Back on track

The Liberty boys basketball team got off to a slow start on Friday.

All it took was defense and a Match to fuel the Lancers as they romped past the St. George’s Dragons 57-35 in a Northeast 2B South game at Spangle.

With the man-to-man not working effectively early, Liberty coach Mike Thacker switched to a zone defense. That, coupled with Match Burnham going off, was too much for the Dragons.

Burnham scored eight of the Lancers’ final 10 points before halftime as Liberty pulled out of an 18-13 hole to take a 23-18 lead into intermission.

In the second half, Thacker went back to the man-to-man, and it was as efficient as the zone.

The 6-foot-8 Burnham, who had 17 points in the first half, finished with a game high 30 to go with 15 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The victory clinched the top seed from the South Division in the district tournament, which begins Wednesday at Reardan. Liberty (18-2 overall, 13-1 in league) lost 53-49 at Colfax on Tuesday after leading by as many as 16 points in the third quarter.

“We didn’t start out the best and they came out hitting,” Burnham said of the Dragons, who led 11-6 late in the opening quarter. “We tried to focus up as good as we could. They’re a good team.”

The 10-0 surge to end the first half got the Lancers in the right frame of mind.

Burnham stung the Dragons (10-9, 6-7) inside and outside. He plays any of the five positions on the court.

Midway in the fourth quarter, for example, Thacker moved Burnham to the point for back-to-back possessions. He responded with his third 3-pointer and the next time down the floor he drove to the basket for an easy score.

Thacker took the blame for the slow start.

“We prepare for several different teams during a week (and) you get to where you only have one day to prepare for another team,” he said. “The issue was we knew they were going to drive and dish so we kind of prepared for that. I wanted to stay in my man-to-man but it was eventually my zone that kind of turned the tide. We had not worked as much on the zone as we should have.”

And like the end of the first half, the Lancers finished the game on a 10-0 run.

Thacker didn’t think the slow start had anything to do with the difficult loss at Colfax.

“We had a couple of good practices,” he said. “It was a physical game. We were up by 16 in the middle of the third quarter and I thought we relaxed a little bit and let them back in the game.”

Liberty beat Colfax 73-43 earlier in the season.

“We got down to the end and our shots just would not fall,” Thacker said. “And we were point blank on a couple of them.”

Liberty got back on track Friday.