By Jeffery Ratliff

Northwest Signal

LIBERTY CENTER — The Tigers jumped out to an early lead in the Division III sectional final Friday night in The Jungle. However, it took a late rally by Liberty Center to come away with the win.

The Tigers outscored Eastwood 12-3 over the final two minutes of the game for a 68-64 win to advance to the district semifinals Wednesday against Emmanuel Christian at Napoleon High School.

“This team is the toughest team I will ever coach,” said Liberty Center coach Greg Badenhop. “I might coach a team as tough as them, but never one tougher. Any time something is thrown at them, they have an answer. They never back down.

“I don’t care how much we are down, if there is time left on the clock, this team will keep fighting.”

Liberty Center started the game with an 11-2 run, as Grady Miller scored off an offensive rebound and Gavin Geahlen added a basket in transition. After a basket by the Eagles’ Andrew Badenhop, Caden Kruse scored and Landen Kruse tallied the next five points, including a three-point play to cap the run.

Ethan Gray’s three-pointer to start the second period pushed the Tigers’ lead to 20-10.

Eastwood, which had been driving to the basket, began kicking the ball out and knocking down threes. The Eagles sank four triples over the next 3½ minutes to take their first lead in the game.

Kadyn Donnell hit consecutive triples to start the run and Badenhop capped it with a three-pointer with three minutes remaining in the first half to give Eastwood a 26-25 lead.

Geahlen scored on a putback to give LC the lead back, but Andre Lewis sank a pair of free throws, as the Eagles led 28-27 at intermission.

“We had some guys really step up and make some big shots,” said Eastwood coach Jason Faykosh. “Donnell made five 3-pointers … that was huge. And, Badenhop made some big shots for us.”

For the game, Eastwood sank 10 triples, with four players making long-range shots.

Cam Robinson capped a 7-2 run by Liberty Center early in the third period to give the Tigers a 36-34 lead, but Eastwood had an answer.

Drew Luidhardt made a 3-pointer, and after a bucket by Colton Kruse, Donnell sandwiched a pair of triples around a basket by Landen Kruse, as Eastwood pulled ahead 43-40.

Drew Kachmarik opened the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws, and after a basket by Geahlen, Cam Schumaker scored for the Eagles, forcing Badenhop to call time-out with 6:02 left in the game and the Tigers trailing 51-46.

Liberty Center came out of the time-out with a full-court press and promptly forced the Eagles into two turnovers, which resulted in a pair of free throws by Robinson and a putback by Geahlen to cut the lead to 51-50.

Donnell hit a 3 to slow the run, and after a bucket by Robinson, Andrew Badenhop sank a triple to push the Eagles’ lead to 57-52.

Badenhop made another jumper after the Tigers again closed the lead to a single point and Caleb Souder scored with 2:22 remaining for a 61-56 lead.

Geahlen started LC’s final run with a putback after an offensive rebound and was fouled. He missed the foul shot, but the Tigers grabbed the rebound and Geahlen scored to cut the lead to 61-60.

Geahlen scored again to take the lead with 1:36 remaining. Eastwood had a couple of chances to retake the lead, but missed on a driving shot and a 3-pointer from the wing.

LC made four of six from the foul line to extend its lead to 66-61 with 11 seconds remaining before Kachmarik banked in a triple. Robinson sealed the win with a pair of free throws for the Tigers.

“We needed to speed them up,” said coach Badenhop. “So we went to the press after the time-out. They were hitting so many shots in their half-court offense, we had to change it up. We knew they would make some shots, which they did, but we needed to create turnovers and more possessions … and we did that.”

Liberty Center forced Eastwood into 17 turnovers for the game, including seven in the fourth quarter.

“We had a couple of unfortunate turnovers and had a couple of missed opportunities down the stretch,” said Faykosh. “We got down early, but we never quit. They got back into the game, but LC did a good job of mixing up their defenses. This came down to they made a couple more plays then we did.”

The Tigers were 26 of 48 from the field for 54% and 14 of 22 from the foul line, while Eastwood was 24 of 37 for 65% and six of seven from the charity stripe.

Liberty Center (17-7), which had nine turnovers, had a 21-18 edge on the boards.

Geahlen, who had a team-high 10 rebounds, and Landen Kruse each had 18 points for the Tigers, while Robinson added 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Eagles (14-10) were led by Donnell with 15 points, while Badenhop added 12 points and Luidhardt finished with 10 points.