BOOTHBAY — Lisbon learned Saturday night that having the fate of its season in its own hands when Boothbay is the opponent is a very risky scenario.
Boothbay stripped the Greyhounds of the ball, and the ability to control their own destiny, during a 22-2 run in the first half and cruised to a 63-44 victory.
The loss means Lisbon (8-9) will need to beat Oak Hill in its season-finale on Wednesday and get some help elsewhere to secure a Class B South tournament prelim game. Meanwhile, Boothbay (12-5) essentially locked up a home prelim game in the Class C South tournament with the win, its fourth in a row.
Using a 2-3 zone, the Seahawks limited the Greyhounds to 25 percent shooting (15-for-60) from the floor, while shooting a crisp 49 percent (25-for-52) at the other end.
Led by junior guard Steve Reny (18 points, seven steals), Boothbay forced a dozen Lisbon turnovers. While the Seahawks had one more turnover on the night, it was their ability to convert those that they did force into points that played a major role in the game-changing run.
“The difference is our turnovers ended up with layups for them,” Lisbon coach Jake Gentle said. “They capitalized off of our turnovers.”
Reny, who missed Boothbay’s season-opening 64-52 loss at Lisbon with a hip injury, was the chief culprit. Back-to-back uncontested layups late in the first quarter turned a 14-13 deficit into a lead the Seahawks never relinquished.
Another steal and layup by Reny put the Seahawks up 23-14 early in the second period. Boothbay made six of its first seven shots while Lisbon missed seven of its first eight, highlighted by Elijah Gudroe’s three-point play off of yet another turnover that helped boost the margin to 35-19.
“I didn’t know going in, do I go zone because of their shooters or do I match up man-to-man?” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “I figured if I go zone and it doesn’t work, if I go man and it doesn’t work, I don’t know what to do. The kids did a pretty good job because they have three guys that shoot the 3 really well.”
“We didn’t shoot very well from the 3-point line,” said Gentle, whose team was 11-for-39 (28 percent) from beyond the arc. “Last time we played them, we shot at a higher percentage. The last couple of games we just haven’t been shooting from the 3-point line very well.”
Lisbon found the range briefly and closed the gap to 13 before halftime courtesy back-to-back 3-pointers by Jonah Sautter.
Another Sautter 3 and a trey by Josh Huston got the Greyhounds back within single digits, 42-33, midway through the third. But a nifty reverse layup by Gudroe sparked a 10-2 Boothbay run to close the quarter that inflated the cushion back to an insurmountable 17 points.
Gudroe finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Kyle Ames added 13 points for Boothbay. DJ Douglass led Lisbon with 15 points, while Sautter finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Sautter, who reached the 1,000-career-point milestone last Thursday against Mountain Valley, tied Dave Bubar’s all-time school scoring mark with his 14th point.
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