Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Community Sports: MTC bounces Liberty from World (12/08/09)

Liberty's Trevor Arnold snags a rebound and finds himself in between Cougars.
(T-G Photo by Jasen Richardson)

CHAPEL HILL -- Liberty Middle played tough on the hardwood in its 57-36 loss to Middle Tennessee Christian on Monday night against in the opening game of the World Tournament.

The Patriots (9-5) tried hard to stay close to the Cougars (10-7), but with three minutes left in the third quarter the Murfreesboro bunch capitalized on back-to-back turnovers and never looked back as their full-court press became too much for Liberty.

"The turnovers were the killer for us tonight," Patriot coach Andy Lawson said. "We worked so hard to execute offensively and defensively and then those two quick turnovers. A quick momentum swing like that was detrimental to us."

Liberty's Ben Boyce nailed a shot behind the arc to tie the game at 14-all with 3:12 left in the second stanza. The Pats hit the locker room behind 20-14.

MTC exploded in the final stanza, outscoring the Pats 12-2 in the last two minutes. Devin Epps netted back-to-back field goals for the Cougars off of two forced turnovers late.

Trevor Arnold led Liberty with 17 points.

Derrick Spears paced MTC with 24. Epps tacked on 18, including two 3-pointers.

MTC 46, Liberty 10 (G): The undefeated Lady Cougars' tenacious full-court press and noticeable size advantage were evident early. MTC put up 16 points before the Lady Patriots scored off a trey by Holli Mitchell within the first minute of the second quarter.

Liberty's Olivia Calvert (32) drives to put in the team's first score of the night.
(T-G Photo by Jasen Richardson)

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The Lady Cougars (17-0) ran off a 13-point rally ending with 48 ticks to go in the game.

"I think our girls panicked under pressure and just threw the ball away," Liberty coach Jennifer Grey said. "We were not able to get into offense until at the very end of the game, when we finally calmed ourselves down and got ourselves under control. When they steal the ball time after time and get the easy layups, it's hard for us to play defense at all."

Olivia Calvert and Mitchell led Liberty with three points each.

Lady Cougar Alexa Middleton led all scorers with 16 points. Jazz Bond added 11.

Both MTC teams advance to face Community in Thursday's semifinals.