The Liberty County High School boys’ basketball team starts its chase for the Class AAAA state title tonight by hosting Henry County at 6 p.m. in a first-round playoff matchup.
Ticket prices for the state playoff game is $7.
According to Panther coach Willie Graham, Henry County, the fourth seed from Region 4-AAAA, is quick and physical. The Warhawks, 16-12 overall mark and 11-5 region record, didn’t have any shooting stats posted on maxpreps.com as of Tuesday.
Liberty comes into tonight’s game with a 21-4 overall mark and 9-1 Region 3-AAAA record. The Panthers’ strengths are their shooting and point guards.
The Panthers, which primarily are sophomore- and junior-driven, have five players who have scored in the triple digits, led by sophomore guard Davion Mitchell with 472 points. Sophomore Richard LeCounte has scored 383 points, despite missing the first four games of the season due to playing football. Senior Milik Wallace has chipped in 211 points. Juniors Jishaun Harris and Tyriq Reece have scored 164 and 123 points, respectively.
Mitchell also leads the team in 3-pointers, hitting 16-of-49, and is 110-of-178 at the free-throw line. Wallace has hit 13 3-pointers in 50 attempts, while LeCounte has made 12 of 41 3-pointers.
Liberty has made the state playoffs four times in the past five years, but has advanced beyond the first round only once, according to statistics and reports listed on maxpreps.com.