Lady Rebels shocked by Liberty 53-44

The last time faced Liberty, the Lady Rebels rolled to a 17-point victory. This time around, the result was quite different.

Danni Sjolander and Aspen Winegar combined for 30 points and Liberty shocked top-seed Juanita 53-44 in the KingCo 3A tournament on Tuesday night at Bellevue College.

Juanita came out slow, falling behind in the first quarter and never quite recovered. Liberty built a 15-point lead in the third quarter and held on the rest of the way, never trailing after the first quarter.

"We came out not ready to play," Juanita head coach Sam W. Lee said. "Liberty was and they beat our behinds."

Juanita still had a chance to come back, after closing the third quarter on a 10-0 run to close the gap to five points. Four different players scored during the spurt in a variety of ways.

But Liberty held the Rebels to just two field goals in the fourth quarter and was never seriously challenged in the final period.

"I was trying to get some people rest," Liberty head coach Randy Liefer said of the run to end the third. "Some of the people that came in were a little nervous and we gave a few away, but we just talked about going back and doing what we were doing earlier."

The tone of the game was set early, as Liberty gave Juanita trouble with its ability to pass out of traps and control the boards.

"We rebounded with them," Liefer said. "They're a tough rebounding team, if you don't rebound with them, you're in trouble."

The loss for the Rebels was their third in the last two weeks to a KingCo opponent, after starting the season 10-0 in league play. With the number one seed in districts now not a possibility -- Juanita plays for the third seed Thursday at 4:45 at Bellevue College against Mercer Island -- Lee said he hopes his team can learn from their mistakes.

"They know what they did wrong," Lee said. "Can they address that and will they be able to adjust? That'll be something we'll find out on Thursday."