TRR photo by Richard A. Ross Liberty junior Dustin VanLieu stands with coach Jason Semo following the scoring of his 1,000th career point.

Basketball

Diamonds in the rough

Liberty staves off outstanding O’Neill in OT; VanLieu reaches 1,000-point milestone

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LIBERTY, NY—Reckon with this: when the Class B sectionals roll around in early March, no team wants to draw either Liberty or James I. O’Neill, two outstanding squads capable of beating anybody.

Liberty threw itself right back into the realm of becoming a postseason contender with its dramatic 63-61 overtime home win over the Raiders on January 18 in arguably one of the most exciting games of this season, now at its midpoint.

O’Neill came into this game with a 4-0 league record, having dispatched all of its Division IV rivals in its first half-season tour of duty. That mark included a stunning home win over Burke.

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Alpine sports

Lady Panthers tops at Holiday Mountain alpine ski race

By RICHARD A. ROSS

BRIDGEVILLE, NY—Look ma, there’s snow! Such a pronouncement might seem absurdly obvious for a January evening in Sullivan County. But last year, it was February 7 before area high school skiers got to race down the slopes of Holiday Mountain due to a lack of the white stuff.

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Wrestling

The mighty few

By RICHARD A. ROSS

ELDRED, NY—If you take the measure of a team only from its record, you might be apt to ignore Eldred (1-5), which got its first win of the season by besting winless and talented Liberty (0-6) on January 15. Eldred’s victory came after both teams had succumbed to John S. Burke earlier in the evening.

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Also in this issue:

• Whirlwind