Published
February 20, 2008
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Entiat's Jacob Andersen, left,
Leonardo Quezada and Kevin Arnold were all smiles walking off the court
after beating Liberty Christian 48-46 in overtime Wednesday.
GORDON
KING/
Yakima Herald-Republic |
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Entiat topples No. 1
Crawley's layup gives Tigers win over Liberty Christian
By
SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Liberty Christian
players spent the final minute of Wednesday’s tournament-opening
nailbiter against Entiat parading to the free throw line, where
defenders’ arms and seconds ticking off the clock were not a concern.
They had all the time in the world.
And they missed. Again
and again.
Entiat guard Leonardo
Quezada had almost no time to get off a 3-pointer that, if it missed,
meant that his Tigers would lose.
And he hit it.
“Incredible,” Quezada
said after the Tigers (19-2), who had led for just 21 seconds of the
second half, tied the game on Quezada’s 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds
remaining and then won it 48-46 when sophomore center Dylan Crawley
snaked through the lane for the winning layup with eight seconds left
in overtime.
Top-ranked Liberty
Christian (18-7) had every chance to put the No. 4 Tigers away and
couldn’t do it. Aside from Jeremy Siefken and Mark Wilson, who combined
for 31 points, the rest of the team shot a collective 25 percent from
the field.
The Patriots also
missed five free throws over the final 53 seconds, three of them on the
front end of one-and-one situations. Any one of them would have rendered
Quezada’s trey moot.
“It felt good whenever
they missed the free throws,” Crawley said.
After Michael Groth
missed a pair at 0:16, the Tigers worked for the last shot but almost
didn’t get one off when Liberty Christian almost trapped the ball near
the sideline. But Quezada got the ball at the top of the key with four
seconds remaining, squared up and shot — over the outstretched hands of
two defenders.
“I just set up and
shot. I didn’t fade away or anything,” said Quezada, who didn’t know how
much time. “I just knew less than five seconds. It looked good when I
shot. It felt good.”
Crawley, who was
behind Quezada at that instant, was even more confident.
“I knew it was good
when it left his hand,” Crawley said.
The Tigers led most of
the OT period until the Patriots’ Wilson tied it up on a 3-point play
with 1:43 remaining. Liberty Christian missed an 8-footer at 1:15, after
which Entiat played for the last shot.
“Dylan had some
emotion and fire today that we haven’t seen for a long time,” Entiat
coach Bill Edwardson said. “He was pumping his fist and wanting the
ball.”
And therein lay the
difference: The Tigers knew what to do with it when they had it.
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Liberty Christian -- Groth 1-4 0-5 2, Killinger 0-0 0-0 0, Nash
0-2 0-0 0, Stratton 5-17 1-3 11, Wilson 6-12 1-1 14, Siefken 5-12
5-5 17, Howard 1-5 0-1 2, Lane 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 7-15 46. |
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Entiat -- Perez 1-2 0-0 2, Quezada 6-16 0-0 14, Andersen 2-15 0-0
4, Nelson 2-3 0-0 4, Whitehall 0-0 0-0 0, Paz 0-0 0-0 0, Arnold 0-4
2-2 2, Edwardson 0-0 0-0 0, Crawley 7-15 1-4 15, Whitehall 3-6 1-2
7, Avelar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-61 4-8 48. |
| Liberty Christian |
14 |
9 |
11 |
6 |
6 |
-- 46 |
| Entiat |
14 |
10 |
7 |
9 |
8 |
-- 48 |
3-point goals--LC 3-14 (Siefken 2-6, Wilson 1-3, Groth 0-1, Howard
0-2, Nash 0-2), E 2-15 (Quezada 2-9, Arnold 0-2, Andersen 0-4). Rebounds
--LC 38 (Howard 8, Stratton 7), E 42 (Crawley 12). Assists--LC 7
(Stratton 3, Wilson 3), E 11 (Quezada 5). Steals--LC 17 (Siefken 6),
E 12 (Arnold 4). Blocked shots--LC 4 (Howard 3), E 2 (Crawley 2). Fouled out--Nelson.
Total fouls--LC 13, E 18. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--LC 22, E
20. |
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