keyed the spurt with four points and three assists.
But the Eddies outscored Bangor 10-2 the rest of the half to take a lead they would never relinquish.
Jacques started the decisive rally with a free throw and, after a steal, Norcross hit a short jumper.
EL’s press forced another turnover and Reynolds scored after rebounding Norcross’ missed 3-pointer.
Butler scored off an inbounds pass from Gilmore to make it 21-19 with 1:19 left in the half but Norcross sprinted from right to left across the top of the key and used a screen to hit a 3-pointer before she fed Reynolds for a foul line jumper to close out the half.
The Eddies scored the first eight points of the second half to build a 34-19 lead and the Rams couldn’t get any closer than nine the rest of the way.
Karli Stubbs sandwiched a pair of 4-foot jumpers around a couple of 12-foot baseline jumpers by Jacques during the 8-0 run to open the second half.
Jade Perry had four points and five rebounds for the winners and Stubbs also had four points.
Edward Little shot 42 percent from the floor.
“They had a couple of spurts and we just couldn’t seem to buy a basket,” said Butler. “They’re a good team and they’re well-coached.”