Liberty-Benton 'skips' past state-ranked Patriots

FINDLAY – Patrick Henry girls basketball coach Justin Sonnenberg said the idea on defense going into Saturday's game was to force Liberty-Benton into "skip-passes."That is, make the Eagles players attempt long, cross-court throws to teammates to set up long, difficult shots.The plan worked. Liberty-Benton threw plenty of skip passes, and took a lot of 3s."That's an indication that we're playing our defense well," Sonnenberg said.There was only one problem. "(L-B) made a lot of them," Sonnenberg said.Megan Gerken made five 3-pointers, Emma Lieb made 3, and Liberty-Benton fought off a furious Patriots rally late to win, 46-42."It feels really good, (I'm) really proud of the team for our effort," said Gerken, who finished with a game-high 19 points. "Glad we can come out with a win."Liberty-Benton improved to 14-3, while the Patriots – the No. 6-ranked team in Division VI – fell to 14-3.Neither team had a great offensive first quarter. Patrick Henry missed all 11 of its field goal attempts, and trailed L-B 9-3 after the first quarter. In the second, they fell behind 12-5 after Gerken drained a 3 from the right wing.Patrick Henry came right back with a 7-0 run, tying the game at 12 when Meyta Hieber completed a four-point play – she hit a deep 3 from the left wing and was fouled – with 4 ½ minutes in the half.L-B had the answer, Corra Dehart made a jumper, Sophie McDaniel split two free throws, and then Gerken connected on two 3s – one from each corner to put the Eagles up 21-12. "In practice, we've been working on a lot of skip passes," Gerken said, "because we know their defense is excellent."Dehart's jumper just before the halftime buzzer made it an 11-0 run, and sent the Eagles to halftime with a 23-12 advantage."Megan Gerken stepped up and hit some really big 3s," said L-B coach Chad Lieb. "We knew what (Patrick Henry) did defensively would challenge us to make 3-pointers and we did a good job of that tonight."Emma Lieb opened the third quarter with a trey from the right wing, and L-B had its largest lead of the game, 26-12. It led 40-28 when Emelia Kin converted a layup in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.Patrick Henry charged back. It ran off an 8-2 run, climbing within 40-36 on Kynli Crossland's layup with 5:30 left.Gerken momentarily halted the Patriot surge with another corner 3, and L-B went back up by seven.The Patriots shrugged that off, trimming the Eagles lead to 43-40 on a Heiber corner trey at about the four-minute mark.Hieber, a freshman, finished with eight points."Meyta has a lot of confidence; she's always ready to shoot," Sonnenberg said. "She's a really good defender, so (we're) excited about the way she's playing."After a series of L-B turnovers – the Eagles had seven through three quarters but had eight in the final period – a drive by Ada Christman cut the Patrick Henry deficit to 43-42 with 1:37 left."Our girls never gave up, so I'm really proud of them," Sonnenberg said. "Obviously, we don't want to start, or have that first half the way we did... but that fight we saw in that second half, if we can keep doing that, I think we can get back on a roll."Patrick Henry had a couple of shot attempts in the final minute to tie or take the lead, but they didn't fall. A free throw by Dehart with 14 seconds left, and then two free throws by Emma Lieb moments later, sealed the victory for L-B."Patrick Henry's a great team; a senior-laden basketball team that's won a lot of games in their career," coach Lieb said. "Give them a lot of credit; they never gave up. Our girls didn't either, and we made a couple more shots than they did."Sophie McDaniel finished with eight points and four assists for the Eagles, while Dehart ended with five points and a team-best seven boards.Christman paced the Patriots with 13 points and eight boards. L-B, which is 7-0 in the Blanchard Valley Conference, will return to league play Thursday when it hosts McComb. The Patriots travel to play another BVC team – Elmwood – on Monday. They travel to Northwest Ohio League foe Liberty Center Thursday.Patrick Henry is 4-0 in the NWOL."We wanted to play (L-B) to help get ready for tournament, get ready for big league matchups," Sonnenberg said. "As long as we learn from this and grow and attack our mistakes, this can be a positive for us." PATRICK HENRY (12-3)Hieber 2-2—8; C. Crossland 2-3—7; Schweibert 2-0—6; E. Christman 1-0—2; A. Christman 3-6—13; K. Crossland 2-3—7. TOTALS: 12-43—14-20—42.LIBERTY-BENTON (14-3)Gerken 7-0—19; E. Lieb 3-2—11; S. McDaniel 3-2—8; Dehart 2-1—5; Kin 1-1—3. TOTALS: 16-34—6-12—46.Patrick Henry 3 9 16 14 – 42Liberty-Benton 9 14 15 8 – 463-POINT GOALS: Patrick Henry 4-18 (Hieber 2, Schweibert 2); Liberty-Benton 8-22 (Gerken 5, E. Lieb).REBOUNDS: Patrick Henry 27 (A. Christman 8, E. Christman 7); Liberty-Benton 25 (Dehart 7).TURNOVERS: Patrick Henry 10; Liberty-Benton 15.JV: Patrick Henry 31-25.