The Lisbon Greyhounds jumped out to a 16-4 lead after one quarter and held off a late rally from Mountain Valley to edge the Falcons, 39-36 in girls high school basketball Mountain Valley Conference action.
The Falcons failed to convert the next time down the court, and after a made free throw by Lisbon, Cox snagged her 14th rebound of the game to seal the victory for Lisbon.
“That girl, she’s probably sick of me telling her ‘finish, finish, finish,’” said Lisbon coach Julie Petrie of her sophomore forward.
“Coach is always telling us to finish our shots. If you’re going to take a shot, make sure you finish, that’s our goal,” said Cox.
“We talked in the locker room and came out with the fire we needed,” said Cox. “We came out with a lot of intensity.”
“They’re optimistic when they play. For them, it’s what is given to them,” said Mountain Valley coach Ryan Casey. “We wanted to push the tempo, and they responded.”
Lisbon’s defense posed problems for the Falcons early, forcing five first-quarter turnovers.
“Tonight’s the first time I didn’t switch defenses in a long time,” said Petrie. “I rotated the girls quite a bit. We had nothing to lose tonight coming into the game and I think they were relaxed.”
The defense suffocated the visitors, racing out to a 12- point lead after eight minutes. The Greyhounds also outrebounded the Falcons, 12-3 in the opening quarter.
“Lisbon did a great job, played with a ton of composure and played a complete game,” said Casey.
The tempo slowed some in the second quarter, but Mountain Valley continued to struggle to find points. Fortunately for the Falcons, Lisbon had a harder time. The visitors were able to cut the lead to seven at the break behind freshman Rylee Sevigny’s seven points.
Giana Russo and Cox each registered seven first-half points, while Mallory Fairbanks added four points and three steals.
Each team scored six third-quarter points with Lisbon taking a 26-19 lead into the final frame, where things got interesting. Trailing by nine early in the quarter, the Falcon offense began to click.
“We started to work together at the end and got some open three’s,” said Sevigny.
The freshman hit a pair of trey’s to cut the Lisbon lead to 35-29 with under two minutes remaining.
“She’s learning every day how to be a leader on the floor and facilitate an offense,” said Casey. “As a freshman with no varsity experience, she has quite the learning curve.”
The Mountain Valley defense forced a couple of Lisbon turnovers and two put backs from Courtney Carrier found the Falcons trailing 36-33 with 39 seconds remaining.
“We knew we were run- ning out of time and we needed to hit some shots,” said Sevigny. “We shot terrible the whole game, but started getting them at the end.”
“We got a little nervous there at the end, but I told the girls to relax, you’re all guards, protect the ball,” said Petrie.
Lisbon protected the ball and came away with the victory.
Sevigny finished with a game-high 17 points, while Carrier added eight and Lyons seven.
Russo finished with a team-high 14 points for Lisbon, while Cox added 10. Fairbanks finished with six points and seven rebounds to go with her five steals.
For the Greyhounds (6- 10), they face undefeated Boothbay and Oak Hill to finish out the regular season. Petrie hopes she will see more of the same.
“When we run and create stuff, we’re strong. We just have to be able to keep it under control while we’re doing it,” said the coach.
Lisbon 39, Mountain Valley 36
At Lisbon
| Mt. | Valley | — | 4 | 9 | 6 | 17 | — | 36 | |
| Lisbon | — | 16 | 4 | 6 | 13 | — | 39 |
Mountain Valley — Rylee Sevigny 6-
2-17, Brooke Carver 0-0-0, Avery
Sevigny 0-0-0, Emma Casey 0-0-0,
Courtney Carrier 4-0-8, Amanda
Pierce 0-0-0, Saydie Garbarini 1-0-2,
Alyvia Lee 1-0-2, Kierstyn Lyons 3-0-
7. Totals — 15-2-36.
Lisbon — Valerie Doucette 0-2-2,
Siara Martin 0-0-0, Mallory Fairbanks
2-2-6, Charlee Cox 3-5-11, Kiley Merritt 1-0-2, Giana Russo 3-7-14, Carly
Drischler 0-0-0, Savannah Fisher 1-0-
2, Morgan Fenderson 0-0-0, Anna
Willey 0-0-0, Sydney Plourde 1-0-2.
Totals — 11-16-39.
3-point goals — (MV) R. Sevigny 3,
Lyons; (L) Russo.
Records — Lisbon 6-10; Mountain
Valley 10-6.
Up next for Greyhounds — Friday at
home against Boothbay, 7 p.m.
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