LIBERTY – The Liberty Redhawks hosted the Ellenville Blue Devils for a girl’s basketball game. Ellenville took home the 62-25 road win over Liberty. Coach Levar Hamilton of Liberty had this to say after the loss, “The girls played great tonight. I’m proud that they kept competing. Ellenville is a tough team to play against and tonight showed that.” 

Both teams certainly brought the hustle in the opening quarter with Ellenville striking first with an outside jumper after a tough defensive battle. Once they broke the ice, Ellenville went on a 12-point run before Liberty was able to score. At the end of the first quarter Ellenville was up 17-1,  and it seemed like Liberty was on an uphill battle from the start.

Liberty’s Giselle Payton was able to score first in the second quarter to put the score at 19-3 with a lot of game left to play. The next few minutes of play was a back-and-forth defensive struggle with both teams forcing crucial turnovers and neither offense able to find the basket.

 Both squads started to kick up the offensive play around the three minute sinking multiple buckets on both ends of the floor. Payton kept busy  on offense for her team. At the end of the second quarter, Ellenville had widened their lead to 28-9. 

Ellenville scored right away to open the third quarter followed by Arianna Wilson of Liberty responding with a layup of her own. Ellenville then went on an unanswered 9-point run that was stopped by a foul shot made from Liberty. With about three minutes left the RedHawks’ Baileigh Stentar sunk a deep three to bring the score to 39-17, Ellenville. Liberty continued this momentum for a run of 7 points to make it a 20-point game with a little over a minute left in the third. The quarter ended with Liberty’s Giselle Payton scoring a buzzer beating layup. Going into the final quarter Ellenville held a 22-point lead over Liberty. 

Ellenville maintained their dominance in the final quarter. For the first four minutes they held Liberty scoreless widening their lead to 58-23. Even behind a huge deficit, Liberty fought until the final buzzer. The Ellenville Lady Blue Devils finished the game with a 62-25 win over the Lady Redhawks. Liberty drops to 2-6 on the season and Ellenville advances their record to 6-4.