PORTLAND — Entering the Class B South tournament as a sixth seed isn’t about to make the Wells Warriors assume they are underdogs.

In fact, just last year the Warriors went all the way to the regional final as an eighth seed.

The Warriors played like the tournament-tested team and, after feeling out No. 3 Lisbon for a quarter-and-a-half of Friday’s quarterfinal, took control in the second and third quarters to win going away, 61-36, at the Portland Expo on Friday.

It was an upset in seeding only.

“We came in off of three straight losses coming into the tournament,” Wells coach Troy Brown said, “so this week it was very imperative for us to get back to what I think are our old ways of good defense. So I was very happy with how we came out. We missed some shots but we never let off the gas on defense.”

“Wells is a pretty experienced team here,” Lisbon coach Jake Gentle said. “They’ve been in three regional finals. They have some really good players, they play in a tough conference. Their coach does an unbelievable job with them. We just didn’t have in the second half.”

Junior guard Caleb Corey scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the first half to lead the Warriors (9-10), who will face No. 7 Cape Elizabeth in the semifinals next Tuesday at the Expo. Gavyn Leighton added 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Nate Chandler chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Mason Booker led the Greyhounds (10-9) with 10 points and DJ Douglass added nine points.

Leading 20-17 midway through the second quarter, Wells ended the half with a 10-4 run, punctuated by Corey’s fourth 3-pointer of the half to beat the halftime buzzer for a 30-21 lead.

“We were holding for one shot, and they did a good job of getting the tie-up and unfortunately the possession arrow was in their favor,” Gentle said. “We had a hand in the kid’s face. He just made a deep 3 on us, which made it from a six-point game to a nine-point game, and we didn’t respond in the second half, coming out.”

Wells extended its lead by scoring the first eight points of the second half, first by going inside to Chandler, then, after Corey made two free throws, with Covy Dufort making a nice backdoor feed to Leighton for a layup that made it 36-21.

Owen Smith cut off Wells’ run but not its momentum with an inside hoop for Lisbon. The Warriors responded with the next 10 points, featuring a steal and layup by Dufort and a putback by Leighton for a 46-23 lead.

“We had looks. They just didn’t fall,” Gentle said. “And when they don’t fall, they come down and they get inside penetration on us and then they use their height and they made some easy baskets. That allowed them to go on that big run in the third quarter to start.”

The Greyhounds were playing without their top big man, 6-foot-3 sophomore, Ring Ring who was on the bench in street clothes for an undisclosed, non-injury-related reason, according to Gentle.

The Warriors outscored the Greyhounds, 20-5, in the third quarter.
The Warriors limited Douglass, Lisbon’s career 1,000-point scorer, to two points in the first half.

“The things with Douglass is you’re used to guarding right at the 3-point line against a good three-point shooter,” Brown said. “You need to go another two feet against him, and that’s hard to change your style all of a sudden. We were concerned against him.”

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