PORTLAND — A pair of seniors set the tone for Medomak Valley in its Class B South boys basketball quarterfinal matchup with Lisbon on Friday.
Patrick McKenney’s and Trevor Brown’s scoring and on defense paced the Panthers to a 60-47 victory at the Portland Expo.
Brown put up a game-high 24 points on 12-for-17 shooting, and McKenney scored 21 points. The seniors also made important shots and big plays throughout the game.
“We’ve been playing together since fourth grade,” Brown said of himself and McKenney. “We have been building chemistry and we know how to play together and we proved that tonight.”
No. 4 Medomak Valley (16-4) advances to the regional semifinals, where it will face No. 9 Maranacook (10-8) on Tuesday at the Expo at 7:45 p.m. The Black Bears upset top-seeded Spruce Mountain 38-31 in the game that followed the Panthers win over the Greyhounds.
McKenney’s 15 first-half points in Friday’s game paced Medomak Valley as it built a 33-17 lead at halftime.
The Panthers finished the first quarter on an 11-1 run, including back-to-back putbacks by Jacob Craig, and headed into the second quarter with an 18-5 advantage. Medomak out-rebounded Lisbon 9-4 in the opening period.
A Mason Booker 3-pointer and a free throw, as well as a free throw from Caden Boone, were the only points mustered by the Greyhounds in the first.
Brown started the started period with a steal and a layup on the fast break to extend the Panthers’ cushion to 20-5.
Brown scored eight points in the second quarter and 12 in the first half. He also had on two of Medomak’s eight first-half steals.
Levi Tibbetts, Lisbon’s big man and the lynchpin of the Greyhounds’ offense this season, scored his first points with 6:30 left in the first half on a layup that made the score 22-9. However, McKenney answered right back with a 3-pointer to prevent the Greyhounds from gaining momentum.
“He was a big focus,” Medomak coach Nick DePatsy said of Tibbetts. “He’s the type of kid who is very smart, and if he misses, he goes after it. Our main concern was getting a body on him and keeping him off the boards. He had one offensive rebound, which I am very happy with.”
“All the practices leading up to it we worked on doubling down on him,” Brown added. “We watched film on him and all their offense rolls through that kid right there. I thought we did a pretty good job today.”
With 2:30 left in the first half, Medomak called timeout after a Tibbetts layup that brought the Greyhounds within 10 points, 27-17. Following the short break, the Panthers scored six quick points to stretch the lead to 33-17.
The Panthers continued to attack in the third quarter.
Brown scored six more points and Medomak maintained its defensive pressure and grew the lead to 49-26 lead after three periods.
They Greyhounds, though, weren’t done fighting. They scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to 49-32.
Lisbon continued to chip away at Medomak’s lead. The rally was led by Booker, who scored 13 of his team-high 20 points in the period.
“I thought Mason was spectacular tonight,” Gentle said. “He drove the lane tonight, hit shots from the outside and had one of the best games of his career. I am super proud of how he played.”
Later, Boone hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 54-43 with 2:40 remaining in the game, the closest the Greyhounds had been to the Panthers since the first quarter.
“I thought we didn’t come out as well as we wanted in the third, but in the fourth we cut it to 11 with a chance to cut it to nine, but we made a turnover. And that’s what really killed us was the turnovers,” Lisbon coach Jake Gentle said.
Brown scored on a fast break layup soon after and Boone’s 3, and Medomak held off Lisbon’s last advances in the waning moments of the game.
Gentle was proud of the Greyhounds’ resiliency at the end of the game.
“Their willingness to not give up and just battle. I am super proud that we kept battling and battling, and we made some shots, which helped,” Gentle said. “At the end of the day, we just didn’t put the ball in the basket enough.”
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