LISBON FALLS – The Lisbon Greyhounds have had some potential Cinderella moments against some of their toughest MVC competition.

But those moments have usually come in the first half of those games, and, try as they might, the Greyhounds haven’t been able to keep themselves from turning into pumpkins in the second half.

It happened again in an intense 52-45 matinee loss to Hall-Dale Saturday. Lisbon outplayed the second-ranked team in the Western C Heals for the first 20 minutes, only to go ice cold from the floor in the final 12.

The Greyhounds (6-7) would do well to take a few pointers from the Bulldogs (11-2), who came back from a seven-point deficit in the third quarter and regrouped after their leading scorer was ejected during a skirmish.

“We certainly kept our wits about us. I think it helped us focus,” Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow said. “For whatever reason, you get somebody coming off the bench that feels like they’ve got something to prove and the team rallies together.”

Joe Willett was the one who came off the bench with something to prove, scoring nine of his team-high 14 points in the second half. Ben Laflin also had 14 for the Bulldogs. Chris Kates paced Lisbon with 17 points.

Lisbon shot 62 percent from the field in the first half and 17 percent in the second, including 2-for-20 in the fourth quarter. Hall-Dale didn’t fare much better (31 percent) in the second half, but the Bulldogs went 9-for-12 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter to deny the Greyhounds some valuable Heal points.

“We forget that there are four quarters,” said Lisbon coach Doug Sautter. “We just could not buy a basket in the fourth. The defense was still there, but they scored points here and there and if you’re not scoring at all, you’re suddenly down four or five.”

Lisbon took its largest lead of the game early in the third on a steal and layup by Jared Martin (10 points off the bench). Laflin scored the next six points, including a pair of free throws resulting from a Lisbon technical for six men on the floor, to pull the Bulldogs within one.

Those would be the last points Laflin scored, however, as the junior was ejected for pushing a Lisbon player during a scrape over a loose ball. It proved to be the turning point for Hall-Dale, as Mike Wilkins missed both technical free throws. A Willett steal and layup gave the Bulldogs a one-point lead, which they took into the fourth quarter.

“Missing the two technicals hurt,” Sautter said. “And they made theirs on our technical for six men on the court.”

The Greyhounds tied the game for the last time with just over five minutes to play on a Levi Ervin putback that made it 42-42. Hall-Dale responded with an 8-0 run, with six of those points coming from the free throw stripe, including a technical on Lisbon for a dead ball foul.

Lisbon missed 13 of its first 14 shots in the quarter, but pulled within five on Martin’s 3-pointer with 56 seconds left. The Greyhounds had a chance to get closer following a Hall-Dale turnover, but Jack Leet had two crucial steals down the stretch to ice it.

“We went to the 2-3 zone (in the second half). You look at all of their hoops in the first half and I think two of them were outside of 12 feet,” Ranslow said. “As a coach, you like to hold your hand for as long as you can and then it’s time to come out with our strength.”

The Greyhounds effectively took away one of the Bulldogs’ strengths, 6-9 center Matt Wheelock, for most of the game. They surrounded the towering junior in the high and low posts and kept him off the offensive boards (six rebounds, zero offensive).

“We noticed some tendencies that he does and we took them away,” Sautter said. “I told the guys after the game that he’s one of the best players in our league and we held him to 10 points, four of which were foul shots in the last few minutes. We did a great job on him.”

Wheelock was a force on the defensive end though with seven blocks. Still, Lisbon was able to work around him in the early going with an up-tempo offense and some good ball movement sparked by Wilkins and Martin and take a 31-29 halftime lead.

rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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