Maranacook used an uptempo, full-court attack to defeat seventh-seeded Lisbon 57-37 in a Class B South boys basketball quarterfinal Saturday at the Portland Expo.
The No. 2 Black Bears (17-2) generated points in transition while slowing the Greyhounds (10-9) throughout the contest.
“That’s our game,” said Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt. “That’s what we try to do every game. We’re really not a very good half-court team, but when we can stretch the court out to three quarter or full-court, we’re comfortable with that.”
Maranacook will next play No. 3 Yarmouth in a regional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
From the opening tip, the Black Bears’ speed wreaked havoc on both ends of the floor against Lisbon. They forced eight turnovers in the first quarter alone as they raced out to a 20-11 lead.
“These guys are really athletic,” said Schmidt. “They have intuition. They’re quick (and) some of them are pretty long. It is disruptive, and that’s what we want to be.”
Lisbon was able to shift momentum and close the gap in the second quarter, returning the favor in the turnover department. Maranacook had a hard time getting the offense set in the second, scoring just seven points to take a 27-20 lead into halftime.
Maranacook came out of the locker room moving at full-speed again. After Lisbon scored the first basket of the third quarter, the Black Bears rattled off 18 straight points to put the game away.
“We had nine turnovers in the second quarter, so that directly relates to the amount of points we had,” said Schmidt. “Obviously, if you’re coughing the ball up, you’re not going to score. We came out in the 1-2-2 in the second half and that’s really one of our staples so we felt pretty comfortable and put some pressure on them. We got some transition baskets out of that.”
The backcourt of Kyle Wilbur, who scored a game-high 20 points — eight of which came during the 18-0 run in the third — and Kent Mohlar (10 points) set the pace for the Black Bears that proved to be too much for the Greyhounds.
“We try to spread them out so we can stretch the defense out and they’ve been doing a great job with the unselfishness and really looking for the open guy,” said Schmidt. “We have other contributors too, so yeah, you have to pay a lot of attention to Kent and Kyle, but next thing you know we’re going to get a lay-up out of Levi (Emery) or some other guy is going to contribute.”
Emery added nine points and Jason Brooks chipped in eight for Maranacook in a balanced effort on the offensive end.
“It’s really fun to play on a team where everyone can shoot and we don’t care who has the ball,” said Wilbur. “We know it’s going to go through the hoop, and we all really have each other’s backs out there.”
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