As the final minutes ticked off the clock at Lisbon High School on Monday night, fans started double checking their schedules to make sure it wasn’t already the playoffs as the Greyhound (1-1) boys basketball team edged Oak Hill (1-1), 65- 64 in a thrilling Mountain Valley Conference match up.
During the fall football season, Oak Hill and Lisbon are seen as rivals to one another and on Monday it appeared it carried into the winter.
“Oak Hill and Lisbon are very close,” Gentle said. “I know they’re a huge rivalry in football and I don’t know if that carries over, but it’s always nice to have a real close-town rivalry in high school basketball.”
The first quarter featured nothing but back-and-forth action as both teams matched 3-pointers to open the contest, and the lead exchanged hands six times throughout the opening quarter with the Raiders holding a 23-19 lead at the completion of first frame.
Lisbon’s Tyrese Joseph ended the first quarter with a 3-point field goal to cut the deficit down to four, and his team took note as it went on a 6-0 run to start the second quarter to take a 25-23 advantage.
After both teams continued to match each other on the floor, the Greyhounds had a chance to go into the half with the lead with freethrow attempts from both Noah Carter and Andrew Golino. Both drained one shot each with only 12 seconds left to make it 34-32 in favor of the home team.
“We played very well,” Carter, who finished second on the night for Lisbon in points with 12, said. “We boxed out well, we’re a small team.”
Raiders strike back
With the Raiders being limited to only nine points in the second quarter, they were determined to turn things around in the second half, and it appeared the break helped as Oak Hill rolled to an 11-4 quarter advantage in the first twoplus minutes for a 43-38 advantage.
The Greyhounds stole back the momentum, wrapping up the final 5:34 of the third quarter with a 14-4 advantage and heading into the final frame with a threepoint lead, 50-47.
As the fourth quarter unfolded it was quickly determined that it was anyone’s game and it was going to come down to the final seconds to figure out who the winner was going to be.
With 1:55 remaining and the Greyhounds holding a six-point lead, it seemed the script had been written, but the Raiders fought back, with clutch shots from both Kyle Field and Dalton Therrien. Just over a minute remained in regulation and Therrien dished up a lay-up to bring the game within one and had a chance to tie it after being fouled.
Lisbon caught its breath after Therrien missed the potential equalizer, and after Josh Huston was fouled, the Greyhounds had a chance for an insurance point, but the Raiders went to work after Huston was unable to come up with the freebie.
Drew Gamage picked up the rebound on the failed free-throw attempt and handed it off to Therrien, who drove toward the basket. After his initial shot missed, the ball changed sides multiple times with two more Raider shots missing in between as the battle for the game had only seconds left.
With the ball on the end line for the Greyhounds after it was tipped out of play, the Greyhounds needed to keep possession to hold on to the victory and they were able to do so despite having the ball tipped in front of the Oak Hill arc.
“We talked about it after the first quarter,” Gentle said about his team’s defense. “We gave up 23 points in the first quarter and we knew we had to tighten up defensively. I’m really proud of the guys, they were able to fend off any jitters.”
“We brought the intensity and we came to play and we weren’t coming out losing,” Carter said. “We kept a cool head and you can’t be crazy because you turn the ball over like we almost did. We kept it cool and finished the job.”
Johnny Yim led the Greyhounds in points with 18 (13 in the first quarter), while Joseph and Joe Philbrick ended the night with eight rebounds apiece.
Adam Merrill totaled 10 points in the contest for the Raiders.
The Greyhounds look to carry the momentum into Wednesday’s game at Dirigo. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.
Lisbon 65, Oak Hill 64
At Lisbon High School
Oak Hill — 23 9 15 17 — 64
Lisbon — 19 15 16 15 — 65
Oak Hill — Adam Merrill 6-2-17, Dalton
Therrien 5-2-14, Jonah Martin 3-3-12,
Drew Gamage 4-0-8, Kyle Field 3-1-7,
Connor Elwell 0-2-2, Matt Strout 1-0-2,
Evan Boston 0-0-0, Duncan Trottier 0-2-2,
Totals — 22-12-64.
Lisbon — Jonah Sautter 3-2-9, Noah
Carter 5-0-12, Johnny Yim 7-1-18, Tyrese
Joseph 2-0-4, Darren Ward 1-0-2, Andrew
Golino 4-1-10, RJ Sargent 1-1-3, Joe
Philbrick 1-0-2, Josh Huston 2-0-5, Austin
Bedford 0-0-0, Totals — 26-5-65.
3-point goals — (OH) Merrill 3, Martin 3,
Therrien 2; (L) Yim 3, Carter 2, Sautter,
Golino, Huston.
Records — Lisbon 1-1; Oak Hill 1-1.
Up next for Lisbon — Wednesday at Dirigo, 7 p.m.
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