By Don Nelson
Liberty Bell High School’s varsity boys’ basketball team played about every type of game imaginable last week — winning a squeaker, losing by 25, then winning in a rout.
On Jan. 6, the Mountain Lions edged Bridgeport, 67-65, at home. At Okanogan on Friday, Liberty Bell absorbed a 78-53 loss. Home again on Saturday, the Mountain Lions bounced back with a 60-27 trouncing of Omak.
The Bridgeport contest was a bit of a yo-yo affair, with Liberty Bell sprinting to a 10-point first-quarter lead before Bridgeport closed the gap to three at halftime.
In the third quarter, Bridgeport took the lead, 44-38, on the hot three-point shooting of Kevin Alvarez. The Mountain Lions responded with a 9-2 run, capped with a put-back by Willy Duguay, that put Liberty Bell back up by one. The quarter ended with Liberty Bell clinging to a 51-48 lead.
The teams played evenly in the final quarter. With one second on the clock, Bridgeport had the ball on an inbounds play but could not convert, leaving Liberty Bell with a two-point victory. Connor Cooley led the Lions with 20 points and nine rebounds. Garrett Dornfeld chipped in 12 points and Micah Klemmeck added 10.
At Okanogan, the Mountain Lions “started out pretty well,” according to coach Kyle Acord, but a three-point shot by Okanogan closed out the first quarter with Liberty Bell trailing by eight.
“In the second quarter, we had a tough time rebounding, and Okanogan took advantage of some strong inside play to out-distance us by 25 points going into the half,” Acord said. “We played better in the second half, but were never able to recover from that deficit”
Cooley topped Liberty Bell’s scoring with 15 points, followed by Ben Klemmeck with 11, Micah Klemmeck with 10 and Andrew Reggiatore with nine.
“We talked about needing to come out more aggressive, and I thought we were able to do that against Omak,” Acord said of the Mountain Lions’ runaway victory at home. “Even though we missed several shots to begin the game, we kept playing hard and rebounded much better than the night before. Eventually our shots started to fall and we were able to establish a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter and then never looked back.”
Micah Klemmeck led a much better rebounding effort against Omak with a total of 13 rebounds (six offensive and seven defensive), Acord said. Cooley tossed in 20 points to lead a balanced scoring attack.
“For the weekend, I thought we got very good overall play from Andrew Reggiatore and Ben Klemmeck,” Acord said.
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).
Liberty Bell vs. Bridgeport
Bridgeport 12 17 19 17 65
Liberty Bell 22 10 19 16 67
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 9 2 7 2
Ben Klemmeck 6 2 0 2
Jose Dominguez 3 2 0 0
Andrew Reggiatore 2 2 0 1
Connor Cooley 20 9 3 1
Micah Klemmeck 10 3 2 1
Willy Duguay 5 2 0 0
Garrett Dornfeld 12 5 0 1
Liberty Bell at Okanogan
Liberty Bell 11 7 20 15 53
Okanogan 19 24 23 12 78
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 2 1 1 4
Ben Klemmeck 11 2 0 0
Jose Dominguez 2 2 1 4
Andrew Reggiatore 9 4 0 0
Connor Cooley 15 4 1 0
Micah Klemmeck 10 0 0 2
Willy Duguay 0 6 2 2
Carter Dornfeld 2 0 0 0
Garrett Dornfeld 2 1 1 3
Josh Frey 0 1 0 0
Liberty Bell vs. Omak
Omak 2 10 6 9 27
Liberty Bell 12 21 16 11 60
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 6 1 4 1
Ben Klemmeck 6 4 0 0
Jose Dominguez 4 2 3 0
Andrew Reggiatore 7 3 0 0
Connor Cooley 20 8 1 1
Micah Klemmeck 8 13 2 2
Willy Duguay 1 2 2 1
Carter Dornfeld 0 0 0 0
Garrett Dornfeld 6 3 2 1
Josh Frey 2 2 0 0
