Lebanon boys basketball pulls away in fourth quarter to beat Laconia, advance to D2 final
EXETER – Up two points after three quarters, it looked like the Lebanon High School boys basketball team would need to do everything it could to hold on against Laconia.
Instead, the Raiders hit their shots and cruised to a 58-46 win over the Sachems in the Division II semifinals, played at Exeter High School
The win gives Lebanon a date with Pelham on Saturday for the D2 title, the first time since 2017 that the Raiders have reached the championship game.
The Raiders put the game out of reach early in the fourth, when they scored 12 of the first 15 points of the quarter to open an 11-point lead with 3:38 to go.
“We locked in defensively in the fourth quarter,” Lebanon coach Kieth Matte said. “(Laconia) ran out of gas. (My players) played their butts off. It’s hard to give a hundred percent for 32 minutes. Our kids are fit.”
Karsten Hansen had eight of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, including two 3-pointers during the run at the start of the period. Fellow senior captain Calvin Bates had 20 for the Raiders, and the junior duo of Jackson Stone and Braeden Falzarano combined for 13 points.
“We all came with a ton of energy,” Hansen said. “We’re all looking for the title, but we’ve got to get to the game first. We worked as a team. We kept up our good defense and we got it done.”
The first three quarters were frenetic, as the teams traded the lead eight times with neither team leading by more than eight points. Laconia made noise on the inside thanks to the duo of senior DeMarco McKissic and freshman Keaton Beck.
McKissic finished with nine points and five rebounds despite fighting foul trouble all game and fouling out midway through the fourth. Beck finished with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
However, as the second half wore on, the Raiders’ up-tempo style of play wore them, and the rest of the Sachems, out.
“They’re both good players,” Hansen said. “It’s the biggest team we’ve played all year. In practice, coach stressed to collapse on the bigs and don’t let them get the ball. I think we did that. We had great help defense, great team chemistry, and we were able to lock them down.”
The Sachems got 11 points each from Kayden Roberts and Logan Paronto to lead them offensively, but Lebanon had answers on both ends when they needed them.
Bates said that the rhythm and style of Lebanon’s practices helped the team stay calm despite the back-and-forth nature of the game.
“I think we just have focused practices and have a little bit of fun too,” Bates said. “It was an intense game but (Thursday) we’re going to come out, have a little fun, and then we’re going to focus a lot because Pelham is a good team.”
The win sets up a matchup with Pelham exactly one year in the making.
The Raiders were boarding the bus to play the Pythons in a quarterfinal game on March 13, 2020, before the season was cancelled due to COVID-19. Now, a year later, the two programs will meet for the D2 championship.
