AUBURN — You’ve heard of a final score that doesn’t do the actual game justice?

Undefeated Cony’s 65-56 victory over Edward Little in a KVAC girls’ basketball showdown Tuesday night falls into that category at both ends of the spectrum.

It doesn’t explain how close we were to both a Rams rout or a Red Eddies comeback for the ages. For many frenzied minutes, either seemed like a reasonable or even likely outcome.

But then, the coaches and players who lived through a wild, wacky, all-over-the-charts classic in Augusta on the other side of Christmas knew better than to think any lead or trend was safe.

“We got to go on our run, and then their run came. We were up 16, and there’s no way we came to this gym thinking that’s what we were going to do,” Cony coach Karen Magnusson said. “It was going to be a close game.”

EL (10-3) trailed by 14 points at halftime and was down 19 with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter before the inevitable rally.

Ashlee Arnold and Crissy Lewis combined for 16 points in a brilliant stretch that cut Cony’s advantage to 45-39 with a quarter to play.

Arnold, Lewis and Kory Norcross went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line and edged the Eddies within one, 47-46, at the six-minute mark of the fourth.

Then came the answer from Cony (13-0), in the form of four straight inside buckets to trigger a 15-4 push.

Mia Diplock and Josie Lee each delivered a 3-point play after the Rams found daylight in the Eddies’ half court trap.

“We cut it to four. Diplock comes down, no (defender) had the ball. The first thing you match up with is the ball. Diplock gets a wide-open shot,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “ We cut it to four again and let Diplock drive to the rim.”

Diplock scored 11 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to go with nine rebounds. Lee added 13 points and 10 boards.

Melanie Guzman and Julie Arbour each chipped in 12 points for the Rams, who prevailed 65-64 in the previous meeting after EL built an early lead.

“It’s just the timing of your runs. They made a great run, but their run gave us time to make a run back,” Magnusson said. “Take four minutes of the clock and that’s a close, close ballgame, but we got to make our run at the end.”

Arnold led EL with 20 points, including 13-for-16 from the line. Lewis finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds and dominated down low for a long stretch in the second half. Kate Sawyer scored eight of her 12 points after intermission.

EL simply couldn’t dig completely out of its early hole, one that resulted from a 6-for-20 start from the floor, 13 turnovers and a glaring 28-14 Cony rebounding advantage in the first half.

“In the second half we had confidence going to the rim. They’re so athletic, but I think we gave them too much respect to start the game,” Jipson said. “They’re a really, really good basketball team, but they’re not a great defensive basketball team.”

First off the Cony bench, Arbour rained down two 3-pointers and helped the Rams to a 14-9 lead.

Diplock and Guzman ruled the paint to the tune of 15 points and eight offensive rebounds in the half. Cony took a 31-17 lead into the locker room.

“They were running the floor and we were just kind of standing there,” Jipson said. “We get caught in no-man’s land a lot of times when the shot goes up. Either go after the offensive rebound or get back and play defense, and we tend to just stand there.”

Cony took a huge jump toward the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Class A tournament with the victory. No other team in the region has fewer than three losses.

“I wouldn’t have believed (the undefeated record),” Magnusson said. “Everybody in our conference has had a hard schedule because there are so many good teams.”

Still, this was the Eddies’ last titanic test before the playoffs. EL won’t face a team with a current winning record in its final five games.

“We hope this wakes us up for the last third of the season,” Jipson said. “We showed a lot of character in the second half and a lot of fire.”

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