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Can I Take Back That Timeout?
Every coach has indelible memories of games they wish they’d won.
While a 54-51 loss to Battlefield last Friday was never securely in Liberty’s column, there was one play Eagle coach Lauren Milburn will remember the rest of her coaching career, and Milburn is a young coach.
With seven seconds left, Liberty sophomore star Jazmon Gwathmey nailed a dramatic pullup 3-pointer that would have tied the game at 54-all had Milburn not called timeout probably half a second before Gwathmey’s shot went sizzling through the bottom of the net.
After the timeout, Liberty got another decent look, but Amelia Watson’s deep 3-pointer missed, and the Eagles' season came to a disappointing, but admirable end in Haymarket.
Feeling as unlucky as someone whose winning lottery ticket got accidentally flushed down the toilet, Milburn shook her head about the potential game-tying play, and half-smiled. “I told them it was my fault,” she said.
The tight loss ended the Eagles’ season in the quarterfinals of the Cedar Run District tournament. Liberty finished 11-11, after a 7-7 season in conference.
Liberty came in as the No. 5 seed after splitting two regular season games with No. 4 seed Battlefield, including a hard-fought 52-48 loss to the Bobcats earlier last week.
In that game, Gwathmey scored 26 points, prompting Bobcat coach Eric McCaslin to brainstorm a scheme to slow the Eagles wonderfully fluid 6-foot guard-forward.
Battlefield double-teamed Gwathmey more or less whenever she touched the ball inside, a tactic that helped limit the star sophomore to four points. Another factor was a hard fall Gwathmey took two minutes into the second quarter.
Gwathmey left after hurting her wrist, received an ice bag and played the entire second half with the wrist wrapped in an Ace bandage.
“You know you have to give them credit, they made it hard to Jazmon to get many touches,” said Milburn.
“It was a typical Liberty-Battlefield game, just a three or four point difference,” said McCaslin. “We feel good holding Gwathmey to four points, although part of it was due to her injury.”
After clawing back from a 14-point third quarter deficit, the Eagles could take satisfaction in their comeback and the fact that they have almost all of their players back next year...See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
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