LEWISTON — It can’t be this easy, can it?

It wasn’t for Edward Little, which had to be asking itself that question after missing just two shots in the first quarter while storming out to an 11-point lead over unbeaten rival Lewiston on Friday night.

The Red Eddies held onto their stockings through their nightmare-before-Christmas third quarter, then held off the Blue Devils early in the fourth before pulling away for a 61-50 victory that moved both teams to 4-1 on the season.

Quin Leary led the Eddies with a game-high 19 points and six rebounds while Ian Therriault scored 12 of his 16 points (to go with six boards and five assists) in the fourth quarter. Omar Haji-Hersi chipped in with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three steals.

Shawn Ricker paced the Blue Devils with 13 points and five rebounds while Josh Thomas came off the bench to score nine points on three 3-pointers.

The Eddies started the game making 10 of their first 12 shots en route to a 17-point lead late in the first half.

“We used their aggressiveness against them a little bit, I think, and that was good. But at the same time, at halftime we said that’s not who we are,” EL coach Mike Adams said. “We don’t want to settle for quick shots.”

Yet they still did at the start the second half, sinking just two of 15 attempts as the Devils whittled a 15-point halftime lead down to three.

Lewiston, meanwhile, was starting to find the range after shooting just 36 percent in the first half. Thomas knocked down a pair of 3’s in the third quarter and Steven Patrie drilled one from the top of the key to spark a 14-2 Lewiston run.

Ricker was fouled while shooting a jumper to beat the horn at the end of the period and hit one of two freebies to make it 40-37 Eddies heading into the final quarter.

“We kind of got caught up with the hectic stuff,” Leary said. “We were forcing shots, quick shots, stuff we didn’t need.”

“We let them control the whole game,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “There was one segment at the start of the second half where we got the tempo the way we wanted it. I was real proud of the way our kids responded in the second half. That shows me we have some pretty good people that will compete for 32 minutes.”

The Devils got as close as two points when Ricker hit a pair of free throws 20 seconds into the fourth. Therriault responded with seven straight points and 10 of the first 12 EL points in the quarter as the Eddies opened the lead back up to nine when Nate Alexander (seven points, seven rebounds) drove baseline, drew a defender and dished to Therriault in the paint for two.

Lewiston pulled back to within six a couple of more times, but the Eddies stayed patient on offense, took care of the ball and got to the free throw line to pull away.

“You’ve just got to be strong with the ball, like we practiced all week, step to your passes, step to the ball, strong rips, strong cuts. You’ve just got to be stronger than them,” Leary said.

Led by Haji-Hersi, Alexander and Aaron Crenshaw (five points, eight rebounds off the bench), EL dominated the offensive glass, 14-4.

“I thought we rebounded the ball really well,” Adams said. “I was worried because they’re strong and they’re aggressive. It’s a good win to end that first part of the season with and now we can have a couple of days to recover.”

Lewiston has not beaten EL since December of 2007.

“Whether it’s a mental block… I don’t know what it is, because, on paper, we’re straight up with that team,” Farrar said.