AUGUSTA — Plagued with foul trouble all night, Edward Little senior Ian Mileikis still managed to turn in the most blue collar 43-point performance Maine high school basketball has seen in a long time on Tuesday night.

And yet Mileikis wasn’t the only hero in Edward Little’s 81-80 overtime win over Cony. The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference classic had multiple candidates, on both sides.

The Red Eddies scored seven of their 11 points from the free throw line in overtime to outlast the Rams. From the start of the second half until the final 1:24 of overtime, the game saw 11 ties and 14 lead changes.

“It’s exciting, but hopefully it’s getting us ready for Augusta (for the Eastern A tournament),” Mileikis said.

Cony (11-7) sent the game into overtime when Mitchell Caron hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 70 with three seconds left. Edward Little (15-1) nearly pulled off a stunning finish to prevent it from going to overtime, though, as Thomas Cedre, inbounding the ball under his own basket, alertly threw the ball off a Cony defender’s back. Cedre stepped in bounds, caught it and got a layup off before the buzzer sounded. He didn’t quite get enough lift, though, as the ball rolled off the side of the rim.

T.J. Cusick scored inside and with a 3-pointer to give the Rams a 75-73 lead early in the extra session, but Mileikis, who drew his fourth foul late in the third quarter, put Edward Little in front to stay with two free throws and a drive to the hoop with 1:24 left.

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“He was incredible — rebounding, being strong, taking things into the paint. He just put us on his back,” EL coach Mike Adams said.

Llewellyn Jensen and Cedre each added a free throw to extend the lead to 79-75 with 20 seconds remaining. Liam Stokes cut the margin to two with a layup, but Charles Cedre made it a two-possession game again with two clutch free throws with 7.5 seconds to go. That rendered Cusick’s 3-pointer with about two seconds left meaningless, as EL was able to let the clock run out without inbounding the ball.

“I loved the intensity that the game had. It kind of felt like a playoff game, the way the guys competed” Cony coach T.J. Maines said. “I thought we played really well in spurts and then had some defensive lapses.”

Cony led by a s much as 13 in the first half, but the Red Eddies closed the second quarter on a 10-0 run, with eight of those points coming from Mileikis, to pull withing 32-29 at the half.

The teams got on the scoreboard see-saw in the third quarter. EL was able to maintain the back-and-forth even when Mileikis went to the bench with his fourth foul with 2:49 left in the third and even opened up a 50-44 lead early in the fourth thanks to hoops from Kaleb Main, Elijah Roe and Jensen.

“Both of the Cedre brothers stepped up. Lew hit a bunch of free throws. I mean, everyone contributed to that win. That was a full team win,” Mileikis said.

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The Rams rallied to tie it on 3-pointers by Caron and Stokes. Mileikis returned to the floor and the teams started trading leads again.

“That’s a scary team heading into the playoffs, when they can shoot the ball like that,” Mileikis said of Cony. “They’re well-coached and played smart the whole game.”

Mileikis (12 rebounds) converted a putback into a three-point play to put the Eddies up 68-64 with 36 seconds left. Ben Leet (11 points) cut the margin to two with a drive. After a timeout by each team, Mileikis missed two free throws and Tyler Tardiff (11 points) appeared poised to tie it with a layup, but Charles Cedre denied him with a spectacular block.

Jensen collected the loose ball and was fouled. He drilled both to make ti 70-66 EL with 10.8 seconds to go. But Edward Little inexplicably intensionally fouled Stokes with 8.5 seconds left, giving Cony two shots and the ball.

Stokes made one of two at the line, setting up Caron’s game-tying 3-pointer.

Stokes and Cusick led the Rams with 22 points apiece. Jensen added 18 points and 11 rebounds for Edward Little.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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