Oak Hill began its season with four games of frustration.

Three near-miss losses and a lessthan stellar effort in another defeat fueled the Raiders as they entered Thursday’s Mountain Valley Conference girls high school basketball game against Lisbon with a little extra hunger and determination.

“We took the Boothbay loss as a reality check,” Raiders’ senior guard Julie Morneault said of Tuesday’s 17- point loss to the Seahawks. “We didn’t want to ever play like that again. We wanted to turn things around.”

Oak Hill did that against Lisbon on Thursday. The Raiders came out strong and barely looked back in a 57- 28 win.

“We’re young and we’re trying to get over that hump,” Oak Hill coach and former Morse leader Tom Morong said. “This was a good game for us, and we played to what I think is our potential.”

Morneault and Hayley Marshall each had 10 points for the Raiders (1-4) while Sadie Goulet added nine.

“Julie is our senior point guard,” said Morong. “She’s been a backup. Last year, she didn’t get a lot of minutes. Now it’s her turn to run the team. She’s done such a great job running the team, and we’ve had nothing to show for it. She hit some open shots, made the right passes, looked diagonally and did some really good things.”

Lisbon (2-3) got 11 from freshman Adrianna White and seven from Mia Durgin. The Greyhounds shot five-for- 33 in the first half, including 11 straight misses from the floor to start the second quarter.

“We didn’t shoot well,” said Lisbon coach Julie Wescott, whose team has lost three straight. “We got good looks, but if you don’t finish and hang our heads after a missed basket and they transition, that’s what happens. After getting down, we gave up at times.”

Oak Hill battled injuries early in the season and lost three games by an average of 3.3 points. Then came the letdown against Boothbay and a lousy shooting night. Morong stressed the need for his team to transition more and create opportunities off the defense. The Raiders press gave Lisbon fits Thursday and forced nearly 30 turnovers.

“I told them we needed to start running,” Morong said. “We had to start pushing and be aggressive and be uptempo.”

The Raiders built an early lead with eight straight points in the first. Kelsey Collins scored twice in the post while Goulet had a pair of baskets in transition. Lisbon shot two-for-16 in the quarter and trailed 11-6 after the first.

When Lisbon missed 11 straight to start the second, the Raiders opened the lead with a 12-2 run, including eight straight points.

“Mentally, we were not in it,” Wescott said. “Their press, we didn’t flash to the ball. We weren’t aggressive offensively. We didn’t attack. We panicked and threw the ball away. We’re better than that.”

Lisbon got its first field goal of the quarter on a Durgin drive and threepoint play. She later put back a rebound, and after White scored in the paint, Lisbon was within 24-15 with 2:16 left in the half.

After two free throws from Brianna Hodgkins, Morneault drilled a 3. Oak Hill then finished the half with a 9-1 run and 33-16 lead.

“I felt we stayed calm,” said Morneault. “We kept our composure. We kept running the plays and kept running the floor. We just kept going at them.”

Oak Hill hit five of its first six shots in that second quarter and seven of its first nine. The Raiders continued the solid defensive effort in the second half while getting offensive production from nine different girls.

“It was just a nice lesson about what I’ve been preaching,” Morong said. “Hopefully we can follow up on this.”

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