Boys’ Basketball: Brannon, Greyhounds shoot down Falcons

Mountain Valley’s shooting night was the stuff of nightmares.

Brannon finished with a season-high 28 points in a little under three quarters, including four 3-pointers, to lead the Greyhounds to a 68-17 win over the Falcons, Lisbon’s sixth win in a row.

“My teammates were setting me up good, getting me some good shots,” Brannon said. “It felt good.”

“That’s the best he’s shot all year,” Lisbon coach Jake Gentle said. “Last year, he was close to 50 percent from the floor all year. He struggled earlier in the season but he’s starting to come around. When he’s firing on all cylinders, everyone plays with more energy, and we’re a little tougher to defend.”

Brannon was unstoppable in a 14-point third quarter that saw him knock down three 3-pointers and the Greyhounds extend a 22-point halftime lead to 45.

“We’ve always come out stagnant in the third quarter, so one of the most important things was coming out and getting some padding on the lead,” Brannon said.

Mountain Valley missed its first 22 field-goal attempts and shot 1-for-30 from the floor through the first three quarters. Caleb Gauvin got the Falcons off the schneid with an inside hoop 2:14 into the third quarter.

“We really tried to limit their shots,” Gentle said. “They did a great job getting to the free throw line. They got us into some foul trouble early. Luckily, we held them to only three made baskets.”

Lisbon’s 1-3-1 zone played some part in that. The Greyhounds (8-5) swarmed Gauvin (six points, 11 rebounds) with 6-foot-6 Jacob Bremmer and 6-foot-5 Jacob Johnston any time he touched the ball. But the Falcons also had several good looks from in close that rolled out and couldn’t seem to catch a break.

“(Gauvin) gets the ball under the basket and makes some plays. He got one of our big guys in some foul trouble early,” Gentle said. “We focused on making sure he doesn’t get good position on us inside, and then, if he gets the ball, we double-down with our height.”

The Falcons (1-11) hung around for the better part of a quarter by getting to the free-throw line. But then they went cold from there, too, missing 12 in a row. The Greyhounds outscored them, 15-2, in the second quarter despite their own shooting slump (4-for-17).

“I thought we played decent defense in the first half,” Mountain Valley coach Tom Danylik said. “If we put half of those buckets in, it’s at least a decent game at halftime and it’s a whole different story in the second half. But if you can’t make it and they can’t miss it, it doesn’t add up.”

Riding Brannon’s hot hand, the Greyhounds made 10 of 13 shots in the third quarter. Kendal Roy added eight points and Andrew Golino seven for Lisbon. Curtis Steele added four points for Mountain Valley, which has lost 11 in a row since defeating Mt. Abram on in the season-opener.

“We’ve played, I’d say, three games where they played at the level I think they can play at,” Danylik said. “We gave Winthrop a good run. We played Wiscasset pretty tough. But have they progressed as far as I want them to? No. But they’re working hard and that’s all I can ask them to do.”

“Tonight is just a matter of becoming a better individual player, working on your skills, making shot and being confident with your dribble,” he said. “That’s what the summertime is for and that’s things that kids have got to put in on their own time. That’s the direction we need to go in.”

: Lisbon’s Johnny Yim grabs the rebound from his missed shot and drives to the basket again past Mountain Valley’s Caleb Gauvin, left, and Tom Marshall, center, during Friday night’s boys basketball game in Lisbon.

: Lisbon’s Kendal Roy, right, tries to steal the ball from Mountain Valley’s Tom Marshall during the first half of Friday night’s boys basketball game in Lisbon.

: After stealing the ball, Lisbon’s Tucker Brannon makes an acrobatic move to save the ball from going out of bounds during Friday night’s boys basketball game against Mountain Valley.