BRUNSWICK — Edward Little played a dominant third quarter and then held off Brunswick down the stretch to pull out a 64-54 win in an Eastern Class A boys’ basketball game Wednesday night.

The Eddies avenged a 45-43 loss to the Dragons in the second game of the season last month. Their win came one night after Shyheim Ulrickson dropped 44 points on them to lead Mt. Ararat to a 76-65 victory.

“We’ve always tried to be a better defensive team, kind of bend don’t break and keep the ball in front of us,” Edward Little Coach Mike Adams said. “We got away from that for some reason the last game and a half. In the second half we did a better job of spotting up the shooters and keeping the ball in front of us.”

Edward Little (7-5) was at its defensive best in the second half when Brunswick managed to hit only four of its 25 shots.

“Defensively they really made us work for our points and contested our perimeter shots really well,” Brunswick Coach Todd Hanson said.

Andrew Middleton led Edward Little’s balanced scoring with 16 points. Kaleb Main followed with 13 points. Llewellen Jensen added 12 points. Luke Sterling and Elijah Roe each had 10.

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Blake Gordon scored a game-high 18 points for Brunswick (7-5). Derek Devereaux followed with 10 points.

The game was characterized by tremendous swings in momentum.

The Dragons finished the first quarter with a 9-1 run to move into a 14-11 lead, with Devereaux scoring the last five points of the period.

Momentum swung both ways during the second quarter.

After the Eddies fired off a 9-0 run to move into a 22-17 lead, the Dragons ran off 10 points to move into a 27-22 lead.

Ryan Black drove the lane for a basket during the final minute to send Brunswick into a 35-33 lead at the end of the first half.

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During the third quarter, Edward Little held a 17-4 edge in scoring to open a 50-39 lead. The Dragons’ lone basket during the period from the floor came when Elliot Boyd put back a rebound two minutes into the second half.

“We turned the ball over too much to be successful,” Hanson said. “We had some key team turnovers at just the worst possible time. We couldn’t bail our defense out because we were always on defense.”

Despite its poor shooting, the Dragons managed to make a run at the Eddies during the fourth quarter.

Brunswick closed within four points twice. With 1:30 left, Devereaux made three free throws to make it 56-52. With 1:08 left, he drove the right baseline for the Dragons’ final basket of the game to make it 58-54.

“This game could have easily have gone the other way,” Adams said. “We made our free throws at the end and we were able to win by 10, but this wasn’t a 10-point game.”

Edward Little made all six of its free throws during the final minute.

The loss came one night after Brunswick cruised to a 58-34 win against Mt. Blue.

“We’re up and down, and we’ve really had a hard time maintaining consistency,” Hanson said. “If we’re going to get into the tournament, we’re going to have to figure that out pretty quick.”


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