It was an exuberant night for Liberal boys basketball. The Redskins snapped a seven game losing streak with a 57-55 win over the Salina South Cougars at Salina South Friday night. James Fieser buried a deep three pointer from the left wing with 10.5 seconds remaining to give the Redskins the 57-55 lead. Brooks Kappelmann turned in a monster night with 19 points and 23 rebounds. Liberal rallied from eight down, led by six with 2:37 to play, trailed twice by one in the last minute, and made two key defensive stops for the win.
The Cougars jumped out to leads of 11-4, 20-13, and 25-17 as the Cougars hit four of their first five three pointers in their home gym. The Redskins rallied to tie the game 26-26 before trailing 32-26 at the half. LHS led 33-32 with five minutes to play in the third. South led 42-39 after three. The Skins claimed a 48-44 lead on a Zayden Martinez basket with 4:15 to play. LHS led 50-44. The Angry Red led 52-46 with 2:37 to play. Salina South used a four point play and a three pointer to take a 53-52 lead with 1:01 remaining. A Brooks Kappelmann put back gave Liberal a 54-53 lead . A guarded Salina South jumper gave the Cougars a 55-54 lead. James Fieser drilled the left wing three with 10.5 seconds left. Zayden Martinez slid over to block a lay up attempt for a stop. Then with 2.8 seconds left, Martinez tipped a Salina South in bound pass into the arms of Beto Torres to seal Liberal’s first win since December 8.
Liberal won despite shooting 34 percent. They were 3-10 from three point range. Salina South was 7-17 from three. SSHS was 5-10 at the foul line and Liberal was 12-20 at the charity stripe.
Kappelmann was Epic Touch Player of the Game. Zayden Martinez had 13 points and seven rebounds. James Fieser scored 10.
Liberal is 4-7 and Salina South is 0-9. Liberal plays Salina Central Saturday at 2:30 on 1270 and 92.3.
