By Don Nelson
In a battle for second place in the Central Washington 2B North league, Lake Roosevelt prevailed over the Liberty Bell High School varsity boys’ basketball team, 69-52, on the Mountain Lions’ home court last Thursday (Jan. 14).
Playing without their second-leading scorer Micah Klemmeck, who was out sick, the Mountain Lions jumped to a 12-3 advantage before the Raiders started clicking behind senior star Chance Garvin. Liberty Bell held onto its first-quarter lead, but by halftime Lake Roosevelt had overtaken the Mountain Lions and went to the locker room up 38-32.
The Raiders, whose only league loss was to Brewster, didn’t exactly overwhelm Liberty Bell in the second half, but the Mountain Lions could only put up 20 points.
Senior Ben Klemmeck led Liberty Bell with a season-high 17 points, one of three Mountain Lions in double figures. Senior Connor Cooley, Liberty Bell’s leading scorer on the season, scored 15 while being shadowed by the taller Garvin most of the game. Senior Andrew Reggiatore added 12.
Earlier in the week, Liberty Bell traveled to Manson and came away with an important 50-42 league win while playing without Micah Klemmeck. Coach Kyle Acord said it wasn’t exactly a finesse game – both teams made a lot of turnovers, he said – but “all our guys pulled together to get a good win.”
Cooley scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Mountain Lions. Senior Josh Frey added 12 points and Reggiatore eight.
Liberty Bell traveled to Tonasket on Tuesday (Jan. 19), will travel to Lake Roosevelt for a rematch on Thursday (Jan. 21), then will host Oroville on Saturday (Jan. 23) at 6:30 p.m., an hour earlier than usual.
STATS
Liberty Bell 50, Manson 42
Liberty Bell 16 14 12 8 50
Manson 8 15 11 8 42
pts rbds stls assts
Chase Vanderyacht 3 4 2 2
Ben Klemmeck 5 5 4 1
Andrew Reggiatore 8 0 1 2
Leif Portman-Bown 2 2 0 0
Connor Cooley 18 10 3 4
Carter Dornfeld 2 2 0 0
Josh Frey 12 5 1 0
Lake Roosevelt, 69, Liberty Bell 52
Lake Roosevelt 14 24 15 16 69
Liberty Bell 19 13 10 10 52
pts rbds stls assts
Chase Vanderyacht 0 2 0 3
Ben Klemmeck 17 6 4 2
Andrew Reggiatore 12 0 0 2
Leif Portman-Bown 1 4 1 0
Connor Cooley 15 7 2 2
Carter Dornfeld 3 4 0 1
Josh Frey 4 6 2 3
Through 13 games
games pts avg
Connor Cooley 13 234 18.0
Micah Klemmeck 11 186 16.9
Andrew Reggiatore 13 107 8.2
Ben Klemmeck 13 94 7.2
Josh Frey 12 58 4.8
Chase Vanderyacht 13 42 3.2
Carter Dornfeld 12 28 2.3
Leif Portman-Bown 12 18 1.5
Shane Herrera 4 4 1.0
Brendan Saling 2 2 1.0
