By Don Nelson
The Liberty Bell High School boys’ basketball team endured three tense games in four days last week, coming away with two wins that moved them up in the North Central Washington 2B North league standings.
The Mountain Lions endured a fourth-quarter push by Tonasket on Jan. 20 to prevail, 54-50, on their home court. On Thursday (Jan. 22), Liberty Bell edged Lake Roosevelt, 46-44, in another home game. Friday night (Jan. 23), the Mountain Lions traveled to Oroville, where they fell, 65-57.
Liberty Bell started fast against Tonasket, with junior Connor Cooley scoring the team’s first seven points. The teams were knotted at 13 at the end of the first quarter.
The Mountain Lions reeled off nine straight points in the second quarter to go up by 22-13, but Tonasket worked its way to 31-26 at halftime. A relatively quiet third quarter ended with Liberty Bell up by 41-33.
Cooley kept the lead at eight, 44-36, with a three-pointer. But it was mostly Tonasket after that, with the visitors battling back to within a point, 48-47, with five minutes left, and then taking the lead, 49-48, at about the four-minute mark.
Senior Jorge Lara then scored a Mountain Lions bucket on a breakaway to put Liberty Bell up by one before Tonasket tied things at 50 apiece with less than two minutes to go. Junior Micah Klemmeck sank two foul shots and two points on a put-back to reclaim the lead for Liberty Bell, and Tonasket had trouble getting off a final shot.
Cooley finished the night with 19 points and five rebounds, while Micah Klemmeck tallied 16 points and seven boards. Junior Andrew Reggiatore added nine points.
Coach Kyle Acord called Thursday’s match-up against Lake Roosevelt a “very hard-played, competitive game throughout.”
Liberty Bell got off to an uncharacteristically slow start as both teams clamped down on defense to finish the first half tied at a meager 14 points each.
“In the second half, we did a good job of adjusting to their defense, and forced them to switch to man-to-man,” Acord said. Indeed, the Mountain Lions scored more points in each successive quarter.
“We were able to build a 10-point lead with around four minutes left in the game when Lake Roosevelt made a great comeback and pulled to within two points a couple of times,” Acord said. “Fortunately, we were able to hold on.”
Micah Klemmeck topped the scorers with 14 points and earned a double-double by grabbing 13 rebounds. Cooley scored eight points, and Lara nabbed seven steals.
“The next night we played in Oroville and had an off night,” Acord said. “Give credit to Oroville, who came out inspired and ready to play, while we just looked out of sorts. We did pull to within two points at 57-55 with a few minutes left in the game, but just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
Micah Klemmeck again led the way in scoring with 13, followed by Cooley with 11 and Reggiatore with nine.
The Mountain Lions have four league games and one non-league contest left in the regular season. Liberty Bell will need to finish in fourth place in the North league to advance to the district tournament.
The coming week’s games won’t make that an easy task. On Tuesday (Jan. 27) , the Mountain Lions were scheduled to play league-leading Brewster at home. On Dec. 19, Brewster thumped Liberty Bell, 84-43.
On Friday (Jan. 30), Liberty Bell travels to Bridgeport, a team they beat 67-65 at home on Jan. 6. The Mountain Lions return for a home game next Monday (Feb. 2) against a tough Okanogan team that beat Liberty Bell, 78-53, on Jan. 9.
Liberty Bell vs. Tonasket
Tonasket 13 13 7 17 50
Liberty Bell 13 18 10 13 54
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 2 4 1 3
Ben Klemmeck 0 0 0 3
Jose Dominguez 2 2 1 0
Andrew Reggiatore 9 2 1 0
Connor Cooley 19 5 1 0
Micah Klemmeck 16 7 4 2
Willy Duguay 6 3 0 2
Garrett Dornfeld 0 3 1 2
Liberty Bell vs. Lake Roosevelt
Lake Roosevelt 10 4 11 19 44
Liberty Bell 6 8 14 18 46
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 4 4 7 2
Ben Klemmeck 0 3 0 2
Jose Dominguez 4 5 1 1
Andrew Reggiatore 4 2 0 0
Connor Cooley 8 5 1 0
Micah Klemmeck 14 13 2 2
Willy Duguay 8 3 0 2
Garrett Dornfeld 4 0 1 0
Liberty Bell at Oroville
Liberty Bell 16 14 14 13 57
Oroville 17 22 14 12 65
Points/rebounds/steals/assists
Jorge Lara 4 1 1 0
Ben Klemmeck 4 2 2 1
Jose Dominguez 5 2 3 1
Andrew Reggiatore 9 3 0 0
Connor Cooley 11 6 0 1
Micah Klemmeck 13 4 5 0
Willy Duguay 7 3 2 0
Garrett Dornfeld 4 2 0 0
Josh Frey 0 0 0 0
Standings, North Central Washington 2B North
Conference Overall
Brewster 10-0 15-1
Okanogan 8-1 12-3
Liberty Bell 6-4 11-4
Lake Roosevelt 5-3 6-5
Oroville 3-6 5-9
Tonasket 3-7 6-9
Bridgeport 2-8 4-9
Manson 1-8 6-9
Source: cwbathletics.com
