AUBURN — Edward Little’s Wol Maiwen met his match Wednesday night against No. 7 Windham in a Class AA North boys’ basketball quarterfinal.
It’s not often that the long-armed, athletic forward for the No. 2 Red Eddies finds himself matched up with a player who’s taller, longer and heavier, but he did when Dierhow Bol lined up across from him for the opening tip.
Maiwen and Bol went back and forth, trading rebounds, buckets and blocks, but Edward Little made a couple more plays and came away with a 45-34 victory to advance to the semifinals against Oxford Hills.
“Dierhow in the paint in the 4-1 (zone), I think that gave us a little bit of a bother,” Maiwen said. “We weren’t able to get into the flow of our offense and they had a lot of steals off that. He’s 6-6, a long wingspan, and he’s got more weight (than) me, so that makes it a lot easier for him to box me out and get a lot of those rebounds and foul calls.”
Maiwen outplayed Dierhow in the first quarter, as the Class AA North Player of the Year grabbed three rebounds, blocked a shot, made two steals and scored four points, capped off by a steal that lead to a ferocious tomahawk slam.
Cam York hit one of his three 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Red Eddies grabbed a 9-3 lead.
Windham wasn’t going to let the Eddies run away with the game, though. Andrew Wing made two 3-pointers in the second quarter and Ivan Kaffel hit another to help the Eagles stay close.
Maiwen scored eight more points in the second quarter, four on free throws and two on an acrobatic layup under the hoop, as the Red Eddies held a 21-14 halftime lead. But Windham’s defense was causing a lot of problems.
“We have to play our butts off against them, and Wol is a great player, so he takes a lot of the focus,” Windham Coach Chad Pulkkinen said. “(Austin) Brown is a player we tried to take out of the game. Our guys just battled their butts off and we did everything we could. … I’m proud of our guys.”
“A lot of times, that first-round game is (tough),” Edward Little Coach Mike Adams said. “We have a lot of respect for them because they beat South Portland, and Chad has done a great job of using their size. Defensively, they took up a lot of space.”
Bol started to find his offensive rhythm in the third quarter. He scored five points, including a three-point play that cut Windham’s deficit to two points. The Eagles also stole the ball five times in the quarter.
Bol continued fighting in the fourth, making five free throws and grabbing four offensive rebounds.
“He’s big and athletic and has played varsity since sophomore year, at least,” Adams said. “We wanted to three-quarter him in the post and commit help-side, but what they really do a good job of is the backdoor cut on that same side so Wol can’t help out. What killed us was that backside 3, they had a lot of those.”
Bol finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and a block. Wing also scored 12 points.
Maiwen had six blocks, nine rebounds, five steals and 21 points.
“I think it was another opportunity for other kids to step up and do something for us,” Adams said. “Like Cam hitting 3s, and Creaser came through at the end with some big cuts and some big baskets, and some guys came off the bench and gave us some big minutes.
“I think just the fact that we have grinded out a tough win against a team that has beaten some great teams shows a lot about our toughness.”
THORNTON ACADEMY 66, NOBLE 29: Jack Pyzynski scored 22 points and the top-seeded Trojans (15-4) took control early on the way to a Class AA South quarterfinal win over the eighth-seeded Knights (3-16) in Saco.
Pyzynski was the only player in double figures for Thornton, which led 38-14 at the half. Ben Ham hit two 3-pointers and finished with eight points.
Dylan Dube scored six points for Noble.
Thornton advances to play No. 5 Scarborough (11-8) on Tuesday at Cross Insurance Arena.
GIRLS
SOUTH PORTLAND 66, THORNTON ACADEMY 33: Maggie Whitmore scored 23 points and the top-seeded Red Riots (18-1) beat the eighth-seeded Golden Trojans (4-15) in a Class AA South quarterfinal at South Portland.
Jena Leckie added 12 points for South Portland, and Kaleisha Towle chipped in with nine.
Penelope Giorgi led Thornton with 10 points.
The Red Riots will play Noble or Bonny Eagle on Tuesday
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