LISBON FALLS – With two winless teams hooking up in Friday’s Mountain Valley Conference matinee, the result was destined to come down to how the team that took a large and/or late lead would handle its unfamiliar prosperity.

Mt. Abram built a big lead to start the fourth quarter, then held on for its life in the final two minutes to beat Lisbon to the win column with a 61-57 triumph.

Sam Simpson tallied a game-high 22 points to lead the Roadrunners (1-6) through an up-and-down second half that saw them nearly blow a late 11-point cushion.

“They’re juniors and seniors. They should be used to those situations. But we survived it,” Mt. Abram coach Mike DeRaps said. “I’m glad there wasn’t one more minute left on the clock.”

With the season nearing its midpoint, beggers can’t be choosers, though. And the Roadrunners have faced enough adversity to know Heal points are more important than style points at this point in the season.

“We’ve been plagued by injuries and people quitting or leaving because of school. One of my guys that was a starter up until the last couple of games couldn’t make it today, so we’re trying to do the best we can,” DeRaps said.

Corey Tripp and Kenny Moir chipped in with 11 points apiece for the Roadrunners. Scott Eck led Lisbon with 20 points, while Nick Jones added 17.

Mt. Abram, which led by as much as 14 in the second half, owned an 11-point bulge after Simpson put back his own miss with 3:20 remaining.

The Greyhounds (0-8) kept their distance until Eck broke their brief scoring drought by sinking a 3-pointer with 1:45 to go. Lisbon turned up its full-court press and got a Tobey Harrington block and a turnover which resulted in back-to-back Jones layups that pulled Lisbon within four with 55 seconds remaining.

“We made way too many turnovers, especially near the end of the game,” DeRaps said.

“Our goal has been to step it up on defense. With only two guys coming back (from last year), we’ve been a little weak on defense,” Lisbon coach Tim Meyer said. “These are the games that we want to win, but there are some positives coming out of this. Our turnover ratio was down, our rebounding ratio went up, and defensively we’re getting a little better.”

The Greyhounds are one of the smallest teams in the league and rebounding continued to hurt them at times Friday, right up to what turned out to be the game-clinching basket when Tripp put back his own miss with 37 seconds left.

Mt. Abram never trailed after the first quarter, scoring the final seven points of the period to carve out a 16-8 lead after one.

Offensively, both teams struggled where the points usually come easiest.

“We missed some layups off of fast break opportunities in the first quarter that hurt us, and then the foul-line was a problem,” said Meyer, whose team was 9-for-21 from the charity stripe.

Lisbon seemed to get untracked when Eck and Steve Obie teamed up on a nice give-and-go to pull within 18-14, but the Roadrunners widened the margin back to eight by halftime.

Their lead reached double figures for the first time when Simpson drilled a 3 with 5:35 left in the third. He later extended it to 13 with a pair of inside buckets, and then to 14 with his second 3-pointer to make it 42-28 late in the third.