The Liberty Blue Jays capped off an exciting week of basketball by beating Ray-Pec on their home court 52-51. Jordan Lewis drained a 3 pointer with 3.5 secs left in the game to make it a memorable week. On Tuesday, the Jays beat Blue Springs South on a last second shot.
The game started off in the Blue Jays favor as they hit some early shots and played some solid defense. Marshon Norfleet, who led the Jays with 14 points, got the offense rolling. However, the Panthers rebounded by the end of the first quarter and took some momentum going into the second frame. Actually...too much momentum as they turned a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter into a 21-11 margin midway through the second quarter. But the Jays kept their composure and narrowed the deficit to 25-28 by halftime.
The third quarter was won by the Jays 17-11 on some good scoring by Norfleet, Denton Koon, Christian Brinser, and JT Nixon. Bryan Adams, Marcus Lucas, and Koon did a good job against Ray-Pec's big men.
In the fourth quarter the Jays started with a lead but the Panthers took advantage of an offensive dry spell by Liberty and climbed back into the lead. The Jays were down by 4 pts, 47-51 with under a minute to play but a couple of FTs by Koon cut the margin to 2 pts. After a defensive stop, the Jays called timeout to set up a play. The shot was missed but Adams tipped the ball to Koon who found a wide open Lewis on the left wing for the game winner.
The Jays shot 47% from the field while they held Ray-Pec to 37%. Liberty had only 7 turnovers in the contest and dished out 13 assists. Joining Norfleet in double digit scoring was Lewis and Koon, each with 12. Adams grabbed 8 rebounds and played excellent defense with 5 blocked shots and 2 steals. The Jays also were tough enough to take 3 charges.
The win moves the Blue Jays to 19-6 on the season.
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