Two competitive, athletic squads battled it out in Mountain View Friday night in a conference match-up between the Salem Tigers and Liberty Eagles. The game came down to the wire as Salem took the lead with 15 seconds to play and proved to be the victors, 72-69.
“That was a fun one,” said Salem head coach Conrad Prugh. “That was the kind of game you like to win. You get better from those games, and we were fortunate enough to come out on the good side of that.”
The Eagles led by four points following the first quarter, and the Tigers made good on a layup at the buzzer to lead Liberty 34-33 at the half. Salem opened the half with several fast breaks and solid scoring by Kobe Mead, who added 12 points in the quarter. It was enough to maintain the lead, 48-46.
Halfway through the final quarter, Salem had stretched their lead to five points, but Liberty came fighting back with an offensive effort led by Corbin Dewick. A Josh Pruett point at the charity stripe brought the Eagles within one, and with 33 seconds left to play, Corbin Dewick tossed up a jumper to give Liberty the 69-68 lead.
A foul against Salem led Jacob Happel to the line, where he sunk both shots to lead 70-69, and Kobe Mead added two from the charity stripe with 15 seconds to play. The final shot by Liberty was no good, and the Tigers won the contest, 72-69.
“Jacob Happel had one of his best games, rebounding, playing defense, and knocking down two huge free throws to give us the one point lead,” said Coach Prugh. “Kobe Mead struggled shooting the ball, but did a good job taking a step back and finding and trusting his teammates, and he hit the two big free throws to put us up three at the end and got the huge rebound at the end. Eric Wood dribbled through traps. Eli Floyd came off the bench and played defense. He is kind of our defensive specialist and he did a great job tonight of it. We rebounded well, played great defense – the guys gave it all they had. All around, everyone I put in the game did their job and did it well. It was a real team win.”
Corbin Dewick led all scorers, putting up 29 points for Liberty. Shalin Stout added 13 and Brenton Bush, 10. For Salem, Antonio Quick had 22 points, Kobe Mead, 16, Jacob Happel, 16, and Eric Wood, 10.
“That was two good teams giving it their all,” said Coach Prugh. “A lot of fun, a lot of fun.”
