AUGUSTA — Cony boys basketball coach Tim Bonsant summed up his team’s loss to Edward Little in four words: “Too much Quin Leary.”

The Cony coach might have thrown in “too many turnovers,” too, as both Leary’s 28 points and the Rams’ 25 turnovers contributed to their 65-56 loss to the Red Eddies on Tuesday night.

Cony (4-9) needs two or three wins over its final five games to remain in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament picture. The Rams appeared headed for one in the first half against Edward Little (8-5).

The Rams led 15-10 at the end of the first quarter and 30-27 at the half, but they fell apart in the third quarter, committing 10 turnovers. Some were unforced errors while others were the result of the Red Eddies defensive pressure

“That’s always been EL’s thing for the last five or six years,” senior Ian Therriault said. “Defense is really what wins you games. We really focus on that in practice.”

It doesn’t hurt to have Leary in the lineup. The junior is the younger brother of Bo Leary, who tormented KVAC A teams for the last three years, and he plays a similar game of strong drives to the basket combined with solid outside shooting.

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“Last year we had Bo,” Therriault said. “Quin’s really stepped it up this year to fill his shoes.”

The Rams took their biggest lead of the game (36-27) after Zack Lachance opened the third quarter with a pair of 3-pointers from the left side. But they turned the ball over on their next three possessions and the Eddies took full advantage. Therriault (11 points, six rebounds) converted a layup, then Leary sandwiched two elbow jumpers around a bank shot to draw the Eddies to within one.

They took the lead for good with a 9-0 run later in the period, aided by four Cony turnovers. Lew Jensen capped the run with his third 3-pointer of the game to make it 46-39. The Eddies stretched the lead to 53-43 early in the fourth period when Leary fed Omar Haji-Hersi for a layup, but the Rams didn’t fold.

“That’s the one thing I liked about the way we played tonight,” Bonsant said.

Lachance hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game to make it 53-46. Later in the quarter, Josiah Hayward (15 points) hit a jumper in the lane and Walker Cooper (16) connected on two straight layups to make it 58-52. But the Rams ran out of time as the Eddies put the game away from the line, hitting 7 of 8 in the final minute.

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com


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