By just enough, the Liberty Bell High School boys’ basketball team ended more than two seasons of frustration with a 46-44 win over Waterville-Mansfield last week.
The dramatic come-from-behind victory on the Shockers’ home court was the first “W” for the Mountain Lions since February 2016. Between then and last week they lost 44 consecutive games over four seasons, including 0-20 records in both the previous two seasons. Liberty Bell came close to winning several times, but couldn’t quite finish off the close games.
That changed against Waterville-Mansfield. The Mountain Lions not only came back from an early deficit but also parlayed a strong fourth quarter into a win.
“Waterville was a close game throughout with neither team leading by more than five or six points,” Liberty Bell head coach Kyle Acord said. “The last two minutes of the game went back-and-forth.” The Mountain Lions took the lead for good on a steal and breakaway lay-up with 20 seconds left.
“With some great defense in the final seconds, we were able to force a tough shot by Waterville that went wide,” Acord said.
Liberty Bell’s scoring was led by sophomore Deken Smith with 12 points. Senior Owen Hevly added nine points. Sophomore Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega hauled in nine rebounds.
A couple of nights later, the Mountain Lions suffered through an ice-cold shooting spell in falling to a strong Tonasket team, 45-26, on the Tigers’ home court.
“Against Tonasket, we had a very rough first half shooting the basketball, finishing the entire game with only 21 percent shooting,” Acord said. “The first half was particularly poor as we fell behind early 13-2 in the first quarter and 24-8 at half. We were executing on offense fairly well and getting good shots, they just were not falling.”
Acord added that “I thought our defensive effort was good against one of the top teams in our league this year. The first half deficit was just too much to overcome.”
Hevly led Liberty Bell’s scoring with 7 points. Gonzalez-Ortega had another strong night on the boards with nine rebounds.
Liberty Bell is now 1-3 on the season, 1-1 in league play. The Mountain Lions hosted Brewster on Tuesday (Dec. 11). They will stay at home to face Manson on Friday (Dec. 14), tipping off at 7:30 p.m. Liberty Bell will play a third consecutive home game next Tuesday (Dec. 18) against Bridgeport, also starting at 7:30 p.m.
Liberty Bell 46, Waterville-Mansfield 44
Liberty Bell 4 18 13 11 46
Waterville-Mansfield 10 12 15 7 44
Deken Smith 12, Owen Hevly 9, Tommy Knox 1, Nolan Falcon-George 2, Dusty Patterson 6, Simon Studen 5, Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 6, Tyler Darwood 0, Shay Crandall 5
Tonasket 45, Liberty Bell 26
Liberty Bell 2 6 11 7 26
Tonasket 13 11 14 7 45
Deken Smith 0, Owen Hevly 7, Tanner White 0, Tommy Knox 0, Nolan Falcon-George 3, Dusty Patterson 4, Simon Studen 6, Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 6, Tyler Darwood 0, Shay Crandall 0
