By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Facing a Liberal team that finished fourth in Class 1 last season, a young Lockwood girls basketball team played like a veteran group in Saturday’s District 4 championship at Greenfield.
Second seed Lockwood took a 1-point lead into the fourth quarter and then broke a deadlock in the final minutes to earn a thrilling 56-52 upset of the top-seeded Bulldogs and advance to face Hurley in next week’s sectional round.
“They’ve played a lot together growing up, that group, and they play hard,” Lockwood coach Clay Lasater said. “They’re not very big but they play hard and that’s what makes them a lot of fun to coach.”
The Tigers, featuring a roster of seven freshmen and a sophomore, trailed for just one possession in the second half––Liberal jumped ahead 40-39 on a jumper by senior Taylor Swarnes with 1:22 left in the third––before freshman Molly Hedeman made two free throws for the final points of the quarter.
Freshman Hadley Abbiatti opened the fourth with a deep 3-pointer to make it a 4-point game, but Liberal fought back to tie it at 48 and then at 50 with 3:11 remaining. Fifteen seconds later, Lockwood freshman Asa Lasater knocked in a pull-up jumper and then Abbiatti added another 3 to make it a 55-50 game.
Liberal missed four free throws in the final minute. Abbiatti made one shot at the free throw line with 15 seconds on the clock, and Liberal scored in the final second on a put-back by sophomore Sadie Meadows, but it wasn’t enough at that point.
“We knew we were going to have to shoot it well,” Lasater said. “They’re long and so we knew that us finishing inside around the rim was going to be difficult because of their length. We knew we’d have to try to hit some shots from the perimeter and some of them went in. It was awesome.”
The Tigers (17-9) poured in seven 3-pointers in the first half and 10 in the game, with freshman Peyton Lasater connecting on four of those.
There were four lead changes in a first quarter that ended with Lockwood ahead 16-14 following a buzzer-beater 3-pointer by Peyton Lasater. The Tigers led by as many as five points before finishing the first half with a quick 8-2 run for a 34-26 halftime lead.
A jumper by Peyton Lasater to open the third gave the Tigers a 10-point lead.
Liberal scored the next four baskets, though, with Swarnes making two of those.
After Abbiatti’s deep 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter, Swarnes converted a 3-point play to make it a 44-43 game. Peyton Lasater and Asa Lasater made back-to-back layups to extend it to 5, but Liberal made a 3-pointer at the 4:38 mark of the fourth quarter and then scored on a jumper less than a minute later to tie it at 48.
Asa Lasater added another layup, and senior Jordan Goodell made a long 2-pointer to tie it at 50. Liberal wouldn’t score again until the final second.
“It was a really fun game,” Lasater said. “That’s just a really good team and they’ve got a couple really good seniors. I feel for kids in losing such a close, tough game like that. Coach (Brandi) Goodell is an awesome coach. They’ve got some really good players and they’re well coached so those games are really fun. It was two teams that battled hard, every quarter was tight and so it was just a fun high school basketball game and we were lucky enough to be on the winning side.”
Liberal, 20-8, was led by 17 points from Swarnes. Meadows scored 9, sophomore Ally Barton scored 8, sophomore Tegan Dyer scored 7, junior Hadlee Meadows scored 6 and Goodell scored 5.
For Lockwood, Peyton Lasater scored 18, Abbiatti scored 15, Asa Lasater scored 13, sophomore Kallie Griffin scored 8 and Hedeman scored 2.
“I really felt like Peyton did an awesome job defending Taylor Swarnes, who’s just an unbelievable player and unbelievable scorer,” Lasater said. “Peyton went out and guarded her really hard the whole time and just played her tail off. I thought her defensive effort was something special.”
