GIRARD SWEEPS LIBERTY

February 8, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

LIBERTY

The figurative arrow describing the Girard boys basketball team has flipped between up and down this season.

The Indians have spent the year hovering around .500 and as they creep toward district tournament time, it’s imperative to get the arrow pointing up. That’s the direction it has for the time being after Tuesday’s 63-57 comeback win against Liberty.

Girard swept the season series, also defeating Liberty, 68-58, on Jan. 3.

“All year, we’ve been up and down. We win two and then we lose two,” said Girard’s Austin O’Hara who scored 27 points. “Tonight was a good win for us to get back on track. It gets us back above .500 right before the tournament.”

The victory has the Indians at 10-9 on the season and they’ve won three of their last four games.

“We’re inexperienced, but we’re gaining experience every time and I think we’ve been getting better,” Girard coach Craig Hannon said. “I thought this was a game in December that we would not have won — we would have found a way to lose it.

“We’re just finding ways to get better and close out games and tonight was a good example of that.”

The Leopards (4-15) led 29-21 at halftime, hitting three threes to the Indians’ zero while forcing six turnovers in the first half.

Anthony Graziano opened the second half with his team’s first three of the contest, then Mark Waid got a bucket and the and-1. Anthony Backus hit a two-pointer to complete the quick 8-0 run.

Each of the above baskets came after Liberty missed three consecutive shots from three point range.

“Our composure that whole half was much better. We came out and executed a lot better than we did in the first half,” O’Hara said. “We limited our turnovers and Graz was able to hit that three to get us going.”

Backus and Graziano each had nine points. Waid and Anthony Claussell each had eight for the Indians.

Dra Rushton led Liberty with 22 points and Andre Bowers had 11.

Liberty was quick to let the long-range shots fly, but weren’t very successful. The Leopards were 5-for-17 from beyond the arc.

First-year head coach Chris Kohl wants his team to drive and kick for those types of shots, but against Girard, there were more contested heaves than he liked.

“We want to shoot the three off of penetration and the kick and we talked about this at the end of the game. Just shooting the three because you think you’re open is not a good shot,” Kohl said. “I don’t know if they’ve had free rein over the years, but we’ve been trying to work on what’s a good shot and what’s not a good shot.

“There’s times in past games where I’ve allowed no threes.

“We really want to shoot the three off the kick and penetration, but sometimes it falls on deaf ears,” Kohl said.

Liberty tied the game at 37-37 near the end of the third quarter, but never regained the lead.