But there were two clear catalysts who helped the Red Eddies emerge after being deadlocked at halftime.

Darby Shea scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, and Wol Maiwen scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter as Edward Little outlasted Portland, 76-70, in a compelling battle of Class AA North’s remaining unbeaten teams.

“It’s a huge win,” Maiwen said. “No one thought we could do this.”

“It’s huge,” said EL coach Mike Adams, whose Red Eddies improved to 5-0. “It makes them believe and rewards all the hard work they’ve put in. But it’s only game five. We said this can’t be the highlight of your year.”

Moss led the Bulldogs (4-1) with 18 points. But the Eddies held him without a field goal for the entire third quarter and for the first 5:20 of the fourth, which allowed them to take control of the game.

“He’s a phenomenal player. No matter what you do, you’re not going to stop him,” Adams said of Moss. “We tried a triangle-and-two and he just went through that at times. We had the triangle run to him and double him whenever he made a penetrating dribble. He got through that. But I think Maiwen’s length is our best bet sometimes. And then we just tried different guys.”

Tyler Morin and Samatar Iman rotated the assignment of guarding Moss with the 6-4 Maiwen. Moss expertly broke Maiwen down on a drive the first time the EL sophomore matched up on him in the first quarter, but Wol dusted himself off and was able to bother the Portland junior with his long arms and determination for much of the remainder of the night. 

“I had to play tight on him. He’s a really good offensive player. He knows how to get through people,” Maiwen said. “We just had to buckle down and play good defense.”

With Moss held in check, senior center Charles Lyall kept the Bulldogs in the game with yeoman work inside and on the offensive boards (16 points; 14 rebounds, 10 offensive). 

Portland held a 17-6 advantage on the offensive glass.

“They killed us (on the offensive boards),” Adams said. “We’re going to have to work on that. Deering hurt us with their big guy. We’ve got to do a better job of that because teams are hurting us there.”

Shea single-handedly hurt Portland in the final two minutes of the third quarter, going on a personal 7-0 run to break a 46-46 tie and put EL in front.

He seized that lead with a 3-pointer, then converted a layup off an offensive rebound and assist by Maiwen, and another layup off a fast break, to make it 53-46.

EL starting guard C.J. Jipson fouled out with 7:37 left, and Portland took advantage as Griffin Foley (17 points) sparked a 13-6  run with seven points early in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs tied it 59-59 on Pedro Fonseca’s bucket inside midway through the period. 

Maiwen put Edward Little in front to stay with a three-point play off an inside feed from Norcross Plourde with 3:58 left, then followed that with a dunk on a breakaway and one-of-two free throws to make it 64-59 with 3:24 to go.

Moss pulled the Bulldogs back within four with his first field goal in over 17 minutes, but Shea answered with a deep 3 with 2:16 to go. 

“Last game I had it going so I wanted to keep it going tonight,” said Shea, who made five 3-pointers on the night. “My teammates fed me and I got good looks. That last deep one, though, I felt that one.”

EL shot 9-for-19 from the 3-point line. More importantly, the Eddies had 24 assists on their 27 field goals, led by Morin with six.

“I wasn’t happy the first half (offensively) because everything was from the 3-point line,” Adams said. “We didn’t get paint touches. But we had us for 24 assists, and they were spread out, and that’s what we’re about. We look for each other and we move and we give up good shots to get better shots.”

“Coach tells us to push it inside, but when we get those open inside-out looks, we take those,” Shea said.