By Don Nelson
The Liberty Bell High School girls’ basketball team showed flashes of scoring power in three games last week, but not quite enough to pull off a victory.
On Jan. 6, the Lady Lions stayed close to Bridgeport throughout the game after a slow start, but fell 37-31. At Okanogan on Friday (Jan. 9), Liberty Bell was outgunned, 88-31. The Lady Lions came home on Saturday to battle Omak before losing, 54-40.
In the Bridgeport game, Liberty Bell trailed by 18 before reeling off the last six points to close the gap to 24-12 at halftime.
A strong third quarter brought the Lady Lions to within five points, 28-23. Liberty Bell then went on another quick run to tie the score, 28-28, on a Katie Labanauskas free throw with about six minutes left. But Bridgeport kept the Lady Lions at bay for the rest of the game to finish with a 37-31 victory.
Liberty Bell coach Ed Smith said he was pleased with the girls’ third-quarter play, which he said has been the team’s “Achilles heel” this year.
Laubanauskas, a freshman, led the Lady Lions’ scoring with 14 points. Freshman Carlyn Treise added 6, senior Sarina Williams 5, freshman Lauren Ochoa 4 and sophomore Lauren Fitzmaurice 2.
The girls fared no better than the boys at powerful Okanogan, but stayed close to Omak into the fourth quarter, trailing by only a couple, before Omak closed out strong to take the win.
Liberty Bell was scheduled to host Manson on Tuesday (Jan. 13), followed by away games at Lake Roosevelt on Friday (Jan. 16) and Soap Lake on Saturday, and then return home to face Tonasket next Tuesday (Jan. 20).
