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Chris-tal Clear: Next year, Eagles, next year
The final 90 seconds of Liberty's last game of 2008 were unusual, to say the least. The Eagle starters were relegated to the bench, unable to change the direction of a blowout loss to Battlefield in the first round of the Cedar Run District playoffs.
Meanwhile, out on the court, LHS featured a combination of bench guys and JV players, who hustled out the last 1:30 while the Liberty crowd cheered wildly.
It was almost as if the fans did not realize Liberty's season was about to end.
Or maybe they just could not believe it.
The Eagles closed the regular season with four straight victories. The last, a 66-62 overtime win versus the same Battlefield team, featured a rally back from 16 points down with three minutes left.
Liberty celebrated heartily that night, having tied Osbourn Park and Culpeper for the Cedar Run District's title.
Four days later, the year ended, the late-season heroics buried beneath the stench of two brutal defeats.
In a playoff game to help break the LHS-OP-Culpeper tie, Liberty lost by 35 to Osbourn Park. Shortly thereafter, the Eagles fell by 19 to Battlefield.
And that was it. A promising season ended at 17-7, regional playoff hopes dashed.
What could have possibly gone so wrong so quickly?
The only way to answer that may be by inquiring what went right. In that concluding week, the answer is nothing.
Liberty's troubles truly began back on Feb. 8. A pair of injuries that haunted the Eagles down the stretch was lost amid a cathartic 53-34 revenge win over arch-rival Fauquier.
Junior Brad Thiesing injured his right shoulder during that game. He returned to action in the Eagles' next game, but was not quite the same.
Teammate Stefawn Ross had more serious issues against FHS, rolling his left ankle over. He barely played against Battlefield on Feb. 14, did not suit up against OP the next night and limped through the Eagles' finale.
These injuries were huge, battering two guys from an already-thin frontcourt.
In the 19-point victory over Fauquier, Ross and Thiesing combined for 26 rebounds. In the last loss to Battlefield, they had four. Thiesing gutted it out, but the Eagles were clearly different with Ross hobbled.
“He's one of our leading scorers and did he score?” LHS coach Pat Frazer wondered aloud about Ross following Battlefield's playoff upset.
Ross notched nothing but one free throw. “Do you want Stefawn Ross in the game? Yeah. Obviously, he wasn't very effective.”
All season, Thiesing and Ross had carried Liberty's interior game, especially on defense. Ross, particularly, aided the Eagles in several victories. When he was right, he also proved virtually unstoppable on the offensive end.
The Eagles' competition compounded the problem.
Osbourn Park pounded the Ross-less Eagles in the low post. Battlefield did much of the same. As far as a banged-up team drawing the right opponent, this was as far from Liberty's ideal as possible.
So you have to blame fate a little bit, too.
Liberty's thrilling victory over Battlefield gave them a share of the regular season crown. Unfortunately, the luck of the draw landed them in an added game with OP.
The loss there meant that Liberty had to deal with Battlefield again.
The Bobcats finished the season strong and — despite their epic collapse on Feb. 8 — knew they could outplay the Eagles. After owning the Eagles, Battlefield ended up advancing to regions by beating Culpeper in the district semifinal to earn their spot.
“Of all the teams we could have played, this was the team that matched up best for them,” Frazer lamented in his office following the loss to Battlefield, his assistant coaches at his side.
You hate to chalk this up as “It wasn't meant to be,” but maybe that's the case.
A statement like that is a bit of an easy way out, though. Liberty played horribly in the two games it could least afford to do so.
Their regional playoff lives hung in the balance during the OP game and subsequent Battlefield rematch, and Liberty walked quietly off to the executioner.
“We didn't come out hard and play the way we were supposed to play,” Steve Yates said.
The end scene, then, was surprising only in that no one saw it coming.
When Liberty rallied to knock off Battlefield to end the regular season, the Eagles were ecstatic — jumping on each other, hugging, shouting.
There was no celebration the next time around. Liberty walked off the court silently, heads hung low.
Frazer's job quickly became damage control. He reminded his team that they tied the school record for most wins in a season (17). He told them not to forget they had tied for the regular season title. He begged them to think about the future.
To some extent, it worked.
“We're all coming back next year,” said Johnny Nettles, referencing the fact that Liberty will lose zero players to graduation. “We did a lot this year.”
Blame it on whatever you want. The truth is that a perfect storm of unpleasantness caught this team at the wrong time.
“They were hurt,” Frazer said about his team's psyche after the last seconds ticked off last Tuesday, “but we know the world is not ending because we lost.”
The world is not, but the Eagles' year did. In a matter of about 100 hours, a season that almost ended with a region berth, was over in a flash.
And it was simply hard to believe.
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