Liberty outlasts Central in fight for consistency, puts game away with fourth-quarter surge

CAMP POINT, Ill. — Chalk it up to inexperience.

The Liberty and Camp Point Central boys basketball teams have one senior each on rosters littered with freshmen and sophomores, and both played like it’s early December and they’re trying to find their footing in Friday night’s West Central Conference opener.

The teams combined to misfire on 47 of 81 field goal attempts, commit 34 fouls, miss 24 free throws and turn the ball over 34 times.

It wasn’t an instant classic.

“You could tell there were a lot of young kids on the floor,” Central coach James Barnett said. “There were a lot of bad, dumb, young kid mistakes — inexperienced mistakes. They made their fair share, and we made even more. It was a sloppy game, and at the end of the day they put the ball in the basket more.”

While Liberty never trailed after a 3-pointer by Gavin Edgar with two minutes left in the opening quarter gave it an 11-9 lead, it wasn’t until the Eagles rattled off 11 straight points in a two-minute stretch early in the fourth period that they were finally able to pull away for a 51-37 victory.

Despite forcing 22 turnovers with its pressure defense, Liberty missed 14 of 21 free throws and showed too much impatience on the offensive end to secure its fourth victory in five games sooner.

“I always felt like we were in control,” Eagles coach Dan Sparrow said. “It was just the more you let a team like that hang around, it gets scary on their floor if they hit a couple of shots and now it’s a one-possession game.”

Central trailed by only eight points at halftime despite having nearly as many turnovers (14) as field goal attempts (17) and were down just seven entering the fourth quarter.

The Panthers cut the deficit to 35-30 in the opening half-minute of the final period when Elijah Genenbacher — double-teamed along the Liberty baseline after snaring a rebound — whipped a sidearm, three-quarter-court pass to Tatum Eicken, who went in for a layup.

“We were within striking distance,” Barnett said.

Not for long.

Brody Klauser put back a Reed Sparrow miss, Edgar sank two free throws and Tate Huber hit a driving layup. After forcing another turnover, Reed Sparrow drove in from the left wing for a layup and Edgar followed with a 3-pointer from the right corner to make it 46-30 with 4:52 left.

Central managed just two field goals the rest of the way to fall to 2-3 overall.

“There’s some things that we have to do as a young team to learn how to play with leads and get the shot we want,” Dan Sparrow said. “I felt like we could have isolated a little bit more on the block and taken advantage of their youth. And we had some size advantage.

“We didn’t do that. We just came down and would shoot after one pass, and sometimes after not any passes. We were able to get some turnovers and get to the basket, and that obviously helps.”

Playing for the second straight night after Thursday’s 64-27 win over Highland (Mo.), Liberty failed to take advantage of early Central miscues by missing eight of its first 10 field goal tries.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Edgar, who finished with a game-high 15 points, got the Eagles the lead they would never relinquish. But because of their own mistakes and some ill-advised shots, they were never able to get ahead by more than eight points until the fourth-quarter flurry.

Reed Sparrow finished with 11 points and Vince Cramsey 10 for Liberty, which hosts Augusta Southeastern on Tuesday. The Eagles, who start four sophomores, made just 6 of 19 tries from 3-point range while shooting 42 percent from the field overall.

“If you can win the turnover battle and shoot 21 free throws, that’s a positive,” Dan Sparrow said. “We just didn’t take advantage.”

Evan Walker, Luke Ippensen and Corbyn Hoosier scored six points each to pace Central, which hosts Beardstown on Thursday. The Panthers had their own issues from the free throw line, missing 10 of 16 attempts.

Thirteen of the 16 players on the Central roster are either freshmen or sophomores, and Barnett knew there would be growing pains.

“Turnovers are a huge problem for us right now,” he said. “If we can figure out how to take care of the ball and have composure and make the right pass and be strong with the ball, we’re going to be able to give ourselves a chance to win.”