LISBON — After an eight-day layoff, Lisbon coach Jake Gentle might have worried that his team was going to come out slow for its Saturday afternoon Mountain Valley Conference boys’ high school basketball game against winless Wiscasset.
Gentle didn’t need to worry. The Greyhounds sprinted out to a 13-0 lead and pulled away from there for a 74-37 victory.
Lisbon improved to 4-3, while the Wolverines fell to 0-8. Both teams play on Monday — the Greyhounds at Telstar and Wiscasset at home to rival Boothbay.
A subtle switch in defensive strategy freed up the Greyhounds to run the floor, leading to a quick 13-0 edge out of the gate.
“We ran something that we hadn’t run all year, and the focus today was to get up and down and score some easy baskets,” said Gentle, who watched Sautter score Lisbon’s first five points.
“Coach emphasizes that when we have these breaks he wants us to make sure we are coming into the gym, go up and down the floor to keep us in shape,” Sautter said. “Games like this against Wiscasset, we know they haven’t won. But we had to come out and play hard.”
Trailing 13-0, Wiscasset first-year coach Seth Farrington inserted returning Zach Reed into the lineup. In his first game this season, Reed found his stroke quickly, scoring all six of his team’s first-quarter points as the Wolverines ran off a 6-3 run to get to 16-6.
“Being this was Zach’s first game, he has to get into that game shape, so by next week we feel he will be there,” said Farrington. “With six minutes left in the first half, we had six points and Zach had all of them. He has a skill set that is tough to come by. He is 6-3 and has that lunch pail mentality, and he can shoot. He causes matchup problems.”
Sautter woke his team up after a three-minute scoreless stretch, putting up six straight points as the Greyhounds claimed a 31-15 halftime lead.
A key for Lisbon in the first half was sophomore guard Hunter Davis, who twice dove off the court to make a steal before getting into the flow on the offensive end with pinpoint passes for easy Greyhound baskets. Davis had three steals, three assists and five rebounds in the first half.
“He is the kind of kid that will leave skin on the floor,” Gentle said. “He gets after it. He knows he is not the primary scorer. But he does all those little intangibles.”
“I am not really a shooter, so I try to do all the other things and get after it,” Davis said.
There was no containing Sautter, who really heated up in the second half after a 17-point, 11 rebound opening half. The senior scored 16 points in the third quarter as Lisbon opened up a 57-24 lead. He added nine more points in the final frame as the advantage grew to a game-high 40, 72-32, with 2:28 remaining. Sautter was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line and drained five 3-pointers in the win.
“Jonah was able to get to the free-throw line today, and that is important for him,” Gentle said. “Free throws are a free timeout, and it allows him and the team to get a small rest. Jonah attacked the basket today.”
On the other side, Farrington continues to work with his Wolverines, all the while keeping them focused on the small “wins” achieved in each contest.
“Wiscasset kids never give up,” Farrington said. “We have to put together 32 minutes. Oak Hill, we led by a point at halftime, and against Madison we were down just six points in the third. Our margin of error is so small.
“When we’re bad, we’re bad. If everyone does their job, we can hang in. They do everything that I ask and they are tough kids.”
DJ Douglass had 12 points for Lisbon along with three steals and three assists, while Seth Tapley chipped in six points and seven boards. Sautter ended with 12 rebounds, four steals and two assists, and the Greyhounds were 25-of-54 from the field (46 percent), including a solid 15-of-25 (60 percent) showing in the second half.
Wiscasset struggled both from the floor (15-of-39, 38 percent) and from the free-throw line (3-of-14). Dylan Orr picked up eight points for the Wolverines, with Josh Gabriele adding four points. Reed pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, with Wiscasset out-rebounded 37-23.
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