LISBON — The Lisbon girls basketball team plays a slow, defensive-minded game. Low-scoring and patience are keys to success.

In a 35-28 Mountain Valley Conference win over Madison on Thursday, the Greyhounds jumped out to a surprising 17-5 lead as the offense kicked into high gear.

Just as suddenly, though, the offense went away — for a long nine minutes.

But the Greyhounds relied on a stingy defense and strong finish to post the victory, giving them a 3-1 start in head coach Doug Sautter’s return to the Lisbon bench.

“We could not ask for anything more, and we have Wiscasset (on Friday) and Spruce after the break,” Sautter said. “The girls are working their butts off, and I couldn’t be more proud of these girls.”

Charlee Cox led the opening charge, along with Giana Russo. The duo split 12 first-quarter points as the Greyhounds grabbed a 12-5 lead. Maria Levesque and Siara Martin sandwiched a bucket each around a Russo free throw, giving Lisbon a 17-5 lead with 4:27 left in the first half.

The Greyhounds went ice cold from there, and Madison hung around, drawing to within 17-11 thanks to a pair of late 3-pointers by Katie Worthen.

“Defensively, I thought we played pretty well,” Madison (3-3) coach Albert Veneziano said. “We didn’t move the ball quite like we needed to move it. We have to make sure that we are ready to shoot.

“At halftime, I felt we were in the game, and in the second half we came through with some effort and determination. The third quarter was very good for us.”

Madison outscored Lisbon 10-4 in the third frame, evening the score at 21-21 through 24 minutes.

“We were playing patient and just couldn’t get the shots to go down,” Sautter said. “Madison came out and picked up some key baskets on us.”

The Greyhounds survived the near nine-minute stretch of scoreless basketball as Russo and Cox each scored two points in the third quarter, but Lisbon only put up four points over a 12:27 stretch.

“If you are playing the defense and holding them to four points over all that time, you have to put more points on the board,” said Veneziano, whose Bulldogs host Mt. Abram on Dec. 30.

“I think we’re a mix of a team, and every game we have to come out on the court and find out who we are,” said Cox.

Madison grabbed its only lead early in the fourth quarter when Worthen put in a pass from Lauren LeBlanc for a 23-21 advantage.

Lisbon answered with an 8-0 run. Cox tied the game, and Kiley Merritt put the Greyhounds ahead to stay moments later. Cox and Merritt both scored to finish off the run for a 29-23 lead with 2:43 left.

The Bulldogs tried to continue to hang around. Worthen and Brooke McKenney scored, but Lisbon made 6-of-12 at the free-throw line to close out the seven-point win.

“We knew coming into this that Madison is a grinding team, too, so we knew the game would be like this,” Sautter said. “We just wanted to be patient, then we started making some shots, stopped missing the bunnies. We made some free throws. We battled back, played good defense, and Charlee made some good baskets late.”

Cox was all over the court while playing through foul trouble. She finished with 15 points and 18 rebounds, while Russo added 12 points and four assists. Martin dished out three assists and led the Greyhounds with four steals. Lisbon went 9-of-18 at the free-throw line.

Worthen had a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds for Madison. Abi Spaulding chipped in six points, eight rebounds, five steals and two assists. LeBlanc added four assists and three steals.