ABILENE — Parker Hicks has an idea or two how he’d defend against his Lubbock-Cooper Liberty boys basketball team. Luckily he doesn’t have to.
Krum didn’t have that luxury.
The Patriots unloaded their entire arsenal in Friday’s matinee area-round playoff. The top-10 showdown turned into more of a message to the rest of the region:
Liberty will be one tough out.
The No. 9 Patriots blew past the seventh-ranked Bobcats 81-52, flexing their muscles on both sides of the ball in their first-ever second-round win. Liberty had four players score in double figures, led by Pierce Fioroni’s 21 points.
The result dispatched the highest-ranked team in Region I-4A Division II. So, there’s no reason to think the Patriots can’t reach the state semifinals — or farther. Liberty turned a three-point edge into a 41-25 halftime lead and never flinched.
“We’re capable of a lot of things,” Fioroni said. “… If we can play like that against these good teams, we can go very far.”
Hicks said the biggest factor was the Patriots’ defense. That included a reinvigorated effort on Krum star Brian Dorgbetor. The 6-foot-3 guard willed the Bobcats with 17 first-half points but was limited to nine after halftime.
“He’s a really good player. He’s going to play college next year, or whenever he goes,” Hicks said. “We’re still of the belief that one guy’s not going to beat us. You’re gonna have to have five guys. … (Dorgbetor) played really well, but we did our job on everybody else.”
Liberty’s attack was quite the opposite. Whether it was Fioroni, Tookie Johnson (17 points), Jackson Funk (16) or Koleman Hendrix (10), the Patriots offense came in waves and washed away Krum. Hicks was coy on how he’d try and stop his team — he doesn’t want to give away the blueprint, after all — but he uses different ideas to challenge players in practice.
That’s why each of them are ready when the ball finds him.
“It makes me feel very confident in me and my team,” Fioroni said. “If one of us is off, there’s always one of us that can go on and go score. It just helps me as a player, knowing that if I’m not doing well, I can facilitate to my team and have them go do good things.”
Liberty hopes to continue doing good things in its first regional semifinal next week against Pampa. The Harvesters aren’t ranked, but Hicks hopes his players bring the same intensity that put the region on notice Friday.
“We’ve just got to have the same mindset that we’re playing Krum every week, every night,” Hicks said. “We can’t let our demeanor change because it’s not a top-10 team. Everybody’s in the third round for a reason. You’re gonna have to anchor up and do your job every single night, and that’s what I think makes Texas high school playoffs something special.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock-Cooper Liberty puts region on notice with blowout of Krum
Reporting by Stephen Garcia, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
