Liberty High’s Hritz captures 400th career victory

The coach earned 282 of his
victories at Struthers.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

LIBERTY — The Liberty High girls basketball program is on a roll.

Last Thursday, the Leopards defeated Trumbull Athletic Conference powerhouse Brookfield. Monday, they won again, this time over Newton Falls, to produce the 400th victory in the career of Leopards coach John Hritz.

Liberty’s 55-39 triumph was witnessed by several of Hritz’s former players from Struthers High, where Hritz earned 282 of the victories in 18 years of coaching the girls teams.

He also has coached at Jackson-Milton, Newton Falls and Campbell Memorial. Hritz has put in 30 years of coaching in girls basketball and 10 in boys.

In his sixth year at Liberty, Hritz was honored during a small celebration following the game.

“This is a great place; these people are fantastic here at Liberty,” Hritz said. “I just love and respect the kids on this team. They play hard and are determined.”

Liberty (10-4, 6-2 TAC) trailed 16-5 late in the first quarter to the Tigers, who won when the teams played at Newton Falls earlier in the season. The lead was cut to 16-11 at the quarter break, but the Tigers (7-7, 4-4 TAC) led 20-11 less than two minutes into the second quarter.

The experienced Leopards calmly battled back into the game.

“The senior kids have been in situations like this before so they weren’t going to panic,” Hritz said.

Liberty put together an 11-0 run over a stretch of about two and a half minutes to take a 22-20 lead. The Leopards led 25-22 at the half. The game remained close — it was 31-29 Liberty with 5:03 left in the third quarter — before a 7-0 Leopard run in a minute-and-a-half made it 38-29.

Liberty led 41-31 at the quarter break and led by as much as 22 points in the final quarter.

“We were afraid of a letdown [after beating Brookfield],” Hritz said. “But I think the girls, behind my back, were going to make certain that we didn’t lose this game. We lost to Newton Falls the first time. Our team was sick that night and we lost by seven. But tonight the kids came back and played hard after the way we started.”

Chi Chi Merriweather led the balanced Liberty offense with 15 points. Katie Greaf added nine and Brittany Armour and Melissa Dykes added eight points each.

Six Leopards recorded assists, led by Armour’s six. Brianna Pettway and Ashley Venable made four steals each and Greaf led in rebounding with seven.

The Leopards’ pressure defense was a big factor. Liberty recorded 19 steals and forced 11 Falls turnovers.

The Tigers were led by Kelsey McGregor with 12 points. Jaci Dach had seven points, six rebounds and three assists.

Liberty has another shot at Brookfield in the last game of the season when the final TAC title could be on the line.

“We’re shooting for it,” Hritz said. “The kids have a goal; they’re trying to run the table and hopefully we can get to Brookfield the last ballgame and do what we did on our floor. You never know if we keep playing like we did tonight. We got down and the kids never quit.”