Published February 16. 2023 08:30AM
by Peter Car pcar@tnonline.com
It was an early exit for Freedom and Liberty in the EPC basketball tournament, as both teams were bounced out of the quarterfinal round last Friday night.
The fifth-seeded Patriots (15-8) dropped a 56-44 encounter with fourth-seeded Central Catholic (15-8) at Rockne Hall’s Mike Kopp Court.
After leading 29-26 at halftime, Freedom got outscored by Central 30-15 over the final two quarters.
“We need to play with more of a sense of urgency,” said head coach Joe Stellato. “Every possession is crucial and we need to play like that. We have talked about that all year and we need to make it happen or we will be going home early from the dance.”
Jaden Tillett led Freedom with 16 points and Nick Ellis added 11 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Vikings.
Stellato just hopes his team can figure things out before next week’s District 11 tournament, as they’ll have a week to prepare for the next stage of the postseason.
“We need to get better at attacking the zone defense, moving the ball, and we can’t turn the ball over,” said Stellato. “Need to play with a sense of urgency. We have yet to play our best game, so I hope it comes in the playoffs.”
Liberty (14-9) was blitzed by top-seeded Emmaus 60-39 last week as well in their EPC opener. Emmaus (19-4) had three players reach double digits in Jametric Harris (18 points), Will Barber (13 points) and Dylan Darville (10 points).
Dwayne Chess led the Hurricanes with 18 points, but was the only Hurricane to reach double digits. Liberty now waits for the district tournament, where they look to iron out some kinks in order to make a postseason push.
By Linda Rothrock Dywane Chess looks to make a move toward the basket during his team's loss to Emmaus.
Axcel Kamanga goes to the basket against Emmaus.