AUGUSTA — Bo Leary has been the centerpiece of the Edward Little boys’ basketball team all season long. So when he’s a little off his game, one would expect the Red Eddies to falter.

Not so fast.

Tuesday night, Leary’s aggressiveness was limited due to foul trouble so the other four Edward Little starters all turned in clutch performances in a 70-65 Eastern Class A semifinal victory over Hampden at the Augusta Civic Center.

Leary picked up his third foul in the closing seconds of the first half when he was a little too aggressive trying to grab an offensive rebound. While the senior backed off from being physical in the third quarter, his teammates stepped forward and turned in double-digit performances on the score sheet.

Quin Leary scored a team-high 17 points while fellow forward Brandon Giguere scored 12. The third-seeded Red Eddies also received solid contributions from senior guards Cody Nicholas and Timmy Mains. Nicholas drained three shots from beyond the 3-point arc while Mains scored all of his 14 points in the second half.

“Everybody stepped up tonight,” said Edward Little coach Mike Adams whose team will make its fourth straight trip to the regional finals Friday night.

Hampden coach Russ Bartlett echoed those same thoughts.

“Our defense was good on (Bo), but their role players played really well tonight.”

While the Red Eddies (19-1) received balanced scoring all night long from the starters, it was their effectiveness at the free-throw line that stood out. For the game, the Red Eddies hit an incredible 21-of-24 shots from the charity stripe. They were 14-of-16 in the fourth quarter as the Broncos (16-4) sent one Red Eddie after another to the line in a vain attempt to get back into the game.

Giguere’s 10-footer along the baseline gave the Red Eddies a 60-54 lead midway through the final quarter, From there, the Red Eddies scored their final 10 points at the foul line. Giguere hit a pair to push the lead to 62-54. Moments later, it was Mains hitting both of his free throws with less than a minute to play.

“At that point,” said Bartlett, “whoever made the catch was going to get fouled. We tried to make a play on the ball with the first guy and have the second guy foul.”

With all five starters “feeling it,” it didn’t matter who stepped to the line for Edward Little.

“You can’t really think of the situation,” said Mains, who was successful on 7-of-8 from the line in the final quarter. “You just need to make the shot. It’s all about focusing.”

“We’ve kind of been fire and ice at the free-throw line,” said Adams. “I think the guys are just more focused. They’ve been really good in practice and in the games.”

While the Red Eddies were picking up their points at the line, senior guard Graham Safford was burying circus shots from the 3-point line to keep the Broncos within striking distance. Safford hit seven of the Broncos’ tourney record 12 treys and finished with 27 points.

With 43 seconds left in the game, Safford tossed in a trifecta off his dribble at the top of the key as the Broncos pulled to within five points. He then hit a leaning attempt with 20.7 seconds left to cut the Red Eddie lead to 66-62. After a pair of free throws by Nicholas with 14.3 seconds left, Safford nailed a 25-footer from the left side before a pair of Mains’ free throws salted the game away.

Safford was incredible all night long on the offensive end and made Mains expend a great deal of energy.

“He’s a good player,” said Mains. “The first quarter I was exhausted. It’s tough to stay with him.”

Safford’s most explosive play came in the third quarter when the 5-foot-11 guard brought the Hampden crowd to its collective feet with a thunderous right-handed dunk in transition which gave his team a 46-43 lead.

Bo Leary finished with 15 points and six rebounds. He wasn’t given much room by the Broncos’ collapsing defense, but that just left more room for his teammates to operate.

“We scored enough points to win tonight,” summed up Bartlett. “But our defense didn’t play as well as we needed it to.”

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