Lisbon dominates paint against South Range

By Charles grove

cgrove@vindy.com

LISBON

What looked to be a game heading down to the wire in the first half turned into anything but as the Lisbon Blue Devils went on a 40-24 tear in the second half to defeat South Range, 68-46, Saturday night.

Austin Rutecki led Lisbon (15-1) with 19 points. Three other Blue Devils scored in double figures as Josh Craig, Avery Andric and Josh Liberati scored 15, 11 and 11 points, respectively.

Brandon Youngs led South Range with 19 points while Preston Stitt added 12 for the Raiders (14-5) in the Inter-Tri County League matchup.

“We’ve got six seniors who have basically played since they were freshmen and we’ve got balance so at any given moment any kid can go off and get points,” Lisbon head coach Chris Huckshold said.

That any moment seemed to be the entire second half as South Range seemed totally out-bodied in the post. Lisbon went on runs of 11-0 and 9-0 in the third and fourth quarters to put a game that was within six points at halftime out of reach.

South Range head coach John Cullen said the game might have been different if his team was more efficient at the rim in a first half that saw six lead changes. Neither team jumped out to more than a two-possession lead.

“Our game plan was to spread them out and then attack, but in the first half we missed too many layups and we would’ve been ahead if we had made them,” Cullen said. “Bottom line is we have to get a lot better than that. We need to defend people inside better and stop turning the ball over. We still got a chance to tie for the league title with these next two games, so that’s our objective.”

Huckshold said his team took a little bit to get going but said his team eventually cracked the South Range defense to find out how to exploit the Raiders down low.

“The situation we’ve been in all year is everyone’s going to come give us their best shot,” Huckshold said. “So with that — along with it being a Saturday game where there’s no school and you’re a little bit out of rhythm — it just took us a little while to adjust and find a couple of different angles where we could isolate some bigs and get the ball where we needed to get it.”

Once Lisbon extended the lead to 32-27, Huckshold said South Range began shooting the ball quicker, and his began to control the game with its rebounding, limiting South Range to one shot each possession while Lisbon feasted on offensive boards.

“We’re a big basketball team,” Huckshold said. “They took some quick shots in the second half and then once we started making some shots they started taking quicker shots and then they’re not in good rebounding position since they were trying to spread us out and take us off the dribble.”

And once Raider big man Mitch Dolak hit foul trouble in the second half, forcing him to take a seat on the bench, Lisbon controlled the boards that much more.

“We did lose a little bit when Mitch picked up his third [foul],” Cullen said. “But he’s also a one-year player going up against guys who have a lot more experience so this is the kind of game where he might have learned more than other games. Even if he wasn’t grabbing rebounds, he was tipping balls and keeping 50-50 balls alive.”