Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – With only a week remaining in the regular season the days of high school basketball are dwindling quickly for an impactful group of Liberty High seniors.

Trey Hughes, Gage Kampman and the rest of the Lightning seniors are playing like they don’t want their careers to come to an end.

Hughes scored 20 points and Kampman added 14 to lift surging Liberty High to a 69-51 win over Waterloo West on Thursday in a Mississippi Valley Conference contest in North Liberty.

“We know this is it, it’s our last season, our last time, so what do we have to lose?” Kampman said. “We are going to go 100 percent.”

Liberty High sat 5-9 with six losses to ranked opponents following an 11-point loss to Dubuque Senior on January 29.

The Lightning have won three of four since including its first back-to-back wins since December 15 to improve to 8-10.

The late-season surge has started with the Lightning seniors.

“This is the last time playing together for our seniors so we want to cherish the moments and finish it out strong,” Hughes said. “We want to make the most of every game.”

Seniors accounted for 51 of the 69 Liberty High points on Thursday with Shea Sanders adding eight points that included a trio of dunks.

Sanders, Cooper Webb and Cael Schramm combined for 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Hughes had a team-high seven rebounds and Kampman scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half.

“It has to start with the guys that have been three-year varsity players,” Liberty High coach Ryan Kelly said. “When we can get Trey and Gage going early that really helps us and those guys were phenomenal.”

Waterloo West (5-13) made six 3-pointers and was 8-of-16 from the field while taking a 22-21 lead after the opening quarter.

The rest of the way was all Lightning.

Liberty High held the WaHawks to 2-of-11 shooting in the second quarter, including 1-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc, while outscoring Waterloo West 18-9 to take a 39-31 halftime lead.

“I told our guys they were hot in the first quarter but they were open so we needed to do a better job of reading what was happening and contesting that,” Kelly said. “I thought we ran them off the line in the second and our rotations were good.”

Liberty High never let Waterloo West get close than five points in the second half.

The Lightning held Waterloo West to 29 percent shooting for the game and just 21 percent after the first quarter.

Jahlil Manago had a game-high 24 points to lead Waterloo West but made just one of his final seven shots.

“We were patient with the ball and took better shots, high quality shots and we stayed solid on defense,” Kampman said. “Obviously Manago is a really good player so we were sitting on him and making him take tough shots.”

Liberty High travels to Cedar Rapids Prairie (8-9) on Friday and goes to Cedar Rapids Washington (7-13) on Tuesday before hosting Dubuque Hempstead (6-11) in its regular season finale next Thursday.

After a challenging early-season schedule the opportunity is there for the Lightning to build momentum before a potential postseason run.

“We talked about our schedule and I think we are at the point where our kids have gained a little bit of confidence and can see where we are at,” Kelly said. “When the time comes we have to play the big dogs.”

Waterloo West          22   9   11   9   –  51               

Liberty High             21  18  12  18  –  69                           

 Waterloo West (51) – Parker Berns 1-11 2-2 5, Zachary Dobbs 0-1 0-0 0, Jahlil Manago 9-20 0-0 24, Tyrell White 1-2 0-2 2, Zion Cook-Berns 1-4 0-0 3, Bryce Westemeier 4-16 2-2 12, Joseph Hudson 0-2 2-2 2, Shuncere Wortham 1-3 0-2 3, Totals 17-59 6-10 51.

Liberty High (69) – Jerimiah Washpun 4-8 2-2 10, Maddoc Coapstick 1-5 5-6 8, Stephen Cain 0-3 0-0 0, Gage Kampman 6-8 1-2 14, Shea Sanders 4-5 0-1 8, Cael Schramm 0-1 4-6 4, Cooper Webb 1-3 2-4 5, Trey Hughes 6-11 5-6 20, Totals 22-44 19-27 69.

3-point field goals – WW 11-37 (Berns 1-6, Dobbs 0-1, Manago 6-11, Cook-Berns 1-4, Westemeier 2-11, Hudson 0-1, Wortham 1-3), ICL 6-16 (Coapstick 1-3, Cain 0-2, Kampman 1-1, Webb 1-3, Hughes 3-7). Rebounds – WW 34 (Berns 6, Manago 6), ICL 37 (Hughes 7). Turnovers – WW 9, ICL 7. Total fouls – WW 18, ICL 9. Fouled out – WW (White). Technical fouls – None.

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