Basketball

Smoke signal

Liberty is one win away from sectionals following hustle-and- flow win over Sullivan West

By RICHARD A. ROSS

Two wins to a postseason call.

Two wins: who’d find them?

Two wins to avoid a fall

And to the sectionals bind them.

(Adapted with all due respect to JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”)

LIBERTY, NY - Looking towards the blue horizon wherein resides the not-too-distant Class B sectionals, a distinct puff of white smoke went up on January 31 as the war-painted Liberty Indian tribe signaled a warning to all comers regarding its impending final onslaught.

The smoke arose from Liberty’s second- half incendiary play that fueled the tribe’s 70-54 triumph over the Sullivan West’s exhausted, brave, but thinning ranks.

Just one more win this week against either Sullivan West or Fallsburg will set off a whoop and a holler in Indian Country, proclaiming Liberty’s right to bear arms in the 2008 sectional foray.

Severely undermanned Sullivan West tried desperately to circle the wagons against Liberty’s second-half assault. Although they fought valiantly, they were overrun by the raging Indians bent on reclaiming a piece of postseason territory, something they once owned rights to before their recent years’ confinement to the bleak reservation of defeat.

Speaking of defeats, for Sullivan West, this was not a re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand. The loss to Liberty was tough to bear but it was certainly not a death knell to its hopes.

As the teams got ready to face each other for the first time this season, the urgency to acquire two wins in the final week and a half could not have been greater. Both teams entered this Division IV battle needing a pair of victories to qualify for sectionals. With the season clock ticking down, recent losses by both teams made wins that much more imperative.

Liberty’s win would have to come from its remaining three league games that included a pair against Sullivan West and a rematch with dangerous Fallsburg, a team they beat on the road in early January. For Sullivan West, any two victories of their final five game would assure them of a .500 overall record but all of the Dawgs’ remaining games were to be played against tough league rivals.

In the past week, Liberty squandered two potential upset wins against Port Jervis and Burke while Sullivan West fell victim to a last-second three pointer at Fallsburg. (See “Arc Light,” page 40.)

Liberty and Sullivan West took the court understanding their respective missions.

But Sullivan West’s mission had one more nagging rejoinder.

With the departure of two players, who recently opted out, and the injury to sophomore Harold Smith, the Dawgs found themselves reduced to just eight players. Given Liberty’s agenda to get out and run and Indians’ coach Jason Semo’s advantage with far greater bench depth, it was obvious that fatigue would become a factor for Sullivan West as the game wore on.

It most certainly did in the latter part of the game but early on Sullivan West showed its adeptness and verve.

In the first quarter, the Dawgs threw down the challenge as RJ Rosa canned a trio of three pointers and Chris Story scored eight points to give Sullivan West a 16-11 lead by the end of the period. Liberty got five points from junior Dashawn Williamson and two each from seniors Justen Mills and Trevor Tompkins.

By night’s end, the senior leadership provided by those two would catapult Liberty to its emotional victory.

As Semo pointed out following the game, “Every great team has that senior leadership.” Both players, along with Williamson and junior Connor Hinton, would establish a post presence that carried Liberty to the win.

Mills would end up with 20 points on the night to go along with 14 rebounds, while Tompkins would add 10 points in the paint. But for Liberty, this win was a total team effort.

An integral part of that effort was junior Dustin VanLieu, who netted a pair of threes in the early part of the second quarter to keep Liberty right on Sullivan West’s heels. VanLieu’s greatest moments would arrive later in the critical nexus of the third quarter when Liberty turned up its defensive pressure as VanLieu elevated his game.

He’d end up with 18 points on the night, shooting eight for 10 from the line, part of Liberty’s 72-percent free-throw shooting that saw 13 of 18 rattle in from the stripe. Sullivan West was even better at 76 percent with 13 of 17, thereby neutralizing at least that part of Liberty’s attack.

