WISCASSET — Lisbon jumped out of the gates with an 11-4 run in Monday night’s girls basketball game against Wiscasset — and didn’t give the lead back all night.

Missed free throws from the Greyhounds kept the home side in the game, but tough defense and forced turnovers cemented the lead at six or more for the remainder of the contest. Lisbon went on to win the Moutain Valley conference game, 40-32.

“We kind of played roller coaster tonight,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “We pulled it off, but it wasn’t our prettiest basketball. I think defensively, we did pretty well and rebounding we did pretty well. We didn’t finish as well as we would’ve liked. We got to the line, but when you can’t make free throws, you can’t really capitalize off that.”

Lisbon (6-6) held Wiscasset (3-9) to just 10 first-half points and 29 percent from the floor. Junior Gabby Chapman had half of those points and finished with 11 total, but the Wolverines comitted 13 turnovers in the first half (27 total).

“I thought in the first half, we just didn’t play very hard,” Wiscasset coach Ben Clark said. “I thought they out-competed us. We can’t turn it over like we did. If you give up offensive rebounds, you’re not going to win many games.”

The Greyhounds dominated the glass, pulling in 14 offensive boards and 28 overall. Leading the way was guard Breean Sautter, who grabbed multiple rebounds after charging in from outside the arc, and tallied six of her seven in the second half. Sautter also chipped in with 11 points on offense and hit three treys.

“Offensively, our main goal was to just swing the ball around and stay calm,” Sautter said. “Against Wiscasset, we’ve had a tendency to panic, and it gets us in trouble. Most of the time coach wants us to shoot if we’re open, but I’d say more often than not, on out of bounds plays our goal is to score.”

After an 11-6 advantage in the first frame, Lisbon outscored Wiscasset 9-4 in the second quarter, and took a 10-point lead into the break. The Wolverines took both the third and fourth quarter 11-10, but were unable to take advantage of missed free throws on the other end. The Greyhounds converted just 8-of-32 free throw attempts on the night.

From the field, Lisbon was a bit stronger at 35 percent, and used four 3-pointers to keep the lead comfortable. Kaylin Le led all scorers with 12 points and had a pair of steals. All but one Greyhound that got into the game scored. Ultimately, it was the defense stepping up and taking control of the game, though, forcing backcourt interceptions and pressing high.

“Defensively, we’re pretty strong,” Petrie said of her team. “We’ve got kids that can react a little bit quicker. We like to do our half court trap and that worked occasionally. We tried to make them shoot from the outside, keep it out of the middle and get their big girl in foul trouble. We executed on that end.”

“Defensively, we know that they like to attack and that’s how they score most of their points, so our main goal was to make them shoot outside,” Sautter said. “We definitely need to improve our intensity, so I think that’s one of our main focuses.”

Senior Forward Colleen Hendricks provided a second half spark for Wiscasset, scoring all of her 11 points after halftime. The Wolverines’ other inside presence, Hayhlee Craig, chipped in with five points and four boards.

Calrk said his team is greatly missing the presence of starter Grace Webber, who is out with injury. More than stats, she “plays so hard and plays with such energy” and he gave credit to Lisbon for coming out strong.

“They attacked the basket well,” Clark said of Lisbon. “They’re well coached and they know we’re not very deep. They attack the rim, and that’s going to happen. But also they set that high screen and cut a girl off, and we didn’t guard it the way that we should have. We weren’t very sharp defensively.”

Wiscasset briefly cut the lead to six in the fourth quarter, but Sautter immediately responded with a trey at the other end. From there, the defense held strong and closed the game out, as the Greyhounds ended the night with 12 straight free throw attempts.

A Hendricks 3-pointer in the last minute came a tad too late, but Clark was pleased with the turnaround in the second half.

“I thought they competed,” Clark said of his team. “They’re resilient. Somehow they’re able to give up that many offensive rebounds and still be in a basketball game. They handled foul trouble well, and at the end of the game I thought we still had a chance.”

“We’re close. We’re seeing it every game and we’re getting there,” Clark said. “I wish we were having a little more success and winning some more games, but I think that’s going to come. They’ve been responding to it really well.”

Copy the Story Link