LISBON — Pesky Lisbon hung around for a half, but Boothbay pulled away in the second half of its 51-26 girls’ basketball win Wednesday.

The Greyhounds scored the last four points — via two layups by Giana Russo — and eight of the last 10 points of the second quarter to head into the break down by only seven, 24-17, against the defending Class C South champions.

“We were really strong in the first half,” Lisbon’s Kaylin Le said. “I thought we came out stronger than we would, and we didn’t come out as scared as I thought we were going to.

“We just said we have nothing to lose, and we came in with our heads held high and just played our game.”

But Seahawks forward Page Brown scored 13 points in the third quarter and the Greyhounds were held to only five. Boothbay then outscored Lisbon 12-5 in the final period.

“Honestly, I think we maybe got them a little excited at that point,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “And kind of, ‘Oh my God, we’re in the game,’ and then we just kind of … I don’t think it was running out of gas, I think we got a little excited and anxious.

Brown finished with a game-high 27 points, and Faith Blethen scored 14. Those two highlight a starting frontcourt that stands 5-foot-11 (Brown and Nicole Clarke) and 6-1 (Blethen). Lisbon’s tallest starters were 5-7. The Greyhounds employed some different defenses to combat the overwhelming size disadvantage.

“We did (triangle-and-two) and a box-and-one. Not real familiar with (either), but why not?” Petrie said.

“It was meant to frustrate them, so not bad for the first trial.”

Petrie said Lisbon had only one practice to work on the two defense, but they worked as planned in the first half.

“I thought it was a good test for us,” Boothbay coach Tanner Grover said. “Their defensive intensity, and their triangle-and-two is something we probably haven’t seen the last of this year, with a couple of big scorers.”

“It’s something that we expect to see throughout the season,” Grover added, “and tonight it was good to get a taste of that.”

The Greyhounds also managed to get Blethen in foul trouble. She picked up her third with a little less than four minutes to play in the first half. That was a hit to the Seahawks’ press defense, which is led by Blethen at the top.

“It was great to deal with that kind of adversity,” Grover said. “We got big minutes of the bench from Lexi Welch, and she really held the line for us and did a nice job.”

But after the break, Brown took over in the post, making field goals and drawing several fouls that resulted in five made free throws. Meanwhile, Lisbon struggled to make passes past Boothbay’s long arms, and weren’t able to keep the Seahawks off the boards.

“(We) did not take care of the ball at all in the second half, which is unfortunate, because great teams like that definitely take advantage,” Petrie said.

“They, like, eat you alive. They’re big, they’re huge, you know, we figure they’re 8 feet tall with their arms in the air … so we need to get better at recognizing when to a pass, when to make a bounce pass, even in the post we forced stuff.”

Petrie said the Greyhounds also didn’t box out as well as they could have on rebounds.

Russo came off the bench and led Lisbon with nine points. Kaylin Le added five and Jasmine Le finished with four.

The Greyhounds (2-2), who next play at Dirigo on Thursday, took some satisfaction from Tuesday’s loss.

“Definitely a learning experience that you could even stay with a team (that good),” Petrie said. “I was hoping for a quarter, and we stayed (with them) for a half, which is great.

“We went in (with) a mindset of nothing to lose, everything to gain, and let’s see what we can do against a really good team.

“So, ups and downs, but we’ll get better as the season goes on.”

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