Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Not a lot went right for Liberty High in a loss to cross-town rival West High on Tuesday.

The Lightning didn’t shoot well (26%), were outrebounded and committed more turnovers and fouls than the Trojans in a 52-36 loss.

That left plenty to work on in the days leading up to Friday’s meeting with Class 5A No. 14 Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Instead of working on any of those specific areas Liberty High head coach Jaime Brandt talked to her team about toughness.

Specifically, mental toughness.

“We’ve been talking a lot about mental toughness in practice,” Brandt explained. “We have talent, we love each other and I think the thing that is kind of missing is our mental toughness, sometimes we come ready to play and sometimes we don’t.”

Liberty High was certainly ready on Friday.

Natalie Ramsey had a game-high 25 points and Ava Casey had 16 as Liberty High bounced back with a 62-42 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie in a Mississippi Valley Conference cross-divisional game in North Liberty.

“We knew this was a good game for us to bounce back,” Ramsey said. “It was another chance to play at home after that game (on Tuesday) and take some things that didn’t go so well and learn and grow from that.”

Liberty High (7-4) limited Cedar Rapids Prairie to 26 percent shooting from the floor, holding the Hawks top three scorers, Emily Larsen, KeaOnna Worley and Brynlie Hadenfeldt, to a combined 8-of-38 shooting.

“We know they are good, those three players are three really good basketball players that was our key all week was talking about how we were going to attempt to defend them and then how much help we needed to provide on them,” Brandt said. “I thought we really bought in to what we were trying to do and it helps when they don’t shoot the ball very well but we did contest almost every shot which is what we wanted to do.”

Hadenfeldt, Larsen and Worley entered averaging a combined 41.5 points per game.

The trio combined for 29 on Friday as Cedar Rapids Prairie (5-5) dropped its fourth consecutive game.

“We know those three are really good scorers so that was our focus coming into this game is to close out well on them and then trying to box out and limit their possessions,” Ramsey said. “It was just talking a lot and communicating so we knew where they were at.”

Liberty High closed the first quarter with a 10-3 run that was sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers by Casey to take a 15-6 lead after the opening quarter.

Casey was 5-of-7 from 3-point range on Friday helping Liberty High go 9-of-23 from behind the stripe after going 4-of-19 from 3-point range in the loss to West High on Tuesday.

“The rivalry games are high tension and so your shots may not be falling that game but after that loss our mentality was to go out full force all four quarters,” Casey said. “I think that was our mentality after that game because we did not play the way we wanted to.”

Cedar Rapids Prairie got as close as 18-15 midway through the second quarter but Liberty High closed on a 12-5 run to take a 30-20 halftime lead.

The Lighting never let the lead slip below 10 in the second half.

Ramsey had a double-double with 25 points and 12 rebounds and Madilyn Meyer added eight points for the Lightning.

Worley had 12 and Larsen added 10 for Cedar Rapids Prairie.

“They really showed up tonight,” Brandt said of her team. “I think they gained confidence tonight from beating a really good team.”

CR Prairie                  6   14  10  12  –  42

Liberty High              15  15  15  17  –  62

CR Prairie (42) – Malena Daville 1-1 0-0 3, KeaOnna Worley 2-14 7-8 12, Brynlie Hadenfeldt 2-6 2-2 7, Emily Larsen 4-17 1-2 10, Kennady Johnson 2-3 0-0 5, Piper Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Kylie Wachtl 0-3 3-4 3, Totals 12-47 13-16 42.

Liberty High (62) – Ava Casey 5-9 1-2 16, Aubrey Meyer 3-6 0-0 6, Natalie Schechinger 1-2 0-0 2, Ava Tague 1-3 0-0 3, Morgan Bennett 1-7 0-0 2, Olivya Johnson 0-4 0-0 0, Madilyn Meyer 1-2 5-6 8, Natalie Ramsey 7-17 9-11 25, Totals 19-50 15-19 62.

3-point field goal – CRP 5-25 (Daville 1-1, Worley 1-5, Hadenfeldt 1-3, Larsen 1-10, K. Johnson 1-1, P. Johnson 0-2, Wachtl 0-3), ICL 9-23 (Casey 5-7, Tague 1-2, Bennett 0-5, Johnson 0-3, Meyer 1-2, Ramsey 2-4). Rebounds – CRP 30 (P. Johnson 9), ICL 37 (Ramsey 12). Turnovers – CRP 9, ICL 8. Total fouls – CRP 16, ICL 14. Fouled out – CRP (Hadenfeldt). Technical fouls – None.

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