From the opening minutes, the Edward Little boys basketball team showed it was ready to compete for every loose ball and rebound. The Red Eddies might have been the fourth seed in Thursday’s Class AA North semifinal against No. 1 Cheverus, but they were clearly confident.

It took all 32 minutes to pull it off, including three very timely fourth-quarter buckets out of scramble situations, but Edward Little pulled a 47-44 upset at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, ending the Stags’ season at the regional semifinal stage for a third consecutive season.

Diing Maiwen put the exclamatory moment on the game when he threw down a two-handed fast-break dunk after a Cheverus turnover with 17 seconds to play for the game’s final points. Cheverus star Leo McNabb (23 points, three 3-pointers) had a look at a tying 3-pointer that was unsuccessful, as was a final inbounds play with six-tenths of a second on the clock.

“We’ve been working our tails off this past week just for this game,” said Maiwen, a 6-foot-5 senior. “That’s the No. 1 seed. People were expecting them to take it, but we all believed in each other.”

Edward Little (13-7) advances to face No. 2 Windham (16-4) in the AA North final at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Cross Arena.  In the regular season, Windham beat Edward Little 78-56 in the third game of the season, using a 20-2 run in the third quarter to blow open a close game.

Cheverus finished 15-4.

How did it happen?

• Edward Little got off to an 8-2 lead by crashing the boards and finding open spaces behind Cheverus’ half-court defense. Cheverus responded behind McNabb and Nicola Plalum (eight points, all in the first half) before Akol Maiwen, a junior, and his older brother, Diing, both hit 3-pointers for a 22-15 lead. Edward Little led 26-22 at the half after Diing Maiwen picked a loose ball off the floor and hit an elbow jumper at the buzzer.

• EL took its biggest lead, 32-22, by scoring the first six points in the second half. AJ Lauture provided a spark off the Cheverus bench with his defense and five points to complement McNabb. A McNabb buzzer-beating 3-pointer made it 37-35 EL after three quarters.

• Cheverus went ahead 39-38, its first lead since 11-10, when Sammy Nzeyimana hit an elbow jumper with 6:30 to play. The score didn’t change for three minutes.

“We had chances to make shots, to get the ball inside, and we didn’t do that. That was the time, but we just couldn’t find a way to do it,” said Cheverus coach Richie Ashley.

• Edward Little scored the next two baskets on fluky plays. Akol Maiwen (14 points) overthrew a lob to his brother, but the ball came back to Akol, who laid it in. After another empty Cheverus trip, the Stags failed to corral a defensive rebound, and like at the end of the half, EL got to the ball rolling on the floor. TJ Kramarz grabbed it, whipped a pass to Owen Galway (11 points) in the corner, and Galway drained a 3-pointer for a 43-39 lead.

“TJ just spun around and kicked it out to me and I just saw him saying ‘Hit it, hit it.’ So I just shot it and it felt good as soon as it left my hands,” Galway said.

They said it

“We wanted to get off to a good start, be the aggressor out of the gate, and I think we did a good job of that and that helped us settle in.” — Edward Little coach James Philbrook

“I’m going to miss (the Cheverus seniors) greatly. Certainly not the way we wanted to go out again. It will take a little while to get over this one, but I’m proud of them for sure.” — Cheverus coach Richie Ashley

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