Howland's defense halts Liberty in 51-31 victory

The Tigers forced the Leopards into 32 turnovers in posting their third win.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LIBERTY -- Howland High coach John Diehl and Liberty's John Hritz were passing out positive early season accolades following the Tigers' 51-31 victory Monday in a non-conference matchup.
"This is the best defensive team I've ever coached, boys or girls," Diehl said after watching his team force Liberty into numerous turnovers to easily pull out the 20-point win.
Howland (3-0) forced the Leopards into committing 32 turnovers while Ellie Shields, Carly Sabat and Melissa Airhart evenly shared 42 points to lead the Tigers.
Hritz lauds Tigers
"Howland has one heck of a team," said Hritz. "They might be the best team we will face all season and maybe one of the best in the entire area."
There were plenty of reasons for the coaches to make those assessments after the Tigers came out for the opening tip thinking defense.
"They came right at us," Hritz said. "We didn't do a very good job of taking care of the basketball."
Howland forced Liberty into committing 11 first quarter turnovers while racing out to a 14-2 lead.
Offensively, Howland tried with success to get the ball inside to their young post players and at first had success as Shields scored eight points in the first quarter from the post position.
Dominated the boards
Shields also pulled down 10 rebounds as Howland overwhelmed Liberty early on with its inside game.
"I thought we should have put Liberty away in that first quarter," Diehl said. "Our post players missed a lot of easy shots but give them credit because Liberty is one of the more athletic teams we will play and they didn't quit."
After opening up a 16-4 first quarter lead, Liberty began to play better and actually outscored Howland 7-6 in the second period.
Diehl said that defense was key in the period because the offense struggled with holding on to the basketball also.
Diehl said that Sabat's defense on Liberty's All-Trumbull Athletic Conference performer, Ashley White, was outstanding.
"Carly ranks up there as one of the best three defensive player's I've ever coached," Diehl said. "I think White had only five points against Carly when they were matched up."
Leopards' White halted
White did manage to finish with nine points but it was not nearly enough to get the Leopards back in the game.
Howland also got strong offensive efforts from Sabat, who scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and junior Melissa Airhart, who scored 14 points while making 10-of-12 free throws.
Liberty got as close as nine points early in the third quarter on a basket by Michelle Dykes but Howland regrouped and pulled away to lead 38-20 at the end of the third quarter.
"I'm not disappointed in our effort," Hritz said. "Our kids hustled but we couldn't make layups when we had them and we made some key turnovers.
"I'm proud that our kids never quit."
Liberty got seven points from sophomore point guard Brianna Pettway and freshman guard Melissa Dykes came off the bench to also score seven points.