Liberty Bell’s Owen Hevly launched a jump shot against Soap Lake in the Mountain Lions’ win last week.
The Liberty Bell High School boys’ basketball team broke out for its biggest offensive production of the season with a 68-49 win over visiting Soap Lake last week, but came back down to earth a few days later at Lake Roosevelt, falling 93-36 to the Raiders.
The Mountain Lions played their most-consistent basketball of the year in building a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, then blowing the game open by outscoring Soap Lake 26-6 in the second quarter. A three-pointer by Dusty Patterson, another trey by Nolan Falcon-George, a couple of put-backs by Shay Crandall and a three-pointer by Simon Studen highlighted the quarter.
Soap Lake came out scrappy in the third quarter and ate into the Liberty Bell lead. Consecutive put-backs by Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega, who followed those with a steal and breakaway basket, kept Liberty Bell’s momentum going. A technical foul on Soap Lake’s coach sent Gonzalez-Ortega to the free-throw line for two shots, and he sunk them both. A Tyler Darwood jumper made it 54-36 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter took a long time to play, as numerous fouls were called on both teams and both were in free throw penalty shot territory. Darwood and Studen canned three-pointers as the Mountain Lions held on to finish with a 19-point win. Liberty Bell’s previous high score during the season was 51 points.
Soap Lake’s players, apparently unhappy with the Mountain Lions’ play, walked off the court after the game without doing the traditional handshake exchange. Soap Lake player Christian Foster had suffered a leg injury that required treatment and transport by an Aero Methow Rescue Services crew.
Studen had by far his best game of the year and put up 19 points to lead Liberty Bell. Gonzalez-Ortega added 15 points and eight rebounds. Owen Hevly dished out nine assists and had four steals. Darwood had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Crandall had eight rebounds.
The Mountain Lions were simply overwhelmed in the first 16 minutes at Lake Roosevelt as the Raiders put up a monumental 36 points — Liberty Bell’s total for the entire game — in the second quarter for a 57-18 lead at halftime. The Mountain Lions played a close third quarter, but Lake Roosevelt continued to build its lead to the finish.
Gonzalez-Ortega led the Mountain Lions with eight points.
After last week’s games, Liberty Bell was 3-12 in league play, 4-15 overall. The Mountain Lions hosted Oroville on Tuesday (Feb. 5) in the final regular-season game. Studen and Hevly were honored at Senior Night.
Liberty Bell 68, Soap Lake 49
Soap Lake 11 6 19 13 49
Liberty Bell 15 26 13 14 68
Owen Hevly 2, Nolan Falcon-George 9, Dusty Patterson 7, Simon Studen 19, Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 15, Tyler Darwood 10, Shay Crandall 6
Lake Roosevelt 93, Liberty Bell 36
Liberty Bell 9 9 10 8 36
Lake Roosevelt 21 36 14 22 93
Owen Hevly 5, Sebastian Kar 1, Nolan Falcon-George 6, Dusty Patterson 6, Simon Studen 4, Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 8, Magnus Treise 4, Shay Crandall 2
Scoring after 19 games: Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 177, Dusty Patterson 119, Simon Studen 115, Nolan Falcon-George 106, Owen Hevly 98, Tyler Darwood 42, Shay Crandall 34, Deken Smith 27, Tommy Knox 20, Magnus Treise 4, Sebastian Kar 1
