AUBURN — The team that headed for the locker room at halftime Friday night was different than the one that took the floor for the second half.

And you could say that for both teams.

The Edward Little girls’ basketball team had finished the half with 11 straight points and had a nice 15-point lead at halftime. Meanwhile, Mt. Ararat was a bit demoralized as the Red Eddies opened the lead on the Eagle in the second stanza.

The third quarter was the complete opposite. The Eagles rallied and took command of the game in the third quarter and held off EL for an impressive 52-41 comeback win.

“We just knew we had to take it one possession at a time,” said Mt. Ararat coach Kelly LaFountain. “That’s what we talked about in the locker room. I knew we had a good defensive team and a strong rebounding team. We had to rely on that and get out on their shooters.”

Mt. Ararat outscored EL 22-2 in the third quarter and ran off 15 straight to take a 36-31 lead after three quarters.

“I thought we really controlled the pace in the first half,” said EL coach Craig Jipson, whose team plays at Cony next. “The press is so key for us and you just can’t press when you’re not scoring. So we couldn’t get our zone pressure going.”

Though EL started to get some offensive rhythmn in the second quarter, taking advantage of  defensive stops, the Red Eddies struggled to score in the second half. EL shot just 4-for-20 and had 13 turnovers in the second half.

“The kids missed shots and kind of hung their heads,” said Jipson. “As much as we have some kids back, we miss the Mirandas (Martin) and Frankies (Lally) who could step up at those moments.”

Leah Hitchcock and Chelsea Crawford each scored 11 for the Eagles. Caitlin LaFountain, Mallory Nelson and Kristi Willey each added eight.

EL got 12 from Kory Norcross and 10 from Kate Sawyer. Last year’s top scorer, Ashlee Arnold, had just six points and was hindered by foul trouble before picking up her fifth with 1:37 left.

“They were hesitant,” said Jipson. “No one wanted to make mistakes. You can’t play the game that way. You can’t be afraid to make a mistake.”

EL looked good in opening the second quarter lead. Down 5-2 in the first quarter, Brooke Reynolds, Tiana Harriman and Kennedy Hubbard lit a spark coming off the bench. They provided some defense and a few baskets as EL opened a 12-7 lead.

In the second quarter, EL forced  seven turnovers and allowed Mt. Ararat to shoot just 3-for-11. Norcross led the offensive attack with nine points in the second as EL finished with an 11-0 run to finish the half.

The Eagles chipped away in the third and got back-to-back baskets from Nelson. Mt. Ararat scored seven straight to open the second half before Reynolds scored off a Sawyer feed. It would be the only points of the third quarter for EL.

“Our senior leadership really picked up in the third,” said LaFountain. “Leah Hitchcock had a monster game for us. I thought it was her intensity that picked everybody else up.”

Hitchcock had six straight during the 15-0 run to finish the quarter. Willey drilled a 3 that put the Eagles ahead for good.

“We started to get the ball into the high post more,” said LaFountain. “I thought that was really the key. We were able to get some inside-outside movement.  I thought we got some really good looks at the basket.”

Mt. Ararat shot 6-for-10 in the third and had just three turnovers in the third quarter.

“I was most disappointed in our defense,” said Jipson. “We’ve had a lot of times when we’d go 10 minutes without a basket, but defensively we let down because we felt sorry because we missed a shot. We’d let people dribble by us or let up the backdoor cuts.”

EL started to play better defense in the final quarter. Baskets by Arnold and Sawyer cut the lead to five points twice. Mt. Ararat finished strong, hitting 11-of-16 from the free-throw line in the fourth, 17-of-23 overall in the second half.

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