Girls Basketball: Liberty Advances to Region Finals

The Liberty girls basketball team will play for the Class 2A West region title after downing North Hagerstown, 67-56 Thursday night.

The Lions will host Middletown Saturday night at 7 p.m.

When asked what she knew about Middletown, Lion coach Jessica Morgan said, "I know Century played them and I am hoping to talk to Joel (Beard) a little bit before our game on Saturday. I don’t know much about them. I know they are a good team, but I haven’t seen them at all."

The Lions are seeded second in the region and down Rockville and North Hagerstown to reach the finals, while Middletown is the fourth seed and dispatched Century and Walkersville.

For the second straight year, Liberty knocked North Hagerstown out of the playoffs. The two teams had met recently with Liberty winning 82-81 on a three-point shot.

"I had a good feeling. I don’t know why, but I just came out with a good feeling. I don’t know if it’s the best defense we have played in a while because sometimes we get a little lack of effort. They came out and played strong defense and I think frustrated the other team a little bit early on and then we used that to our advantage. That was good," said Morgan.

The visitors jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Liberty roared back to score eight straight points for their first lead of the game. The Hubs scored the next basket for a 10-8 lead, after that it was all Liberty. The Lions scored the next six points to lead after the opening period, 14-10.

"I was a little worried about that. I didn’t know if I wanted to take a time out that early, but it only worried me for a minute. Then, they put it together and came back," Morgan said about the Hubs jumping out to a lead.

Liberty kept adding to their lead and was up 27-18 as both teams headed to the locker room at halftime. Kelly McCormick scored 12 of her game high 18 points in the first half.

The first half lead was important because Liberty only out scored the Hubs 40-38 in the second half.

North Hagerstown was led in the second half by Corie Anderson and Quielana Gantt. Anderson scored 11 points and Gantt added 10 to keep the Hubs in the contest.

Besides Kelly McCormick’s points, her sister Maggie threw in 17 followed by Beka Coughlin with 15, Hailey Marlatt, eight; Georgia Karr, five; while Lexi Cross and Sinclair Vinson had two each.

"The last couple weeks it’s all I can do to keep them focused. I mean they love basketball. They are everywhere and I think they exactly play a little bit better when they are a little bit looser. Just ready to have fun," said Morgan.

Liberty is now 18-4 for the season, while North Hagerstown ended the season at 15-7.