LISBON — Levi Tibbetts and Caden Boone led the way for Lisbon in a 53-37 MVC boys basketball victory over Hall-Dale on Monday night.
Tibbetts shouldered much of the offensive load in the first quarter for the Greyhounds. The junior forward scored eight points and pulled in six rebounds to help Lisbon to a 15-7 lead after the first eight minutes. Boone added a 3-pointer in the opening frame.
Tibbetts started the second quarter off with a layup, followed by a smooth drive to the hoop and score at the rim by Boone to quickly put Lisbon ahead 19-7 with 5:20 left in the first half.
Tibbetts finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, while Boone tallied 14 points and six boards.
“He’s super consistent,” Lisbon coach Jake Gentle said of Tibbetts. “He’s the centerpiece in there, he grabs rebounds for us as well as score on the offensive end. He does an outstanding job of timing his jumps for rebounds and he’s a tough guy to match up with. He’s a super smart kid, very athletic and we’re fortunate he comes to Lisbon.”
A couple minutes later, Tibbetts scored off a tip after a missed Lisbon shot that put the Greyhounds ahead 23-9. On the following possession, Hall-Dale’s TJ Wilson answered with a 3-pointer to pull the Bulldogs within 23-12 with 3:22 left in the first half.
Five Lisbon players scored in the second quarter, with Tibbetts leading with six points.
With four minutes left in the third, Tibbetts grabbed a rebound from right under the hoop and threw a pass to the other 3-point line where Boone was there to catch it and drive for a layup. The score put Lisbon up 40-18.
Tibbetts and Boone found each other multiple times for buckets and their friendship off the court is part of the reason for their success on the court.
“Levi’s my dog,” Boone said. “We are always fooling around together at practice but when it comes to the game, we just have a different click. We always seem to find each other.”
The Greyhounds outrebounded the Bulldogs 10-4 in the third quarter, with six coming on the offensive side.
“First half, I thought we played tremendous,” Gentle said. “Our defense was great, we rebounded well, we kept our turnovers low. The second half, we weren’t as efficient as we wanted to be and we didn’t get some looks to go down. Same with Hall-Dale, they had some looks in the first half that just didn’t go down for them and that just set the tempo of the game. We were fortunate to keep them to one shot and out, and it was good because they’ve got some guys that are athletic and can rebound. I thought we did a pretty good job of blocking them out and I thought we had a good first half.”
Boone scored Lisbon’s first five points of the fourth quarter, including in a banked-in 3-pointer, to give the Greyhounds a 47-28 lead with seven minutes left in the game.
“Caden, we put him on what we feel is the toughest offensive matchup for us and tonight it was (Wilson),” Gentle said. “I thought he did a great job with him, but I thought offensively he did a great job, too. He got probably eight or nine rebounds, a few offensive, some put-backs, and he made a 3 in the second half that got us going offensively after we stalled.”
Boone has been up to the defensive challenge of guarding the other team’s top scorer all season.
“That’s usually the game plan,” Boone said. “My mentality is to go play. Play hard defense and do what I do best, but (Wilson) was definitely hard to guard.”
With 4:55 to play, Boone found Tibbetts for an easy layup thanks to a slick pass. The score put Lisbon ahead 49-30.
Hall-Dale’s brightest highlight play came with three minutes remaining when Carter Bourque made a put-back dunk over Tibbetts to make it a 51-34 game. Bourque finished with 10 points for Hall-Dale.
Wilson led the Bulldogs with 13 points.
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