PORTLAND —Edward Little made comebacks its trademark throughout the Eastern Class A boys’ basketball tournament, and it appeared for a time the Red Eddies just might find a way to make its Lazarus-like quality legendary with the state title on the line.

But a 19-point first-half deficit to Cheverus proved too much to overcome, and for the second straight year, Edward Little had to watch someone else lift the Gold Ball.

Cheverus dropped a record 10 3-pointers and held off the resilient Red Eddies in the  second half for a 55-50 victory before 5,500 fans at the Cumberland County Civic Center Saturday night. It is the Stags’ second state title in three years.

Indiana Faithfull scored a game-high 23 points, including four 3-pointers, and Griffin Brady added 13 points on three 3-pointers to lead Cheverus (21-1). Bo Leary tallied 19 points to lead Edward Little (19-3), while James Philbrook added 12 points and Timmy Mains dropped in 10.

“They’re a great team and we knew they were going to make a run at us,” said Faithfull, a senior guard from Australia. “We just had to stay strong and keep our heads.”

“We said that we had to pick our poison with them, and we wanted to stop penetration, and they came out and just shot the ball very, very well,” Edward Little coach Mike Adams said. “And we didn’t do a good job with handling their pressure. So those are the two things that made for just too big of an amount for us to overcome.”

After starting the game 2-for-10 from the field, EL shot 15-for-28 in the final three quarters. But the Eddies came out of the gate a step behind, which against Cheverus’ up-tempo attack inevitably proves fatal.

The Stags trailed only once, at 5-4 in the first quarter. They held EL to one point for the balance of the period and exploded for a 23-3 run as the lead ballooned to 19 midway through the second quarter. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Peter Gwilym and Louis DiStasio followed by a Alex Furness drive made it 27-8. Yusuf Iman (nine points) and Mains responded with threes to cut the deficit to 11 headed into halftime.

“To be down 12 in the first quarter — I’ve played against that team before and seen it go to 30 very quick,” said Adams. “These Auburn kids are just too tough. They battled back.”

EL started the second half with five straight steals — two by Iman and one each by Mains, Leary and Philbrook, to score the first seven points of the third quarter. Two free throws by Leary, a layup by Leary off a Philbrook steal, and Iman’s 3-pointer made it 31-27 with 5:55 left in the period.

That was as close as the Eddies would get. A hoop by Brady and a 3-pointer by Distasio quickly made it a nine-point game. Faithfull then sandwiched a pair of treys around one by Brady to give the Stags a 12-point bulge headed into the fourth quarter.

Cheverus shot 10-for-23 from the 3-point arc, 20-for-43 overall.

“Different guys made key shots,” Deering coach Bob Brown said. “Griffin Brady shot the ball unbelievable for us. Obviously, Indy did his thing. Everybody stepped up and did a nice job.”

“It seemed like even guys that according to scouts weren’t going to hit tonight (made shots), but that happens,” Adams said. “And they are a good team. So we had our hands full.”

After Mains’ 3 cut the lead to seven 44 seconds into the fourth, Brady hit the Stags’ final 3-pointer. That broke the record of nine set by Biddeford in 1991 and tied by Mountain Valley in 1994 and gave Cheverus another 10-point lead. But EL again battled back to within six on a hoop and two free throws by Leary.

“I tell you, a kid with a heart as big as this building is the Mains kid. Was he tough?” Brown said. “They got back into it by outplaying us at those times. Obviously, we made mistakes, but it was because they made us make mistakes.”

A three-point play by Faithfull and a putback by Philbrook made it a seven-point game with 2:19 to play. A wild sequence followed in which Iman stripped the ball from Faithfull and had nothing but open court in front of him to make it a two-possession game with about 90 seconds remaining. Faithfull, however, grabbed Iman by the shirt or shorts from behind and restrained him from getting to the loose ball. The whistle never blew, and Faithfull recovered the ball for Cheverus.

It turned into a free throw shooting contest after that, with Faithfull draining four straight to clinch the title and deny EL its first state basketball crown since 1946.

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