Lady Redskins hold off Winfield, move one round deeper

The Lady Redskins defeated the mouse to battle the lion.

Liberal held off a late charge from Winfield to win a 29-25 defensive battle Thursday night at the Big House to set up a battle with No. 1 Andover Central.

Justice Norah was once again the game's leading scorer with 13, but the sophomore was sidelined much of the fourth quarter after picking up her fourth foul of the game. Liberal held Winfield's leading scorer, Hayli Jo Smith, to only seven points.

Justice Norah fights off foul trouble to lead Liberal to a first-round win. Photo by Evan Knopp

The Lady Redskins came out firing, bursting out to a 10-0 lead and holding Winfield off the board for the first six minutes of the game. Kayla Payton knocked down a three as time expired in the first quarter to put Liberal up 13-2.

Liberal continued to play well into the second quarter behind the stellar play of Norah. Both teams went cold from the field for three minutes midway through the second, but Norah and Kirsten Ross hit back-to-back buckets to go up 21-4. Liberal coach Shane Stout took an unorthodox timeout up by 17, as Liberal gave Winfield countless second-chance opportunities on the offensive glass. Stout vocalized is displeasure as loud as he ever has in the timeout.

Winfield's Brittany Estrada fought her way to the line , knocking down two free throws before Sydnie Lowther had a steal and score to cut the lead to 21-7 at the half. Even with the big lead, Stout was unhappy with the way his squad had performed with the lack of rebounding prowess.

"We weren't boxing out very well and we weren't being agressive," Stout said.

Liberal came out of the break and cold as they have been all season, missing two-foot shots and easy break-away attempts. Winfield capitalized, scoring six unanswered points to cut the lead to eight, where it would remain going into the fourth quarter.

Norah picked up her fourth foul, third offensive foul of the game early in the fourth quarter, forcing Stout to sit her out for much of the final eight minutes. The Lady Redskins tried holding the ball to kill time for the last three minutes of the game, but Winfield was able to cut the deficit to three.

Liberal made only one field goal in the entire second half, but the Lady Skins were able to sink free throws late to go up by six with 17.5 left in the game. Winfield's Hannah Niederee hit a three pointer to cut the lead to three. Payton missed two free throw opportunities to put the game away, but Kayla Varnes grabbed the rebound to ice it.

"I'm proud of how we took care of the ball at the end," Stout said. "We didn't make many free throws, but i guess we made just enough."

The Lady Redskins will now face 21-0 Andover Central, looking for a huge upset. Andover Central is led by senior Tiffany Bias, who is averaging 20.5 points, 7.4 assists and 5.5 steals per game. Bias was ranked No. 40 in ESPN's HoopGurlz Super Sixty and will be playing for Oklahoma State next season.

"My assistants have a game plan. they let me worry about winfield and they've been worrying about andover central," Stout said. "We'll burn the midnight oil tonight. We're happy to play basketball for at least two more days."

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