Liberty’s girls basketball team were well aware that the Dieruff Huskies would be well-equipped to challenge the Hurricanes, but Liberty pulled away in the second quarter to take a 54-29 victory on Jan. 26 at Liberty.

“They’re scrappy, they hustle, they have some shooters over there, and they’re gonna fight till the end, and I told the girls, even at halftime when we were up, they will not give up,” said Liberty coach Jarrett Carnes. “They will fight to the end, and they did. I told the girls, ‘Just stay with it. We can’t worry about what they’re doing.’”

Liberty’s 16-12 lead in the first quarter expanded to a 28-16 halftime lead.

“We played them before, but they threw new things at us,” said Liberty center/forward Julia Medaska. “After the first quarter, we gained some confidence, found the flaws in their defense, and were able to pursue those.”

Medaska was part of the ‘Canes’ second-quarter surge before adding two quick buckets to open the third quarter.

“Usually, I’m getting played by girls who are taller than me, so it’s really aggressive, really physical, and really scrappy, but today, I think we found a way to break their defense really well, so that created openings, and my teammates were finding me, which allowed me to score underneath,” she said.

While Dieruff has a reputation for being scrappy, so does Liberty guard Anijah Davis, who created turnovers that included second-chance points off a steal.

“It was hard because there was a girl there my size, and it was at my left hand, but I knew [Abby Thompson] was there to help me,” Davis said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy because we had a very close game with them the first time, so we came in with confidence. We had to be tough.”

Thompson and Medaska were the Hurricanes’ high scorers with 10 apiece, and Thompson drained two 3-pointers in the game.

Friday night’s win was a needed one for Liberty, coming in with two losses earlier in the week.

“It’s been a rough stretch for us, but that happens,” said Carnes. “All around, as far as who played and our bench bringing the energy, it was a team effort, and we’ll take that.”