Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Belief can be a powerful thing.

In past year’s City High coach Brennan Swayzer isn’t sure his team believed they could win.

Under their first-year head coach the Little Hawks are starting to believe this season.

That belief is turning into wins.

City High erased a three-point deficit in the final minute with a 6-0 run to end the game in a thrilling 41-38 win over Liberty High in the final game of 2019 for both teams on Friday in North Liberty.

“I feel like this is something they have always been capable of but they didn’t believe they were capable of this,” Swayzer said. “Now they do everything we ask and they are seeing it they are starting to believe it.”

There was plenty of reason for City High to doubt late.

City High saw an eight-point halftime lead evaporate, went scoreless for more than six minutes in the fourth quarter and was without starters Jamari Newson who fouled out and Keshawn Christian who left in the fourth quarter with an injury.

Rather than wilt the Little Hawks battled back.

They believed.

Byron Benton scored the final six points of the game, including a go-ahead and-one with 11 seconds left as City High (3-2) battled back from a 38-35 deficit in the final 40 seconds.

“Obviously this is a confidence boost but we try to not let it get to our heads,” Benton said. “We can’t let this affect any other game. We want to come in to every game the same way.”

City High led 24-26 at the half and trailed for just 27 seconds in the opening 14 minutes of the second half.

Kelby Telander gave Liberty High a 28-27 lead with a conventional 3-point play with 2:54 left in the third quarter but City High junior Andre Miller answered with a 3-pointer on the next Little Hawk possession to retake the lead.

“This is starting to help us see that we can actually do what we want to do, what we said we wanted to do at the start of the season,” Miller said. “Winning games like this proves we can do those things.”

City High didn’t trail again until the final two minutes.

The Little Hawks led 35-31 with under four minutes to play before Liberty High rattled off seven consecutive points to seemingly take control.

Liberty High went up 36-35 on a Telander layup with 86 seconds left and led 38-35 when Andre Brandon converted a layup while being fouled with 51 seconds left.

Brandon missed the free throw and Benton quickly hit two free throws on the other end.

“The guys have changed their mindset,” Swayzer said. “When adversity kicked in people thought ‘here we go again’ but we train for these moments we do a lot of situation stuff and they put in the work and they got the reward tonight, they never quit.”

With Liberty High leading 38-37 with 19 seconds left Ethan O’Donnell missed a pair of free throws.

Benton went straight to the bucket on the other end drawing a foul while converting at the rim with 11 seconds left.

His free throw made it 40-38.

“I’m thinking score,” Benton said. “I wanted to get to the hole, get fouled or create for my teammates but just get the ball in the hoop.”

Liberty High had one final chance to win but Ira Hazeltine had his 3-pointer at the top of the key partially blocked and Benton corralled the rebound.

A desperation heave by Brandon from half court was just long at the buzzer as Liberty High dropped to 4-1.

“It’s huge especially going into break,” Swayzer said. “This is a dang good team, they were undefeated coming in it’s a conference win and they beat us twice last year so we got over several hurdles tonight and I think this is huge for where we are trying to go with the direction of our program.”

Benton led City High with 17 points while Keyoun Agee, Miller and Newson all had six.

Christian, City High’s top scoring coming in at 22.3 points per game, had three points before leaving with an injury.

“We have a deep bench and the guys on the sidelines are just as invested in the game as we are,” Benton said. “Those guys are ready to come in and play.”

Telander led Liberty High with 14 points while Brandon had eight points and nine rebounds and Sam Funke added eight points.

Liberty High  12   4   15  7  –  41

City High        11  13  10  7  –  38 

City High (41) – Keyoun Agee 2-5 2-4 6, Kolby Kucera 0-5 0-0 0, Andre Miller 2-4 0-0 6, Byron Benton 4-8 8-10 17, Jamari Newson 3-7 0-1 6, Raph Hamilton 0-2 0-0 0, Keshawn Christian 0-6 3-4 3, Kaleba Jack 1-1 1-2 3, Team 12-38 14-21 41.

Liberty High (38) – Ira Hazeltine 0-5 0-0 0, Cody Schroeder 0-2 0-0 0, Sam Funke 4-7 0-0 8, Basil Aldoss 1-7 0-0 2, Colin Shults 0-1 0-0 0, Kelby Telander 6-8 1-5 14, Savion Taylor 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan O’Donnell 2-9 0-2 4, Ben Houselog 0-1 2-7 2, Andre Brandon 3-9 2-5 8, Team 16-50 5-19 38.

3-point field goals – ICL 1-13 (Hazeltine 0-4, Schroeder 0-1, Aldoss 0-1, Telander 1-2, Taylor 0-1, O’Donnell 0-2, Houselog 0-1, Brandon 0-1), ICH 3-15 (Agee 0-1, Kucera 0-4, Miller 2-4, Benton 1-2, Newson 0-1, Christian 0-3). Rebounds – ICL 36 (Brandon 9), ICH 35 (Newson 8). Turnovers – ICL 8, ICH 14. Total fouls – ICL 19, ICH 18. Fouled out – ICH (Newson). Technical fouls – None.

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