January 31 – Ft. Zumwalt East High School – It’s hard to win games on the road in conference play and such was the case for the Liberty Boys Basketball team Tuesday night at Ft. Zumwalt East.
Ft. Zumwalt East entered the game 6-12 on the season and seemingly overmatched by the conference leading Liberty Eagles. Despite the difference in records, it was Ft. Zumwalt East who came out as the dominant team Tuesday night. Zumwalt East built a 10 point half time lead by virtue of timely shooting and a zone defense that slowed down the Liberty offensive attack.
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, Liberty’s leading scorer Kaleb Overall was noticeably absent from the sideline. Overall appeared to roll an ankle during the first half of the game and didn’t appear on the sideline for several minutes into the third quarter action.
Liberty didn’t allow Overall’s absence from the lineup affect their comeback efforts as others stepped up, including Henningsen who found his range from behind the 3 point arc. After a 14-2 third quarter performance in favor the Eagles, Liberty found themselves entering the final quarter with a two point lead.
While the momentum was clearly in favor of the visiting Eagles, Ft. Zumwalt East didn’t lay down to the conference leaders. Zumwalt East would regain the lead in the 4th quarter before Liberty would finally emerge with a 3 point victory, taking the teams record to a perfect, 6-0 in conference play.
Liberty (14-6) plays host to Holt (6-13) on Friday night, 7pm. Should Liberty win Friday night, they would guarantee a share of the Conference Championship. Both Ft. Zumwalt South and Washington lost on Tuesday night, giving both teams 3 losses in Conference play for the season. Liberty can mathematically clinch the Conference Championship with wins Friday and Tuesday against visiting Ft. Zumwalt South.
