Boys basketball: Levi Tibbetts, Lisbon slam Poland in B South prelim

LISBON — Levi Tibbett’s two-handed slam was as emphatic as as it was emblematic of Lisbon’s home playoff win Tuesday.

The hard throwdown was more impactful than the two points it gave the Greyhounds as they were pulling away from Poland en route to a 73-48 victory a Class B South boys basketball prelim.

“That right there, when I did that, I think that got the crowd into it, got our team into it, and we never really looked back after that, so I think that was a big piece,” Tibbetts, who scored a game-high 26 points, said. “Big piece for us mentally and on the scoreboard.”

The fifth-seeded Greyhounds (15-3) advance to the regional quarterfinals, where they will face No. 4 Medomak Valley. The 12th-seeded Knights finish their season with a 6-13 record.

“We played a good, hard basketball game. They played a fantastic basketball game,” Poland coach Bill Flynn said. “They shot the ball extremely well. And I don’t think we played bad defense, I think they just shot the ball really well. And our guys played really hard and we didn’t shoot the ball.

“Basketball is a pretty simple sport, you know? We got to put the ball in the basket a little bit better. But it was a credit to them, they played outstanding. I don’t think we played a bad game, I think they played really well and it just got away from us because we couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”

Tibbett’s dunk came in the third quarter and stretched the Greyhounds’ lead to 43-24 as part of a 10-0 Lisbon run after the teams traded baskets to start the second half.

Tibbetts said the halftime talk was all about defense.

“We held them to five points in the second quarter. (Head coach Jake Gentle) said, ‘You know, if we play defense like that, we just got to put the ball in the hoop and we’re going to win the game.’ And that’s what we did in the second half,” Tibbetts said.

Gentle said he didn’t like Lisbon’s first-quarter defense, which gave up six baskets to the Knights. Yet the Greyhounds held the lead, 20-17, after eight minutes, thanks to 10 points from Tibbetts and seven more from hot-hand Charlie Doyle.

“We didn’t hedge out like we needed to on their screens and gave a lot of open shots,” Gentle said. “We really tightened up a lot in the second and third quarters with that, and thought that our pressure defense was pretty good.”

Hayden Christner scored eight of Poland’s first-quarter points but was held to two the rest of the way. Hunter Gibson scored the Knights’ other nine points in the opening period and finished with a team-high 21. Poland briefly led in the second quarter after layup by John Patenaude (13 points) before Lisbon finished the first half on a 12-1 run.

Gibson also had the task of being the primary defender against Tibbetts, who Flynn called “a load.”

“We did a nice job of getting two guys on him, it was the other guys that really kind of stepped up,” Flynn said.

Besides Doyle in the first quarter, Lisbon got all seven of Mason Booker’s points in the third quarter and nine of Caden Boone’s 16 in the fourth.

Doyle finished with 13 points for Lisbon.

“It’s a difference-maker. When you have more than one guy scoring, it really opens things up,” Gentle said. “It makes it so people can’t double- and triple-team Levi because they have to start worrying about other players. And that’s our philosophy all year, is we want to make sure that we have balanced scoring.”

Tibbetts said he was happy to see his teammates step up as well.

“I think it’s really good for our team morale, going into a big game, going up to the (Portland) Expo Friday, I think that’s really the best thing for us, is really getting a good team win, and I think that’s exactly what we got tonight,” Tibbetts said.