Liberty’s 4th quarter pivotal vs. Lakeview

The Leopards’ press wore down the Bulldogs in a 59-49 win.

By RYAN JONES

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

LIBERTY — Trailing Lakeview 40-35 after three quarters, Liberty had no one to blame but itself for missed opportunities.

In the third frame the Leopards went 1-of-4 from the charity strip, missed a half-dozen point-blank lay-ups and surrendered 15 points while the Bulldogs played without their leading scorer — Joanna Novotny, who suffered a knee injury less than a minute before halftime.

However, Liberty (5-3, 2-1) found redemption in the form of 24 fourth-quarter points en route to 59-49 TAC-8 triumph over Lakeview.

Liberty coach John Hritz said his team was fortunate to come away with a victory.

“Going into the fourth quarter I told them to focus once we got the ball inside on offense,” he said. “For most of the game we seemed to lose our focus around the rim and at the foul line. That’s disappointing because we spend 15 minutes a practice shooting free throws.”

Liberty’s diamond press wore down Lakeview in the final period and harassed freshmen Alisha Nichols and Mackenzie Palette into a few costly turnovers that to fast-break layups.

“We wanted to see how their guards would handle our pressure without Novotny in the game,” Hritz said. “We live and die by our press. If it’s not working we tend to look pretty bad. We hustled and it worked for us tonight.”

Lakeview coach Dave Konczal said he was pleased with the play of his young backcourt.

“I thought they played well against an athletic and experienced team,” he said. “It was a two-basket game with two minutes left. We just got a little quick and rushed some things in our press-breaker the last few minutes. We’ve never practiced with our two freshmen in the press-breaker because Joanna is usually paired with one of them.”

The Bulldogs outscored Liberty 15-10 in the third frame and relied on the offensive prowess of Palette and Nichols, who scored six and seven points during that stretch.

“We knew as a team we needed to step it up in the third quarter,” Konczal said. “We knew we were going to be without Joanna, who averages 19 points per game. Mackenzie and Alisha kept us in the game and gave us an opportunity to win it. But it came down to experience and Liberty played like a veteran team; they made the shots and the plays at the end.”

The Leopards had four players score in double digits — Brittany Armour had 13, Melissa Dykes notched 12 and Brianna Pettway and Chi-Chi Merriweather each scored 11.

Hritz said a balanced scoring offense is characteristic of his team.

“This season three of our girls average double figures scoring,” he said. “We don’t have a go-to player because all of players are capable scorers. It makes it hard for the opposing defense to key on one player. On any given night someone can step up and lead us on offense.”

Palette led Lakeview with 17 markers and four steals, and Jessica Downs pulled down eight rebounds.

After shooting 5-of-14 from the line in the first three periods, Liberty connected on 8-of-10 in the final frame.