Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High senior standout Natalie Ramsey staked her team to an early lead on Friday.

Her teammates made sure the Lightning never led that lead slip away.

Ramsey scored 11 of her game-high 25 points in the first quarter and Ava Casey and Madilyn Meyer combined for eight four quarter points as Class 5A No. 10 Liberty High held on for a 58-53 win over third-ranked City High in a cross-town thriller in North Liberty.

“Every single girl on our bench contributed,” Liberty High coach Jaime Brandt said. “When Natalie (Ramsey) gets in foul trouble we had to have other people score and step up and that’s what we did and I’m just really proud of their bounce back.”

Liberty High never trailed on Friday thanks to the strong start from Ramsey but didn’t put things away until Meyer made a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining.

Meyer had 12 points and Casey had 10 points as Liberty High (3-2) snapped a two-game losing skid.

“It’s great, senior year, rivalry games it’s so much fun because you know everyone on their team,” Meyer said. “It means a lot to get a win like that.”

Ramsey scored all 11 first quarter points for Liberty High including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave the Lightning an 11-5 lead.

The South Dakota recruit picked up her second foul with Liberty High leading 14-6 with more than six minutes remaining in the first half.

After Liberty High players other than Ramsey missed all nine first-quarter field goal attempts the Lightning went 5-of-8 from 3-point range in the second quarter.

Four different Liberty High players hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter including junior Olivya Johnson who’s 3-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer gave the Lightning a 30-15 halftime advantage.

“We are a pretty deep team, we have a lot of people on the team that can step up and hit some big shots,” Ramsey said. “I think we are pretty flexible with things like that where if one person is having an off game someone else will step up.”

City High (5-1) came storming back in the second half.

The Little Hawks closed the third quarter on a 12-4 run to cut the Liberty High lead to 47-42.

City High got as close as two points on a Hattie Galloway 3-pointer with 6:30 remaining but Liberty High never led the lead slip away.

Meyer made three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt and Ramsey scored in the paint to push the lead back to 52-45.

“It feels great to get this one after the two games we lost,” Ramsey said. “We weren’t playing our best and we worked really hard in practice and we worked on getting our intensity up and playing together and being confident. There is no better way to get that back than a rivalry game.

City High got as close as three twice in the final five minutes but each time Liberty High had an answer.

The Little Hawks cut the lead to 53-50 on a Maybes Miller 3-point with 4:47 remaining but junior guard Ava Casey answered with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to six.

“We have some experience on our team,” Brandt said. “We have a lot of seniors, we have kids that have been in these situations so I think that maturity level has been big for us this year.”

City High trailed 56-53 after a Loria layup with 42 seconds remaining but Meyer made a pair of free throws with 8.3 seconds left to seal the win.

“I was just thinking that it was going in,” Meyer said. “That’s what I tell myself at practice is that it’s going to go in and so that’s what I told myself over and over again.”

Brynlie Walker had seven points for Liberty High which made eight 3-pointers.

Driscoll had 19 points, Loria had 14 and Galloway had 13 points and seven rebounds for City High.

“I’ve never seen a locker room that is more upbeat after a loss ever,” City High coach Lyndsey Barnard said. “They are ready to go. They are ready to go back to work. Nobody wants to lose to an intra-city team but if we are going to lose in a situation like that I am going to take that every single time because that was a battle and that tells me so much about our team.”

City High                    5   10  27 11  –  53

Liberty High             11  19  17 11  –  58

City High (53) – Maybes Miller 2-5 0-0 6, Hattie Galloway 5-10 2-3 13, Maeve Bowen-Burt 0-2 0-0 0, Ka’Liyah Blakeney 0-1 0-0 0, Thisbe Lewis 0-3 1-2 1, Kaitlin Loria 6-11 0-0 14, Hallen Larew 0-3 0-0 0, Tessa Driscoll 6-9 4-7 19, Totals 19-44 7-12 53.

Liberty High (58) – Ava Casey 3-9 2-2 10, Aubrey Meyer 0-0 1-2 1, Natalie Schechinger 0-5 0-0 0, Brynlie Walker 2-6 1-2 7, Kennedy Goodheart 0-2 0-0 0, Morgan Bennett 0-1 0-0 0, Olivya Johnson 1-2 0-0 3, Madilyn Meyer 2-8 6-6 12, Natalie Ramsey 8-18 8-10 25, Totals 16-51 18-22 58.

3-point field goal – ICH 8-17 (Miller 2-5, Galloway 1-2, Bowen-Burt 0-2, Lora 2-5, Driscoll 3-3), ICL 8-26 (Casey 2-8, Schechinger 0-1, Walker 2-4, Goodheart 0-2, Bennett 0-1, Johnson 1-1, Meyer 2-6, Ramsey 1-3). Rebounds – ICH 41 (Driscoll 8), ICL 25 (Ramsey 11). Turnovers – ICH 18, ICL 6. Total fouls – ICH 17, ICL 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – City High (Bench).

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