EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
After a close 62-56 victory against Southwestern Heights, the Lady Redskins traveled to Great Bend to start a three-game-in-four-days streak with a 49-31 win.
Liberal started off hot against the Lady Mustangs with a pair of three pointers from Kiley Rhine and another from Rubi Alvarez in the first quarter to help the Lady Redskins build a 15-8 lead.
But the Lady Mustangs picked up the pace in the second quarter thanks to 11 points from Katelyn Reiss who dropped two threes in the period.
The Lady Mustangs trimmed a point off the Lady Red lead by half, and Liberal led 32-26.
But the lady Mustangs pushed the Lady Redskins hard in the third quarter and erased the deficit with Layla Kisner having to watch from the bench after picking up her fourth foul. The Lady Mustangs started to drain the long distance shots with three threes from Sandra Saucedo and another three from Reiss, and by the end of the third quarter the Lady Redskins lead was down to one, 47-46.
But the Lady Redskin defense tightened in the fourth quarter, and after only scoring one basket and seven free throws before the fourth quarter, Shamari Lewis charged through the lane in the fourth to add eight more points for 17 in the game, and the Lady Redskins outscored the Lady Mustangs in the final period 15-10 for a 62-56 win.
Rhine led the Lady Redskins with 19 points, and Olvera had 12.
Liberal only had the weekend before they headed to Great Bend for a Western Athletic Conference match-up, and the Lady Red came away with a 49-31 win.
Lewis scored 16 points and added to her record-setting season as a rebounder with 19.
Kisner led the Lady Mustangs with 18 points, Reiss had 16, and Saucedo scored 12.
“It came down to defense and rebounding,” Liberal coach Brandi Fowler said. “It was a super physical game. We did not have a great night shooting. When that happens you have to have a good night on defense and rebounding and that’s what the girls did tonight.”
That’s why practice is so important to Fowler beyond making baskets.
“You have to remember basketball is more than making shots,” she said. “Shamari was doing a lot of things and the other girls did things to help keep the lead and fight back when we went down. You do what’s right by your teammates.”
And Fowler knew the Lady Mustangs would be a challenge.
“Hats off to Southwestern Heights,” she said. “They mad a run without their best player out with foul trouble. I’m Excited to see what they do in the post season.”
