MONMOUTH — In the first Mountain Valley Conference meeting at Lisbon, the Greyhounds surprised Monmouth Academy with a 46-38 victory, a win that will likely put Lisbon into the Class B South girls’ basketball playoffs.

The Mustangs, already locked into the No. 3 spot in Class C South, talked about that loss and proceeded to take their revenge, jumping out early and cruising to a 61-35 victory on Monday in the rematch.

Monmouth completed the regular season with a 15-3 mark, while the Greyhounds went 9-9.

“That was mentioned in the locker room before the game, and we wanted to end the season playing well,” said Monmouth coach Scott Wing, whose Mustangs darted out to a 16-3 first-quarter lead and didn’t look back. “That first half we did just about everything that we wanted to do. The only breakdowns we had were in defensive rebounding, but they didn’t put it back in either. We worked a lot on not letting them beat us with penetration.”

“We knew they were going to come out hard, but we didn’t come into this game with that mentality to just go out and play,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “Monmouth came out very strong, in your face, and we played timid, allowing some easy shots. We rushed for a while and just didn’t settle in.”

Tied 3-3 after matching 3-pointers by Monmouth’s Hannah Anderson and Lisbon’s Giana Russo, the Mustangs took off, scoring the final 13 points of the first quarter. Anderson nailed two treys and had eight points, while Abbey Allen picked up four.

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“We had to be ready for this game, get our confidence up and had to beat them,” said Anderson, who scored a game-high 19 points in the win. “We stayed in control and did what we wanted to do. We have all-around shooters and a lot of people stepped up tonight.”

The second quarter slowed a bit for Monmouth, but the Mustangs still out-scored the Greyhounds, 11-6, for a 27-9 halftime lead. Anderson and Allen both had 10 points at the break.

Third quarter surge

Lisbon finally found its offense in the third quarter, led by Ali Sult, who went inside twice for hoop-and-harms and picked up eight points as the Greyhounds put up 17 points to Monmouth’s 15.

“We settled down in the third quarter and ran our offense, and we finally did well breaking their press,” Petrie said.

However, Monmouth nearly matched Lisbon as Anderson picked up eight more points, while standout Tia Day, who went scoreless in the first half, nailed a 3-pointer. The Mustangs grabbed a 42-26 advantage heading to the fourth.

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“Tia is a good enough player that when teams take her away she can contribute the ball and leads the conference in assists,” said Wing, who watched Day finish with eight points, five assists and six rebounds. “She is not a selfish player at all and when people are all over her, she passes the ball.”

Lisbon’s cold shooting returned in the final frame, with Wing going to his bench as the lead extended out to 55-33 on a second Day 3-pointer.

Monmouth shot 32 percent (21-of-64) from the floor and made 11-of-21 at the free-throw line. Allen finished with 13 points, pulled down eight rebounds and dished out three assists. Maddie Amero had seven boards.

Russo paced Lisbon with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists, with Kaylin Le adding seven points and five boards. The Greyhounds shot just 25 percent (14-of-54) from the field and committed 29 turnovers.

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