Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – For the last month and a half Liberty High coach Ryan Kelly has to feel like he’s watching a rerun of the same game.

The Lightning have shown flashes against a rugged schedule filled with ranked opponents but have often come up short of an upset.

It was more of the same for Liberty High on Monday.

Liberty High trailed by just three points with under six minutes to play but couldn’t pull even in a 48-37 loss to Class 4A seventh-ranked Dubuque Senior (13-1) in a rescheduled Mississippi Valley Conference contest in North Liberty.

“Honestly, it’s only the same story,” Kelly said. “I think we showed in the second half if we play like that we can play with anybody. The thing is we’ve only done that for a half. We have to be able to do that for an entire game.”

Liberty High trailed by as many as 13 in the third quarter but trimmed the Dubuque Senior lead to 36-33 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.

The Rams responded by scoring the next 10 points to put the game away as Liberty High dropped its fifth game of the season to a ranked team.

Liberty High dropped to 5-9 with the loss and has now lost nine games all to teams .500 or better.

“I don’t think our record reflects how good we are,” Liberty High senior forward Cooper Webb said. “We are a lot better than our record shows and we just have to keep getting better.”

Liberty High has losses to top-10 teams Ankeny Centennial, West High, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Falls and now Dubuque Senior.

Other losses for the Lightning are two defending state runners-up Cedar Rapids Xavier (7-7) and Waukee Northwest (10-7), Johnston (9-6) and Linn-Mar (10-6).

That’s a gauntlet.

One that Kelly believes will pay dividends down the stretch.

“It’s hard right now for guys to see the long term because they always want to see what’s right in front of them and that’s my job as the coach to help them stay on the path,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to help them understand this is where we are going just stay on the path and we will get the job done.”

Dubuque Senior led 14-5 after the opening quarter and took a 25-14 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Rams led 36-23 with under two minutes to play in the third quarter when the Lightning mounted a rally.

Collin Decker and Webb hit back-to-back 3-pointers over the final 66 seconds of the third quarter to cut the margin to 36-29.

Liberty High held Dubuque Senior scoreless for more than four minutes from the end of the third and the start of the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 36-33 on back-to-back baskets by Webb to open the fourth quarter.

“It starts on defense for us,” Webb said. “When we are playing well on defense it turns into good offense for us.”

Liberty High had five made field goals in the third quarter after making six field goals the entire first half.

“When you take better shots you are going to score more points,” Kelly said. “I also think that the energy we had on the defensive end is what allowed us to be successful on the offensive end and it’s about meshing those two together.”

Dubuque Senior put the game away with a 10-0 run that started with a conventional 3-point play by Josh Brauer with 5:29 remaining.

Cooper Porter followed with a 3-pointer and Tevin Schultz and Brauer each scored in the post to cap the 10-0 burst.

“There were two possessions where they got the ball into the post and we were running our double rotation and we didn’t drop down and they got four points and that’s when it went from six to 10,” Kelly said. “I thought if we could get a stop and go get a score the game could have changed.”

Webb led Liberty High with nine points while Jerimiah Washpun had seven points.

Maddoc Coapstick and Stephen Cain each had five points for the Lightning.

Schultz had a game-high 16 points to lead the Rams.

Dubuque Senior        14  11  11  12  –  48   

Liberty High               5    9   15   8   –  37                                                                                         

Dubuque Senior (48) – Mahdi AlAtabi 1-1 0-0 2, Ben Potts 0-1 0-0 0, Cooper Porter 2-4 0-0 6, Josh Brauer 3-3 2-3 8, Jalen Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Nick Kennedy 1-3 0-0 2, TJ Lynn 3-3 0-0 6, Tevin Schultz 8-15 0-1 16, Jacob Williams 3-11 0-0 6, Totals 22-44 2-4 48.

Liberty High (37) – Jerimiah Washpun 2-4 2-2 7, Maddoc Coapstick 2-4 0-0 5, Collin Decker 1-2 0-0 3, Stephen Cain 2-4 0-0 5, Gage Kampman 1-4 0-0 2, Shea Sanders 0-2 0-0 0, Cael Schramm 0-0 2-2 2, Cooper Webb 4-7 0-2 9, Trey Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Trey Hughes 2-9 0-0 4, Totals 14-38 4-6 37.

3-point field goals – DS 2-5 (Porter 2-4, Schultz 0-1), ICL 5-14 (Washpun 1-1, Coapstick 1-2, Decker 1-1, Cain 1-2, Webb 1-3, Williams 0-2, Hughes 0-3). Rebounds – DS 28 (Williams 8), ICL 20 (Washpun 4). Turnovers – DS 12, ICL 15. Total fouls – DS 8, ICL 6. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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