Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The start of the girls basketball postseason looms just a few weeks away.

Postseason pairings should be set next week.

Liberty High is hoping to make a run at the state tournament next month.

On Friday Liberty High continued a January push that the Lightning hope will set them up for postseason success.

A day After climbing three spots in the Class 5A rankings No. 12 Liberty High won its second game in a row with a 39-25 win over City High in a cross-town matchup in Iowa City.

“We don’t talk about rankings a ton, I know the girls probably talk about it when we aren’t around but we try to focus on each game as it,” Liberty High coach Jamie Brandt said. “The state tournament is right around the corner and that’s the ultimate goal so any win we can get to add to our resume is a good one.”

Liberty High used a strong defensive effort to complete the regular season sweep of City High and improve to 9-5 on the season.

The Lightning held City High (3-10) to just seven field goals and 23 percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers.

“Defensively we played really well,” Brandt said. “Augie (Palmer) is a tremendous player, Tessa (Driscoll) last game against us I think hit five or six threes so we came defensively minded this game and I thought we did a really good job of trying to slow them down.”

The 25 points were a season-low for City High which had just four players score on Friday.

Palmer had a team-high 14 points but the rest of the Little Hawks combined for just 11 points on 3-of-22 shooting.

“I think we are growing as a team defensively,” Liberty High Janessa Mosley said. “Game after game we are getting better defensively. We are getting there offensively, it’s a little slow but we are getting there.

Defensively we are really picking it up and that’s helping us win these games.”

Mosley came off the bench to lead Liberty High with 10 points as the Lightning overcame their own offensive struggles to win for the third time in four ames.

Liberty High shot just 30 percent and was 3-of-20 from 3-point range but had eight different players score in the win.

Offensively it was not our best game, not our best shooting game,” Brandt said. “It’s hard when you live at the 3-point line and you don’t shoot the ball well but we found a way to win.”

Liberty High shot just 25 percent in the first half but still had a 20-9 halftime lead.

The Lightning held City High scoreless for the final 5:03 of the first quarter while taking a 9-5 lead.

City High went more than seven and a half minutes without a field goal in the second quarter and had just two free throws in the quarter before Palmer scored a layup with 16 seconds left in the half.

“I think as a team we are becoming confident and learning how to win and our program hasn’t really done that before,” Printy said. “Finding ways to win when we don’t shoot the ball well and having people come off the bench like Janessa and bringing that spark offensively when we need it is huge.”

Mosley provided the offensive boost for Liberty High on Friday scoring all 10 of her points in the final three quarters.

I feel like offensively I was able to attack more but all my energy came from my teammates,” Mosley said. “My teammates would do something good and it would boost me up to do my part.”

Jasmine Barney and Madeline Casey had seven points for Liberty High and Kennedy Daugherty and Ava Meyer each had four.

“When we can win games when Jasmine has seven points that says a lot about our team and how deep we are,” Printy said. “We have girls that can score and I tell the girls every night at practice it could be someone different every game.”

Liberty High            9  11  6  13 –  39

City High                   5   4  10  6  –  25

Liberty High (39) – Avery Gaudet 1-7 0-0 2, Janessa Mosley 4-8 1-2 10, Jasmine Barney 2-7 3-6 7, Kennedy Daugherty 1-3 2-4 4, Libby Allen 1-1 0-0 2, Ava Meyer 1-5 1-2 4, Haley Schroeder 0-4 3-4 3, Madeline Casey 3-7 0-0 7, Bella Tafolla 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 13-43 10-18 39.

City High (25) – Augie Palmer 4-9 5-6 14, Mia Driscoll 0-2 0-1 0, Lauren Koch 3-8 1-2 8, Nora Jespersen 0-2 0-0 0, Emmy McComas 0-6 2-5 2, Tessa Driscoll 0-4 1-2 1, Totals 7-31 9-16 25.

3-point field goals – ICH 2-17 (Palmer 1-4, M. Driscoll 0-1, Koch 1-5, Jespersen 0-2, McComas 0-3, T. Driscoll 0-2), ICL 3-20 (Gaudet 0-4, Mosley 1-3, Tafolla 0-1, Barney 0-2, Meyer 1-2, Schroeder 0-3, Casey 1-5). Rebounds – ICH 32 (McComas 10), ICL 31 (Mosley 6, Daugherty 6, Meyer 6). Turnovers – ICH 19, ICL 8. Total fouls – ICH 14, ICL 17. Fouled out – ICH (Palmer). Technical fouls – None.

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