Liberty County played non-region games at Richmond Hill on Tuesday and traveled for Region 3-AAAA games at Windsor Forest on Friday. The Lady Panthers earned a split in those two games, while the Liberty boys edged out the Wildcats by four and beat Windsor Forest by a huge margin.
The Lady Panthers lost 42-36 at Richmond Hill on Tuesday, then rebounded Friday to eke out a 55-52 win over the Lady Knights.
Stats from the girls’ game were not available by press time. The Liberty girls are 4-8 overall and 2-1 in region play.
Tuesday night in Richmond Hill, the Panther boys led by two in the first quarter, but the Wildcats ended up by three points at the half. Richmond Hill kept a five-point lead as the teams entered the fourth quarter.
The Panthers outscored the Wildcats 13-4 in the final period, although the Wildcats still had a chance to pull out the win. Liberty scored off an offensive rebound with just over a minute to play for a two-point lead. RHHS had a good look on a shot in the final 10 seconds, according to Wildcats head coach Bill Henderson, but missed. The Panthers hit two free throws shortly after.
Liberty head coach Julian Stokes selected Martial Washington as the Player of the Game against the Wildcats. Washington hit a double-double, scoring 10 points and 17 total rebounds.
Richard LeCounte contributed 18 points, and Davion Mitchell had 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers. LeCounte and Washington were a perfect 100 percent at the free-throw line.
Friday night, the Panther boys waltzed into the Windsor Forest Knights’ home gym and danced away with a 104-60 win in the region matchup.
Final stats from the Knights’ game were not available by press time. The win was the second time this season, so far, that the Liberty boys broke the century mark in points scored in a game. Just last week, the Panthers beat Thomson 100-53.
The Liberty boys are 14-1 overall and 3-0 in the region.
The Liberty teams were set to be on the road Saturday at New Hampstead. Those games were not completed by press time. See Wednesday’s Courier for the full report. Scores and stats will be posted online as soon as they become available.
Brent Zell of the Bryan County News contributed to this report.