Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – In a season full of firsts for the brand-new Liberty High varsity basketball program the Lightning cross another off the history checklist on Monday.

Iziah Poulson came off the bench to lead three players in double figures with a game-high 15 points and Andre Brandon had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds as Liberty High (2-3) earned its first home win 61-49 over Washington (0-3) in North Liberty.

“It’s pretty fun seeing the crowd and the fans be happy for us,” Brandon said. “It was fun to win a game here.”

Liberty High won its inaugural game last month at Bellevue.

Since winning its opener Liberty High had lost three straight, including home losses to future Mississippi Valley Conference opponent Waterloo West and an overtime loss to Center Point-Urbana on Saturday.

The Lightning got back into the win column on Monday, this time in front of its home crowd.

“I just think we have a lot of unknows, I feel like we could be pretty darn good eventually so it’s just when,” Liberty High coach Stu Ordman said. “I’m inpatient for them to do it sooner rather than later.”

Liberty High was pretty darn good for most of the game on Monday.

The Lightning never trailed after Ronnie Williams converted a layup that put Liberty High up 9-7 in the opening quarter.

Liberty got 10 points and seven rebounds from sophomore Sam Funke and nine points and five boards from 6-foot-4 freshman Ethan O’Donnell.

“It was a good team win,” Brandon said. “We fought hard.”

With a starting lineup featuring three sophomores and two freshman Ordman has emphasized improvement over the final score.

So far this season the Lightning have continued to make strides.

“I’m trying to make sure that the staff and I focus on spirit, effort and improvement as well as performance,” Ordman explained.

Liberty High led 13-9 after the opening quarter but closed the first half with a 16-7 run to take a 32-22 halftime lead.

Poulson started the run with a 3-pointer and had eight points during the spurt that also featured a 3-pointer from freshman guard Grayson Tyler.

Liberty High led by as many as 18 in the second half and never let the Demons get closer than nine.

In its first win since November 27 the Lightning held a 40-31 rebounding edge thanks to 14 from the 6-foot-5 Brandon.

“I think we’ve improve a lot on defense and offense,” Brandon said. “We’ve gotten better.”

Liberty High closes out its pre-holiday schedule with road games at Tipton, Northeast and Charles City and a home contest with Fort Madison.

Ordman has liked what he has seen from his team at times but knows there are improvements to be made going forward.

That’s been the focus all along.

“You never know what is going to happen but I think what I want to see no matter what is that we concentrate on effort and improvement,” Ordman said. “In the victory tonight we didn’t handle the ball well, we didn’t play situations smart at all. We are not going to be satisfied with that.”

Liberty High              13  19  17  12  –  61

Washington                9   13   9   18  –  49
<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
<!–[endif]–>Liberty High (61) – Grayson Tyler 2-2 0-1 5, Bo Gryp 2-8 1-2 5, Gerald Seals 0-1 0-0 0, Iziah Poulsen 6-9 1-3 15, Ronnie Williams 2-2 0-0 4, Moses Bolar 0-2 0-0 0, Ethan O’Donnell 3-7 3-3 9, Ben Houselog 0-1 0-0 0, Andre Brandon 4-13 5-6 13, Sam Funke 3-7 4-7 10, Team 22-52 14-22 61.

Washington (49) – Luke Turner 3-11 2-2 8, Cade Hennigan 3-9 0-0 6, Dalton Myers 4-6 3-6 11, Blake Hartzler 1-3 2-2 4, Cale Hobscheidt 2-9 0-0 4, Jack Redlinger 2-9 2-4 7, Jacob Van Osdol 3-4 0-0 9, Matthew Roder 0-2 0-0 0, Brock Sobaski 0-0 0-2 0, Team 18-53 9-16 49. 

3-point field goals – ICL 3-12 (Tyler 1-1, Gryp 0-3, Seals 0-1, Poulsen 2-5, Houselog 0-1, Brandon 0-1); WAS 4-17 (Turner 0-3, Hennigan 0-2, Hobscheidt 0-4, Redlinger 1-3, Van Osdol 3-4, Roder 0-1). Rebounds – ICL 40 (Brandon 14); WAS 31 (Turner 9). Turnovers – ICL 17; WAS 13. Total fouls – ICL 18; WAS 19. Fouled out – WAS (Redlinger). Technical fouls – None.