Lebanon boys basketball beats Manchester West to get to D2 semifinals (video)

DURHAM - The Lebanon High School boys basketball team can check off another box on its list of goals for this season, one it hasn't been able to mark the last few years.

For the first time in four straight tries, the second-seeded Raiders will head to the Division II championship game after Wednesday's 50-31 win over No. 3 Manchester West in the semifinals at the University of New Hampshire's Lundholm Gym.

Lebanon had been a participant in the division's final four the previous three years as well, falling to in all three trips, including the last two years to Portsmouth. The Raiders (21-0) will get another shot at the Clippers (21-0), as the division's top seed advanced with a win over No. 5 Bishop Brady.

"We've still got one more box," Lebanon coach Kieth Matte said. "We definitely had a level of comfort. There was a level of comfort, and before, we were happy to be here. There was a level of urgency that we didn't have in previous games. I think that kind of carried us through."

The Raiders were also carried by different contributors, as leading scorer KJ Matte was held to just nine points. Ryan Milliken led all scorers with 16 points while Graham Chickering added 12 points and six rebounds and Austin Whaley chipped in with 11 points and seven boards.

Whaley also drew the assignment of guarding West's Keenan Caron and held him to just six points.

"Caron is a tremendous player and (Whaley) held him to six points, giving away five inches," Kieth Matte said. "He scored 11 points himself and I don't know how many times he got on the floor.

"We said that someone is going to have to step up and you never know who that might be. West did a nice job guarding (KJ Matte), they put a good athlete on him and face-guarded. I'm happy with how the other guys took control and stepped up to the plate."

Joe Simpson led West (18-3) with 11 points, all but one of which came in the second half. Akok Akok also had six points, seven rebounds and four blocks for the Blue Knights, who went more than six minutes before scoring their first basket of the game, falling behind 11-0.

"They had a lot of pregame jitters," Milliken said. "You could just tell the by the shots they were taking. We were a lot more calm and ran our offense and looked for great looks."

In the first half, most of those looks came from behind the 3-point line, as Lebanon was 5 of 7 from 3 while just 3 of 20 from inside the arc. At the other end, West shot 26.3 percent from the field in the first half and struggled to get the ball inside.

"They were trying to put their big men in the post so they could get any easy feed and dump it in the hoop because they're just so tall," Milliken said. "We worked on it all week, and our bigs were just pushing them out of the paint. They have some really good shooters on their team but they like to feed it in and drive. We played really good on-ball defense and created turnovers."

After falling behind 23-11 at halftime, and by as many as 14 points in the third, West was able to cut the lead down to single digits, getting to within nine after a 3-pointer and jumper by Simpson.

Lebanon still led by nine, 35-26, following a West basket by Jacobee Burpee with 6:32 left to play, but the Raiders started on an 11-2 run moments later to put the game away. Milliken scored six points during that stretch and Lebanon went 7 of 9 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

"I think coach really wanted this win, and he deserved it," Milliken said. "We've got a few seniors on our team who have been here since freshman year. They've been to the playoffs a lot of times and we all deserve it."