Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports  

NORTH LIBERTY – The latest tight loss for Liberty High had to feel like a 32-minute encapsulation of the season for the Lightning.

Liberty High showed flashes on both ends of the court on Tuesday but couldn’t overcome a 15-point deficit in a 63-62 loss to Dubuque Wahlert in a Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division contest in North Liberty.

The loss was the fourth in a row for Liberty High (6-10) which has lost three games by six or less points during its current losing streak.

“With a lot of things we are talking about it comes down to consistency,” Liberty High coach Ryan Kelly said. “We will do it for a little then we won’t so it just becomes the consistency. We have to turn it into habits and right now we don’t have those habits.”

As it has for most of the season Liberty High showed flashes of brilliance on Tuesday.

The Lightning made seven of 10 first-quarter field goal attempts and led 24-23 late in the first half.

However, Dubuque Wahlert outscored the Lightning 11-3 over the final two minutes of the half to take a 34-27 halftime lead.

Wahlert took its biggest lead of the game at 44-29 with a 10-2 run to open the third quarter.

After starting the game 7-of-10, Liberty High was just 11-of-28 from the field in the second and third quarters.

“For us offensively it’s having team possessions,” Kelly said. “We don’t have to score in the first five seconds. It’s just playing as a team and going back to doing the fundamentals.”

Trailing by 15 Liberty High got rolling.

The Lightning rattled off an 11-0 run in which five different players cored.

Da’Shon Fisher started the run with a pair of free throws and sophomore Maddoc Coapstick capped it with a 3-pointer with 1:38 remaining in the third quarter.

“At halftime we were getting talked to about communication on defense and playing as a team,” Fisher said. “We moved the ball more and we started to look for the open guy with the extra pass.”

Trailing 48-45 after three quarters Liberty High got rolling early in the fourth.

Coapstick scored five straight points to give the Lightning their first lead since the second quarter at 50-48.

“For us it started defensively, we finally started to settle down and guard the ball without giving up straight line drives,” Kelly said. “They are an incredible rebounding team and we finally started to grab the ball and then we were able to get going. I think it started defensively for us.”

The rest of the fourth quarter as back-and-forth.

Liberty High tied the game at 57-all on a putback by Fisher but Wahlert scored the next six points taking a 63-57 lead on a driving layup by Jack Walsh with 1:16 remaining.

The Lightning battled back and had a chance late.

Luke Ramsey cut the lead to 63-60 with a 3-pointer and after Nolan Berendes missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 17.6 seconds left Fisher cut the lead to 63-62 with a driving basket with 7.8 seconds remaining.

“I’ve got a lot of faith in these guys and our team,” Fisher said. “It really starts when we stop playing for ourselves and start playing for the team.”

Liberty High had a final chance when Berendes missed another front end but Trey Hughes’ 3-poitner at the buzzer was short.

The win was the fourth straight for Dubuque Wahlert and improved the Golden Eagles to 9-8 on the season.

Berendes had 19 points while Duke Faley had 16 points and Walsh had 14 as Dubuque Wahlert shot 45 percent from the floor.

“Even with a hand in their face they were hitting shots,” Fisher said. “You tip your hat to the shooter because that’s all you can do.”

Fisher had a game-high 22 points to lead Liberty High while Ramsey had 11 points.

Dubuque Wahlert                 18  16  14  15  –  63

Liberty High                           15  12  18  17  –  62

Dubuque Wahlert (63) – Quinn Walsh 1-1 0-0 3, Luke Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Jack Walsh 7-10 0-0 14, Ethan Meyer 0-1 0-0 0, Nolan Berendes 7-14 1-3 19, Seamus Crahan 2-6 0-0 4, Duke Faley 5-10 4-4 16, Patrick Fitzgerald 1-4 0-0 3, Charlie Becker 1-5 0-0 2, Totals 25-56 5-7 63.

Liberty High (62) – Jailyn Buchanan 2-7 0-0 4, Maddoc Coapstick 3-6 0-0 8, Luke Ramsey 4-7 0-0 11, Graham Beckman 1-3 0-0 2, Gage Kampman 3-5 1-1 7, Cael Schramm 1-2 2-2 4, Cooper Webb 0-1 0-0 0, Da’Shon Fisher 9-15 2-2 22, Trey Hughes 2-8 0-0 4, Totals 25-54 5-5 62.

3-point field goals – DW 8-20 (Q. Walsh 1-1, Smith 0-2, J. Walsh 0-1, Berendes 4-9, Faley 2-3, Fitzgerald 1-4), ICL 7-23 (Buchanan 0-3, Coapstick 2-5, Ramsey 3-6, Fisher 2-4, Hughes 0-5). Rebounds – DW 34 (J. Walsh 8), ICL 30 (Kampman 5, Fisher 5). Turnovers – DW 11, ICL 13. Total fouls – DW 10, ICL 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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