Lisbon girls’ basketball program proved it is growing by leaps and bounds Tuesday, Feb. 4, in the Lions’ Den. Lisbon beat Midland 52-25.

Back in December, up in Wyoming, Lisbon squeaked a win out over the Eagles, 46-43.

“Things have started to click a little bit,” freshman guard Kyla Kahl said. “I feel like offensively, we’ve kind of gained rhythm.”

And Lisbon did it without their top player, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

“It’s been a couple weeks now (since sophomore Morgan Sauser hurt her knee),” Lisbon Coach Jack Leighty said. “It did take us a little bit of time to figure out how we would recover and find out who would step up.”

Early on it looked like it might be another close game. But the Lions, up 9-7 with about three minutes left in the first quarter, closed it on a 9-0 run. That included a 3-pointer and two free throws from Kyla Kahl.

“Kyla has gotten more and more comfortable,” Leighty said.

The lead got stretched out to 20 points by halftime, 34-14. Then Lisbon started the third quarter with a 15-0 run.

“The biggest thing tonight was defensively,” Leighty said. “We did a good job of identifying their shooters. That was a big feather in our cap.” Midland (5-15) shot just 8 for 36 on the night and had 31 turnovers.

Kyla Kahl led the offense with 18 points, including 8 of 10 from the foul line.

“I do like to drive,” Kahl said. “Just going hard and going at it, being strong and going up confident.”

Emma Pleasant had 10 points and Kamryn Kahl had nine points and seven rebounds.

“Different people have had to step up and play different roles (with Morgan out),” Kyla Kahl said. “I feel like everyone has done a good job of adapting to the changes.”

Lisbon (8-13) closed the regular season with a make-up game against Tipton on Saturday in the Lion’s Den. The Tigers won, 49-37.

Kyla Kahl led with 18 points and Pleasant added nine points and 13 rebounds. Ella Hein led a balanced Tipton (14-6) attack with 13 points.

The Lions next host East Marshall in a first-round Class 2A game Saturday, Feb. 15.

“We are a young team,” said Lighty, and praised the play of freshman Quinn Roos. “She gave us a boost. “At the end of the day, it was one of our best defensive efforts of the year. We are playing defense the right way.”