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Yates free throws seal wild win over Devils, 63-59
For better or worse, the one expectation you can reasonably take into a Liberty boys basketball game this season is that the final minutes will be interesting.
Last Wednesday, the Eagles coughed up 15 straight points to Loudoun Valley, setting up a frantic finish that culminated with a Liberty loss.
On Friday night, LHS let a six-point lead over Culpeper disappear. This time, though, the Eagles wound up on the positive side of a crazy conclusion, rallying for a 63-59 victory.
“This was a big win for us,” Liberty coach Pat Frazer said. “It’s a team that was ahead of us in the standings, so we needed this one.”
The victory pulled Liberty even with Culpeper in the Cedar Run District at 7-4, two losses behind first-place Osbourn Park.
The game’s outcome and subsequent standings shift were not wrapped up until a pair of Steve Yates free throws with 4.3 seconds left extended a tenuous two-point lead to four. And those foul shots were simply the tail end of a wild final 1:45.
Culpeper and Liberty sat tied at 56 when Eagle point guard Stephen Massei nailed the last of his three 3-pointers for the game. Massei hit three 3s on the night and finished with 17 points.
CCHS (13-6 overall) made it 59-57 on an Odie Veeney free throw and tied the game when Eric Washington forced a turnover and raced in for a layup with 45 seconds left.
LHS raced back upcourt – where Yates missed a short floater, but stole the rebound away from a trio of Blue Devils and drew a foul. After a free throw, Liberty (14-5) led 60-59.
Washington then managed to earn his own trip to the line with 15.8 seconds to play. The Culpeper standout led his team with 20 points and was 8-for-9 on free throws prior to his final two. But he bricked both of those attempts and, eventually, Culpeper had to foul Stefawn Ross.
Ross drained hit the first of two free throws with eight seconds showing and missed the second, but Yates again swooped in to claim a rebound, leading to his game-clinching foul shots.
“I have no problem with Eric going to the line with 15 seconds left,” CCHS coach James Thompson said. “He was 8-for-9 when he stepped up there, but sometimes pressure busts pipes.
“I wouldn’t even talk about the free throws; we had two rebounds down there and had them both taken away from us,” he added, referencing Yates’s clutch thefts.
In addition to providing Liberty a needed district win, the nail-biter also offered the Eagles a measure of revenge.
Back on Jan. 4 at Culpeper — where the Blue Devils are undefeated this season — Liberty watched a 34-26 halftime lead disintegrate into a 68-55 loss. That game turned when Culpeper slid into a 2-3 zone, stifling Liberty’s offense and leading to endless fastbreak baskets.
This time around, the zone proved less effective. Liberty pushed the tempo in the third quarter, turning a 25-24 halftime deficit into a 47-41 lead.
“We attacked them better. You watch that tape against them last time and it was like we shut it down,” said Frazer, whose team finished 6-for-20 behind the 3-point arc. Culpeper shot 0-for-7 from deep. “They got some transition tonight, but not like last time.”
Making the win more impressive was that the Eagles claimed it despite limited minutes from Stefawn Ross and Derrick Lee.
Both players found themselves in frequent foul trouble, with Lee eventually picking up his fifth late in the fourth quarter. The duo combined for 22 points, but did so despite repeated trips to the bench.
Liberty’s rebounding especially suffered in their absences, as Culpeper outrebounded LHS 35-20. Still, the Eagles persevered thanks to some strong bench play.
“We had some opportunities when Stefawn was in foul trouble and we had the lead to extend it and we didn’t,” Thompson said. “They kept the game close enough for when Lee and Stefawn came back in, and they made the plays when it counted.”
The late heroics proved especially nice for Liberty in light of Wednesday’s loss to Valley, when seemingly everything went wrong.
Friday’s finish was far from perfect but, for the Eagles, it felt flawless.
“You’ve got to learn from your mistakes,” Frazer said, referencing the loss to Valley. “This was a heck of a win.”
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