TRUMBULL COUNTY Liberty uses layoff to improve offense

The Leopards looked sharper in a 69-47 win over Howland.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HOWLAND -- The Liberty High basketball team spent much of their off time over the holidays putting in the rest of their offensive schemes.
Because many of the Liberty players also play football and the Leopards went deep into post-season play, Liberty coach Burt Stellers said the team had little of the offense at its disposal during December when the team went 2-2.
"We were able to put a lot of our offense in that we hadn't been able to with the late start," Stellers said. "We had a really good week of practice."
The Leopards took what they learned in practice and executed it well at Howland Tuesday, coming away with an impressive 69-47 win over the Tigers.
Senior Edward Kershaw scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while junior guard Mychal Doblanski scored 16 points to lead Liberty.
"We told the kids that this was game one of a new season," Stellers said. "I was pleased with the overall effort and without looking at the stats I would say that we had more overall assists than in any other game this year."
Unselfish play
The Leopards (3-2) handed out a season-high 13 assists as eight players found the scoring column.
Donovan Fletcher scored 10 points while Lonnie Showers added nine points.
Liberty jumped on Howland, which had won three of its last four games including an impressive win over Campbell last week, right from the start.
Kershaw scored seven quick points and Doblanski added two 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Leopards raced out to a 17-12 lead.
Liberty opened up the lead to 10 points at half and then went on an impressive shooting spree in the third quarter to put the game away.
Liberty connected on 11 of 15 shots in the third quarter and all five starters found their shooting touches. Doblanski scored 10 of his points in the quarter by making all five of his shots.
Howland (3-5), meanwhile, struggled shooting the ball all night -- epecially in the third quarter when they only made 5 of 17 shots and scored 13 points.
"I don't know what it was," Howland coach Don Andres said. "We had been playing really well and then tonight we couldn't make any open shots.
"The kids got away from the offensive game plan but they still were taking wide open shots that wouldn't fall," Andres said. "Shooting covers a multitude of sins but tonight we didn't have it."
Holding down Dario
Howland's leading scorer, senior forward Dario Hadzovic, was held to 12 points and he had trouble getting many open looks.
"It was our plan to try and deny Dario the ball whenever possible," Stellers said. "We made sure that we always had help ready when Dario had the ball. We wanted to make sure he had a hard time getting the ball.
"Dario's always given us trouble. We're glad we don't have to see him again."
Howland also got eight points from Tony Pozega and six each from Jared Bartholomew and Zack Byler.
The Leopards used a tremendous rebounding advantage to handle the Tigers. Liberty outrebounded Howland 51-31 with many of those rebounds leading to easy transition baskets for Liberty.
"I was really happy with the way our guys worked last week in practice and it carried over tonight," Stellers said. "I was really pleased tonight."