Thanks to a phenomenal effort by the Blue Devils in what was essentially their playoff game, the competitive fire between the two schools burned brightly again for Thursday night, at least.

EL started both the third and fourth quarters with a 7-0 run and overcame a halftime deficit to eliminate Lewiston from Class A East playoff contention, 56-44, in the teams’ KVAC regular-season finale.

“I thought the Lewiston kids played like warriors. They came out like they had nothing to lose, to get that tournament spot,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “I give them a ton of credit for how hard they played. But like I just told our girls, we gave up 29 points in the first half and 15 in the second half. That’s more the kind of defense we want to play.”

Tianna Harriman led the Red Eddies (14-4) with 22 points, including five 3-pointers, to go along with five assists and five steals.

She made Lewiston pay for its attention to EL interior standouts Emily Jacques and Brooke Reynolds, who finished with 10 and 9 points, respectively.

“That was our main objective, to stop them underneath,” Lewiston coach Lynn Girouard said. “Last time we played them, Tianna didn’t hit that many. She always makes a ton when she plays at Lewiston.”

Recent losses to Brunswick and Mt. Ararat put Lewiston (3-15) on the outside looking in at the playoff party.

Point-worthy EL packed enough of a Heal Point wallop in the event of an upset, however, and Lewiston played with the appropriate sense of urgency.

Victoria Harris’ putback gave the Devils a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. EL wrestled away the lead four times in the second period, but Emily Brochu’s bank-shot 3-pointer with eight seconds left gave Lewiston a 29-28 edge.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that close of a game, but I definitely loved how close it was,” Harriman said.

Calli Murray’s 18-footer from in front of the EL bench gave the Eddies the lead for good in the opening minute of the third quarter. 

Harriman piggybacked that with a 3-pointer, then found Reynolds with a quick pass inside to keep the Eddies rolling.

Lewiston’s success against the EL press-breaker almost convinced Jipson and the coaching staff to abandon its traps at halftime. Six third-quarter turnovers showed that they made the right decision to keep applying the heat.

“We just really thought that we could go on a run, and that ended up happening,” Jipson said. “We play 9 or 10 kids, and we hope that’s an advantage in the tournament.”

Back-to-back baskets by Morgan Eliasen and Harris brought the Devils within five, and a short jumper by Amanda Swart made it 42-37 with eight minutes to play.

Reynolds sandwiched a putback and two free throws around a Piper Norcross 3-pointer to ignite the fourth, while EL held Lewiston scoreless for the first three minutes.

EL has won 19 consecutive games in the series.

“That’s hard to do in a rivalry, because there’s going to be a time when a team’s off and the other team’s hot, and that could have been tonight. They shot the ball great in the first half,” Jipson said. “I hope Lewiston stays the course with Lynn. In the course of those 19 games they’ve had five coaches. You need the continuity. I thought their underclassmen showed that they didn’t want the seniors to put the jerseys away.”

Swart led Lewiston with 13 points and nine rebounds. Gabby Barrett added 12 points. Kristina Blais put together seven points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Barrett, Swart, Brochu and Keileigh Belanger played their final game for the Devils.

“We had a chance. We just couldn’t get the stops we needed to get,” Girouard said. “We almost had Brunswick. We gave (EL) a little scare tonight. The students were getting into it, which was nice to see. Definitely things to build on for next year.”

koakes@sunjournal.com