Liberty punishes shorthanded Pioneers down low

Playing without second-leading scorer Sylvon Jones, who suffered a mild concussion from a car accident earlier this week, Heritage could not muster enough offense to keep up with Liberty’s athletic Minutemen, falling 76-63 Friday in a Seminole District basketball game.

The Pioneers’ leading scorer, Tevan Crews, started out hot and scored the bulk of his team-high 15 points in the first half to keep the Pioneers (6-10, 2-7) within striking distance at the break, 31-25. Heritage held a three-point lead after the first quarter, but was hampered offensively in the second quarter after point guard Lawrence Blake picked up his second foul early in the period.

Without Blake, who also had a pair of early steals, the Pioneers scored only nine points the rest of the quarter. Blake was also absent for much of the third quarter after picking up his third foul less than two minutes into the half.

Pioneers’ coach Dan Stephens said Blake’s absence was costly.

“He does a lot of things that people don’t see. He gets our offense going,” Stephens said. “That was tough.”

The Minutemen (14-3, 7-1) quickly took advantage of the short-handed Pioneers in the third quarter. With 5:21 remaining in the quarter and Liberty ahead by nine, Carlton Payne scored a bucket inside and on the next Minutemen possession grabbed an offensive rebound and banked it home to give Liberty a 41-27 lead with 3:56 left. Payne, whom Minutemen coach Jeff Monroe says is one of the Seminole’s best, finished the game with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

“If we’re capable of getting the ball to him not too many teams can stop (Payne) inside,” Monroe said.

Payne scored six in the pivotal third quarter, where Liberty took a 16-point lead into the fourth quater after Ryan Nichols beat the buzzer with a layup to make the score 52-36. It was Liberty’s largest lead of the game.

Crews was frustrated throughout the third, scoring just three points, which Monroe credited to a renewed defensive effort.

“We knew we had to get in his face more. … He’s one of the best players in our district and we knew we couldn’t let him have too many open shots like he did in the first half,” Monroe said.

Liberty maintained a comfortable lead throughout the fourth, never letting the Pioneers get within single digits. Although Stephens did not feel that his team ran out of gas, he said that the pressure of playing from behind and having to play pressure defense on every possession did have an effect.

“I think the game got away from us a little bit,” he said. “Liberty’s a good team. They’re big and quick and talented and they took advantage of our increased pressure.”

Payne’s 18 paced the Minutemen scoring and he was joined in double figures by Ryan Nichols, who scored 14. Brandon Sparrow chipped in with eight rebounds off the bench.

In addition to Crews’ 15, Chris Phelps scored 15 and Omar Pannell added 14 for Heritage. LaKuan McPhaul posted 14 points, four assists and two steals.