AUGUSTA — Two prior first-round losses when seeded No. 1 in the boys’ basketball regional tournament may scar the Edward Little faithful for generations to come.

So when the Red Eddies fell behind No. 8 Brewer by six points early in the second quarter Monday, nobody could blame maroon-clad spectators for the inability to stomach a quick trip to the concession stand.

Eat up, folks. The Eddies shifted into gear shortly thereafter, ratcheted up their efficiency at both ends of the Augusta Civic Center court, and cruised to a 54-38 Class A East quarterfinal victory.

“Part of you says, ‘Ooh, this is not fun.’ But I never really felt like we were in trouble,” EL coach Mike Adams said. “I knew that we’d settle down offensively. Defensively we were solid.”

Ian Mileikis scored 17 points, Kaleb Main added 10, and Lew Jensen put together nine points, 18 rebounds and four assists for EL (18-1), which won in the quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive year and will face No. 4 Lewiston at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the semis.

Jared St. Thomas led all scorers with 18 points for the Witches.

“We still remember,” Mileikis said. “We were all kids when Troy Barnies’ team went 18-0 (in 2007) and lost in the first round. That was in the back of our minds.”

Brewer (9-11) presented a variety of zone defenses in an effort to confuse the Eddies and slow Mileikis and Jensen. EL needed supplementary contributions and reaped them with greater frequency as the game wore on.

Main scored his first four points during a 7-0 surge, producing a 20-15 lead with 2:53 remaining in the half. Thomas Cedre also scored via the offensive glass before Jensen’s NBA-distance 3-pointer made it 25-19 at the half.

“Right off the bat we weren’t playing like we usually do,” Main said. “Coach was getting us hyped up, telling us what we had to do, and we stepped it up.”

The third quarter was one of three runs — six consecutive EL points, matched by six in reply from Brewer, with seven successive in Eddies’ rebuttal for a 38-27 cushion.

Charles Cedre’s 3-pointer and a steal and drive by Mileikis provided the exclamation point.

“We got contributions from everybody,” Jensen said. “Charles and Thomas coming off the bench were huge. We were able to run the floor and bring kids off the bench who were fresh.”

Brewer closed within eight on a St. Thomas 3-pointer before Main, Jensen and Mileikis closed it out with consecutive baskets.

EL, which won the regular-season meeting on the road by five points, contained Brewer guard Logan Rogerson to seven and forward Matt Pushard to five.

Jensen snared 15 of his 18 boards on the defensive end.

“Rogerson and Pushard are good players,” Adams said. “Pushard is that post player who typically gives us a hard time. Elijah Roe did an unbelievable job defensively on him.”

The Eddies recovered from a 2-for-12 start by keeping turnovers to a minimum. EL gave it away only three times in the first half.

St. Thomas scored six and Carter Smith four in the first quarter to put the Witches on top, 11-7. St. Thomas christened the second period with a short jumper, but the Eddies tied it with six consecutive points from Mileikis and Jensen.

“We knew we were going to see some of the junk defenses to match up on Ian and Lew and try to take them away,” Adams said. “Even though we worked on it all week, it took us a while to figure out how to attack. We tried a lot of different plays. As the game progressed, we did a better job of doing the things we were trying to do.”

koakes@sunjournal.com