As the second quarter continued, the feisty Dawgs got another trey from Rosa and free throws from Brad Reimer to push their lead to 23-17. The intense fervor of each team’s defense created turnovers. By halftime, Sullivan West had induced 10 from Liberty, while the Indians had stolen it nine times from their visiting canine adversaries.

With 2:07 remaining in the second quarter, Sullivan West had its biggest lead at eight but Liberty’s defense forced turnovers while Mills and Ivan Rivera played equal parts in an 8-0 run to tie it at 27 all. Jason Leewe’s three pointer at the buzzer gave the Dawgs a tenuous 30-27 lead at the break but it seemed as if the tide was turning.

Each team’s coach schemed during halftime to give his team the edge. Sullivan West’s Cliff Kelly noted his team’s difficulty in getting the entry down low to Story as Liberty’s quickness and strength was divesting him of the ball. His second-half strategy: kick it out to the perimeter and let it fly.

At Fallsburg, Sullivan West netted eight from downtown. This time out, they’d get seven by game’s end but only three went through the cylinder in the second half and two of those rang home long after the game was already decided in Liberty’s favor.

Sullivan West’s up-tempo play led mostly to misfires, except for a solo three pointer by Justin Armstrong. Liberty switched up its defenders and played with an even greater urgency, taking Sullivan West out of its half-court game and forcing the run and gun that would eventually give Liberty transition points as Mills got ahead to the paint where he could score handily.

He canned 10 points in the third quarter as Liberty outscored Sullivan West 19-7. VanLieu had seven of those crucial points as the game’s polarity was reversed. Sullivan West’s woes were intensified as Leewe fouled out following a foul and a technical with 1:02 remaining in the quarter. That left the Dawgs with only seven players and missing a valuable scoring threat and defensive presence.

Even with Leewe’s absence, Sullivan West wasn’t dead yet. In the fourth quarter, they cut the lead to eight and nearly five as first Rosa and then Reimer saw their back-to-back three pointers rattle out with 5:27 to go. Had one of those gone through, the game’s waning two and a half minutes might have had a markedly different tenor.

But instead, Liberty wrested control marshaling the will of Mills and Tompkins and eventually its accurate free-throw shooting to put the game away. Liberty 5-9 (3-3 OCIAA) outscored Sullivan West 8-8 (0-4 OCIAA) 24-17 in the final quarter to garner the win.

Rosa led Sullivan West with 16 points that included four threes. Story had 15 and Reimer had 12.

“We worked to go in and out to Story and make the kick but we missed a lot of shots,” said Kelly. “They’re strong,” he added, referring to Liberty’s ability to pull the ball away from his players. “We had to run,” he explained, talking about the tempo. “Every time we made an entry, they took the ball out of our hands.”

Semo had ample praise for his team and his coaching staff. “Chris [Sinceno] counsels players who are subbing in on their specific roles and these kids answer the call,” said Semo. “They’re going in with the first priority to play defense and secondly to know where they are on offense.” Semo strongly praised Reimer and Rosa for their efforts. “Reimer’s a great athlete and a great kid, and Rosa is only a sophomore.”

Clearly excited to see his young team on the precipice of something special, Semo avowed, “We’re just coming into our own finding our identity and what we’re capable of. Now, it’s just a matter of setting the tone and saying this is the only way we’re going to play. When we do that, we can play with anyone. Just look at the difference between us on November 5 and now,” he said proudly. His assistant coaches nodded their heads in accord.

Sullivan West now faced a do-or-die week, but a home rematch against Fallsburg on February 4 was postponed. The Bulldogs took on Liberty at home on February 6. That would be followed by a trip to O’Neill on February 8.

The Dawgs play their regular season finale at home against Burke on February 14. The last thing they would want is to be in the position of giving the Eagles a chance to end their season yet again.

Fallsburg must beat Sullivan West, Liberty and O’Neill to make it to the postseason.

Liberty hosts talented Goshen on February 5.

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