Liberty caps off a perfect basketball league season
Rene Delgado cuts down the net following Liberty's title-clinching victory. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group) By Paige Mendez, Corr...
By Paige Mendez, Correspondent
The Liberty High boys basketball team clinched their league championship with a 96-54 victory over Tahquitz Wednesday night.
The Bison started the game with a 15-2 run that led to a 43-point lead by halftime. Every starter contributed at least one bucket to get there but the biggest scorer in the first half was sophomore Jaden Ortega, who put up 18 points, including five 3-pointers, and a few free throws all before the half.
“My teammates got me the ball and I got good looks, I just knocked down the shots I needed to,” said Ortega. “It was fun and I just wanted to keep shooting.”
Luckily for the Bison, they all got good looks on the night. Every player but one on the roster scored points and the one who didn’t have any buckets contributed five rebounds.
Of those other scorers, the Tiggett twins were integral to the Liberty win with 24 points and 11 rebounds combined. Sophomore Rene Delgado contributed 18 points on the night and sophomore Jayden Derla added 14 of his own. Junior Manny Nazario led the team in rebounds with a total of eight.
“It’s really hard to pin-point a single person who made the difference tonight,” said head coach Andrew Ellis. “When you go up that big in the first half and play that well defensively, it’s a collective effort. The length and athleticism and quickness that we have on the court and on the bench does cause a lot of problems for our opponents.”
That defense was made up of over 10 team steals and five forced turnovers from the Bison. They also held the Titans’ biggest scorer to just nine first-half points.
With this title-clinching win, the Bison will now wait for the release of playoff brackets to see who they will face in the CIF first round next week. With such a young team—no seniors on their roster— Ellis said he is planning to prepare them for a level of intensity they may have not encountered yet.
“The intensity of playoffs is huge. They haven’t been a part of that before and that intensity of a playoff game is different,” Ellis said. “My coaches and I understand it, so in practice we’re going to see if we can simulate what playoff action will be like.”
Ortega and his teammates are excited to make the playoffs for the first time and he said he doesn’t feel nervous for the new environment.
“We’re going in hoping to win those first five games, then make it to state,” said Ortega. “We are going to go in with intensity and play together. We don’t give up and we’re going to fight until the last minute.”
Liberty finishes league play with a 10-0 record (19-3 overall).
