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Homecoming for coaches helps Howland earn first win
LIBERTY
Although the Howland High School boys basketball team had a Liberty flavor on its bench Tuesday, the Tigers finally tasted victory, 49-46.
After three losses to open the season, Howland’s win was in comeback fashion, no less, for former Liberty head coach Dan Bubon and assistant Joe DeSalvo, a Liberty basketball hall of famer.
Howland’s Nathan Barrett had 26 points, six rebounds and four steals for the winners (1-3), who had a 19-point fourth quarter after scoring just six in the third.
Elijah Matthews and Travis Myers had 11 points apiece while Ezell Brown and Omarion Dawson had 10 each for Liberty (1-3).
“After losing seven seniors from last season, Nathan is the lone player back with a lot of minutes under his belt,” Bubon said.
A key defensive play by Justin Jones under Liberty’s basket with 8.6 seconds remaining preserved Howland’s one-point lead.
The tipped pass was out of the hands of Dawson when Jones stood his ground and extended his arms upward.
After Brown saved the ball from going out of bounds, Dawson got it.
“He [Dawson] was going to go up with it, so I was in the right position,” Jones said. “I made sure I knew that he [Dawson] was going to try to get it to No. 1 [Brown] or shoot it himself. So I was there when he ended up passing the ball and I tipped it up.
“Coaches always tell us to go straight up in the air with your hands to contest the shot — don’t try to jump to block the ball because that leads to fouls,” Jones said. “With my height [6-foot-4], people seem to struggle. If I’m jumping, I tend to foul people.”
Bubon said that his Tigers are not comfortable on offense right now.
“Our youth makes us play faster on offense than we need to and it showed,” Bubon said. “We’re actually a good-shooting team, but we don’t shoot well in games.
“We’re a little bit tense, a little bit rushed. I think we’ve scored in the 40s every game so far.”
Of Liberty losing a five-point lead (46-41) in the end, Leopards coach Chris Kohl said, “Way too many turnovers coming down the stretch.
As a team, we just didn’t get things under control tonight.”
Liberty’s pressure in the second half enabled the Leopards to seize its biggest lead of game at nine (44-35) when Dawson made two free throws at 4:08.
“They hit some key shots and we made some key turnovers coming down the stretch,” Kohl said. “We preach the little things — like jump-stop and making a pass off of two feet and things of that nature — but we didn’t do that tonight. Fundamentally, we weren’t a very sound team.
After Dawson’s slow start, the sophomore center who was playing in his fourth varsity game finished with 13 rebounds and 10 points.
“He’s a teddy bear,” Kohl said. “He doesn’t have a mean streak and he’s one of the nicest kids, but he’s still learning the game. Sometimes, I think I expect too much from him because of his size.
”The old adage is ‘Put four guys in double figures and you’re supposed to win the game. Tonight, we found a way beat ourselves.”