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Eagles title hopes take precipitous drop
Pretend, for a minute, that the 2007-08 basketball season is like a ski trip and the Liberty boys team the excited skier.
Before the brave adventurer lies a decision: Take it easy on the plush and friendly bunny slope? Or strap it up and proceed for the steep and trying terrain of the black diamond hill?
On Wednesday night, with a loss to Loudoun Valley, that Liberty skier hopped back on the chair lift and headed for the mountaintop.
Which means things are about to get a lot harder for the Eagles.
Everything seemed to be falling into place for LHS. Three straight district wins — including a thrilling road victory at Osbourn Park last week — elevated the Eagles to second place in the Cedar Run District, one game behind OP. Of the five games left on Liberty’s schedule, four were at home, just two against teams in the top half of the standings.
Win out and, worst case scenario, Liberty would take second and have an inside track on a regional berth.
The bunny slope was there, its fluffy white snow begging for some company.
Then in the matter of one quarter, one stinker of an eight-minute stint against Loudoun Valley, that outlook changed.
Liberty led Valley 49-39 late in the third quarter Wednesday. The Eagles would score just eight points the rest of the way and lose, 60-57. Quickly, Liberty went from second place to fourth — from playing for the regular season title to clinging to home court in the playoff’s first round.
“We should have had that one,” junior Brad Thiesing said of Wednesday’s disappointing outcome. “We let it go.”
Let me clarify something before LHS coach Pat Frazer reminds me of it: Even with a favorable schedule down the stretch, winning a district title was never going to be easy. The Cedar Run features a balanced stock of teams, from No. 1 to No. 8.
That said, the inside track to second place or better just slipped away from the Eagles.
To get that high now, Liberty still needs to win out – a 4-0 finish – and someone else has to knock off a Valley team that twice frustrated LHS this year. Ascending to first place would require all of the above to happen, plus a pair of Osbourn Park losses.
“You never want to say that you’re playing for second,” Frazer said. “We’re still shooting for the lead. Can that happen? Sure.
“Does this hurt us? Sure.”
It’s even more painful because Liberty played so well for three quarters on Wednesday. The Eagles pushed the tempo against a stout defensive team, draining nine 3-pointers in the first three quarters.
When the score sat at 49-39, Liberty was on the verge of a blowout win.
Then Valley guard Django Degree hit a pair of 3-pointers, Liberty’s lead dwindled and the fourth quarter turned south in a hurry.
“We didn’t hit shots or take care of the ball,” Frazer said. “Valley made a good run there.”
Six points in the final stanza. Six measly points.
At the risk of pushing the skiing analogy too far, Liberty was gliding along and then, out of nowhere, lost the trail and fell off a cliff.
“It’s high school basketball, easy answer,” Frazer said. “Things shift like that.”
Frazer is now charged with “shifting” his squad back in the right direction.
There should be little doubt in anyone’s mind that the Eagles are one of the district’s best teams. Case in point: First place OP has two district losses, both to LHS.
On the other hand, the Eagles keep intermingling bad moments amongst some spectacular stretches of play. They followed that unfortunate script against Culpeper and Fauquier and it cost them critical wins.
The loss to Valley is a definite blow to Liberty’s ultimate goals this season: Winning the district and making regionals. Whether it becomes a fatal blow or not depends on how the Eagles respond.
There is certainly time to regroup and Liberty is still capable of attaining its aims, even if the road home is a lot dicier.
Besides, as any skier will tell you, sometimes those dangerous slopes can be the most entertaining.
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