Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – The rapidly growing cross-town rivalry between Liberty High and City High produced a large and boisterous crowd on Friday night at Liberty High.

Over the noise of the crowd, the chanting of the student sections and the music of the pep band Ryan Kelly could be heard encouraging his team during the break following the first quarter.

“At the quarter I kind of lit them up a little bit,” Kelly admitted.

Whatever Kelly was telling his team the Lightning certainly heard their head coach loud and clear.

Liberty High held City High (1-3) scoreless for more than six minutes to open the second quarter during a 14-0 run that spurred the Lightning to a 50-42 win over the Little Hawks in a cross-town clash in North Liberty.

“What I was frustrated with after the first quarter is we had our game plan and we didn’t execute Liberty High (3-1) led 16-12 after the opening quarter but allowed City High to grab seven offensive rebounds which resulted in 20 shot attempts for the Little Hawks.

The message from Kelly between quarters was simple.

“We were giving up a lot of points in a row and a lot of rebounds which has been our struggle recently so he was getting on us a little and telling us to box out,” Liberty High senior Luke Ramsey said. “We definitely picked it up after that.”

Ramsey and Jailyn Buchanan each had 3-pointers during the 14-0 Liberty High burst to open the second quarter that gave the Lightning an 18-point advantage.

Five different Liberty High players scored during the run that spanned more than six and a half minutes.

“I definitely think we played a lot harder and trusted each other a lot more,” Ramsey said. “For us good defense translates to good offense and that really helped us a lot.”

Liberty High hit shots but the game-changing second-quarter run was all about defense.

City High missed its first seven field goal attempts in the second quarter and had half of its 16 turnovers during the second quarter.

The Little Hawks didn’t score until freshman Samuel Mbingazo made a bucket in the paint with 1:21 left before halftime.

“We call it a kill when we get three stops in a row and in the second quarter we got five kills so that is really what gave us that separation but that’s what we are capable of,” Kelly said. “I know that’s what we are capable of we have the size we have the athleticism we have the length we just have to play what our philosophy.”

City High closed the half on a 9-0 run capped by a Thomas Ksobiech 3-pointer that just beat the buzzer to trim the lead to 30-21.

The Little Hawks got as close as six in the fourth quarter but Ramsey hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 4:12 left to push the margin back to nine.

City High would never get closer than six points the rest of the way.

“I wasn’t trying to force anything we were still up I think six at that point so I wasn’t trying to take a quick shot,” Ramsey said. “We moved it around a lot and I got an open shot and I was able to knock it down.”

Ramsey went 4-of-8 from 3-point range and finished with a game-high 17 points.

Da’Shon Fisher joined Ramsey in double figures with 10 and grabbed eight rebounds while Trey Hughes had eight points.

“He’s really improved defensively,” Kelley said of Ramsey. “We always knew he could be a shooter and last year he proved that he could shoot the ball well and right now he’s our second go-to guy offensively and he hit some big shots and hopefully he can keep doing that moving forward.”

Mbingazo led City High with 13 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter while Ksobiech had 10 points.

Matt Schaeckenbach had nine rebounds for City High.

City High                   12    9  4  17  –  42

Liberty High             16  14  9  11  –  50

City High (42) – Trey Wright 3-13 0-0 7, Andre Wright 1-6 0-0 2, Thomas Ksobiech 4-6 0-0 10, Matt Schaeckenbach 0-4 0-2 0, Jameer James 0-2 0-0 0, Kris Freeman 1-7 0-0 2, Evan Lampe 3-10 0-0 6, Samuel Mbingazo 6-10 1-2 13, Parker Sutherland 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 19-59 1-4 42.

Liberty High (50) – Jailyn Buchanan 2-5 0-0 5, Luke Ramsey 4-8 5-8 17, Cael Schramm 2-3 2-2 6, Shea Sanders 0-2 0-0 0, Cooper Webb 2-5 0-0 4, Da’Shon Fisher 5-21 0-1 10, Trey Hughes 3-8 0-0 8, Totals 18-52 7-11 50.

3-point field goals – ICH 3-20 (T. Wright 1-7, A. Wright 0-3, Ksobiech 2-4, James 0-2, Freeman 0-2, Lampe 0-2), ICL 7-20 (Buchanan 1-2, Ramsey 4-8, Sanders 0-1, Webb 0-1, Fisher 0-3, Hughes 2-5). Rebounds – ICH 37 (Schaeckenbach 9), ICL 34 (Webb 8, Fisher 8). Turnovers – ICH 16, ICL 14. Total fouls – ICH 16, ICL 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.