Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – There is a level of understanding that comes for seniors that have been around a program as long as the current seniors on the Liberty High roster.

One thing this Liberty High senior class seems to grasp as the postseason approaches is they can control how long their season continues.

“The season is wrapping up and as a senior that’s sad but its good to know that if we keep playing the way we are that we can go far and keep our season going,” Liberty High senior Avery Gaudet said. “I know we can go far if we keep continuing to play well and working together so that’s exciting.”

Led by its senior backcourt Class 5A No. 10 Liberty High (13-6) continued an impressive late-season surge on Tuesday with a 51-35 win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

Gaudet and fellow senior Jasmine Barney combined for 29 points as Liberty High pushed its winning streak to four and won for the sixth time in its last seven games.

“We’ve had some down games this season but we understand that when we are playing together and are passing the ball and making the extra pass it goes really well,” Barney said. “I feel like we are going to go a long way in the postseason if we are playing like that.”

Liberty High will learn its postseason path on Wednesday with the release of the Class 5A regional pairings and will wrap the regular season at Cedar Rapids Prairie (9-11) on Friday.

The Lightning will enter the postseason playing as well as anyone in Class 5A.

Three of the wins for the Lightning during their current win streak are over ranked foes and Liberty High has four wins over ranked teams in a span of three weeks.

“We always talk about peaking at the right time and basketball is such a long season so we are trying to peak in February,” Liberty High coach Jamie Brandt said. “They are working hard, they are focused, this group gets along the best of any group I’ve had and I think they want to keep it going as long as possible and I think that shows in how we play.”

Gaudet and Barney played like seniors excited to extend their careers on Tuesday.

Barney had a game-high 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting and Gaudet went 3-of-5 from 3-point range and finished with nine points.

“Once you get into the playoffs its win or die so we have been playing really together and if we keep that up we should be able to keep playing,” Gaudet said. “It’s just really fun to be a part of this team.”

Cedar Rapids Jefferson (8-13) made five of nine field goal attempts in the first quarter and led 13-7 after the opening eight minutes.

The J-Hawks led 18-15 after an Emma Slings 3-pointer with 4:55 remaining in the first half.

Liberty High locked down on defense the rest of the way.

“At the beginning of the game I don’t think we came out as fast as we could but once we started getting into it and locking down on their better players I think that really helped us out,” Gaudet said.

Liberty High didn’t allow a field goal over the final 4:55 of the opening half while outscoring the J-Hawks 10-3 during that span.

A Haley Schroeder 3-pointer with three seconds left in the first half gave Liberty High a 25-21 halftime lead.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson got as close as 32-30 with under two minutes to play in the third quarter but the Lightning scored the final five points of the quarter on a Barney bucket and a Bella Tafolla 3-pointer.

Liberty High then put the game away with a 10-0 run to open the fourth quarter.

“I think our chemistry is really good and our defense has really stepped up,” Gaudet said. “We’ve been able to hold some pretty good teams to some low numbers which is a really big factor for us.”

Liberty High held the J-Hawks to 22 points on 22 percent shooting over the final three quarters.

Over the past seven games Liberty High is allowing just over 50 points per game despite playing five ranked opponents in that span.

“I think the Waterloo West game even though we didn’t win it we really played well defensively and really turned a corner that game and realized this is how you buy into defense,” Brandt said. “Especially when you live and die at the 3-point line like we do you have to defend and I think they are buying into that concept and realizing we can still win games when we don’t shoot great.”

Barney had all but four of her game-high 20 points over the final three quarters as Liberty High pulled away.

Schroeder had seven points and Tafolla six as Liberty High went 8-of-27 from 3-point range.

“We really needed to get it into the post because when you can get it into the post you can really break down their whole defense,” Barney said. “I feel like we did that way better in the second half.”

CR Jefferson                         13   8   9    5   –  35

Liberty High                          7  18  12  14  –  51

CR Jefferson (35) – Aubrey Luvan 2-7 0-0 6, Danielle Boche 0-1 2-2 2, Madison Mercil 0-2 0-0 0, Sophia Kevitt 0-0 1-2 1, Madie Denlinger 1-4 0-0 2, Jariah Harris 3-7 2-3 8, Madison Williams 2-5 0-0 4, Emma Slings 4-13 0-0 12, Morgan Hewitt 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 12-41 7-9 35.

Liberty High (51) – Avery Gaudet 3-6 0-0 9, Janessa Mosley 0-1 0-0 0, Bella Tafolla 2-4 0-0 6, Jasmine Barney 6-11 8-8 20, Kennedy Daugherty 1-3 1-1 3, Ava Meyer 0-5 0-0 0, Haley Schroeder 2-8 2-3 7, Madeline Casey 1-5 0-0 3, Libby Allen 1-2 0-0 3, Totals 16-45 11-12 51.

3-point field goals – ICL 8-27 (Gaudet 3-5, Tafolla 2-4, Barney 0-3, Meyer 0-4, Schroeder 1-5, Casey 1-4, Libby Allen 1-2), CRJ 4-18 (Luvan 2-6, Denlinger 0-3, Harris 0-1, Slings 2-6, Williams 0-2). Rebounds – ICL 30 (Meyer 7), CRJ 30 (Harris 6). Turnovers – ICL 9, CRJ 13. Total fouls – ICL 8, CRJ 10. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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