Redskin Boys Hang On in Holcomb

There was a sigh of relief among the throngs of fans wearing red and black in Holcomb on Friday night.  Liberal built a lead of 58-47 with 3:33 to play and 60-50 with 2 minutes to play and then held on to hold off Holcomb 63-61.  That’s after last year when Liberal’s last four losses of the season came by five or less and two were in overtime.

The Longhorns came out fired up jumping on the Redskins for an 18-7 advantage.  The Horns led the Skins 18-10 after one quarter.  The Redskins rallied to lead 24-22 and led 30-27 just before a Holcomb three sent the teams into the locker room tied 30-30.  The Skins sank four of their last five three pointers to end the first half.  Liberal did a nice job running offense and getting good looks to begin the third quarter building leads of 34-30, 36-32, and 47-42.  The Redskins led 47-44 after three.  The Redskins led 58-47 with 3:33 to play and led 60-50 with 2 minutes to go before missing five of their last seven free throws down the stretch. LHS missed the last free throw purposely to run clock.   Liberal allowed a lay up and then didn’t need to inbound the ball with less than five seconds remaining.

Braxton Hyde had a monster night with 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Lee Hatcher had 12 points and six boards.  Alex Lopez had nine and Hunter Hatcher had eight points and four assists.

Liberal wins in Holcomb for the first time since a 69-66 overtime win to begin the 2010-11 season.  Liberal hosts Hugoton Tuesday night at about 7:45 on 1270 and kscbnews.net.