By Al Camp
     The Chronicle
     
     SPOKANE - Liberty Bell High School girls basketball team came up a point short to finish with a seventh-place state trophy at the state 2B tournament March 3-6 in Spokane Arena.
     The Mountain Lions (17-7) fell to Reardan 47-46 in the trophy game March 6.
     "Yes, the girls were disappointed," Coach Ash Court said, noting the team's aspiration was to place higher than fourth, the school's best achieved last year.
     "We wanted that third-place trophy really bad," he said.
     Liberty Bell led 43-40 with 2:44 to go but could not hold on as Reardan went on a 7-1 run capped by Kelsey Moos (17 points) making two free throws with 6.9 seconds left in the game.
     Liberty Bell made a lay-up in the closing seconds for the final margin.
     The game was one of contrasting offensive styles.
     Reardan made 28 of its points shooting inside the paint and 14 points on second chances after rebounding missed shots.
     Liberty Bell, while scoring only 10 points in the paint, made nine points on 3-point shots and 11 points on turnovers. The Mountain Lion bench outscored Reardan 6-3.
     The Mountain Lions used a man defense disguised as a matchup zone.
     "They never picked up on that," Court said. "They stayed in their zone offense with no screening. It really helped us defensively. Instead of height mismatches, we were able to stay matched up height-wise.
     "We had a chance to win it; we probably should have won it. But we were physically and mentally exhausted."
     Defenses on both sides dictated, with Liberty Bell leading 11-9 after the first quarter before scoring only four points in the second quarter to trail 24-15 at the half.
     The Mountain Lions then put the squeeze on the Indians, who scored only eight points in the third quarter and saw their lead cut to 32-30 heading into the final quarter.
     Liberty Bell made 13-of-13 free throws in the first three quarters, then faltered in the fourth quarter, making 3-of-9.
     Liberty Bell (46) - Bailey Bradshaw 13, Ryliegh Ferrill 3, Ashley Penncock 0, Paige Stevie 0, Mariah Clements 17, Shelby Scott 7, Nella Kelkka 0, Kayla Higbee 0, Ari Watson 0.
     Liberty Bell opened state with a 62-52 win over Asotin.
     Court said he learned quickly that his team entered state tired, though he was not sure if it was because of a tough few weeks before state or if the girls legs were still tired from a late-season run in the state soccer tournament.
     "I thought, boy this is going to be a long week," Court said on learning a girl was exhausted in the first quarter. "We seemed to be on the stage of collapse. But they hung in there."
     Game statistics show the teams were fairly evenly matched. Liberty Bell went 6-for-14 on field goals while Asotin went 5-for-13, and the teams were nearly equal on rebounds.
     The largest lead in the game was a 14-point spread late in the fourth quarter.
     Liberty Bell (62) - Bradshaw 10, Ferrill 17, Penncock 0, Stevie 9, Clements 13, Scott 11, Kelkka 0, Watson 2.
     Rebounds: Scott 9, Ferrill 7, Clements 5. Assists: Scott 3. Blocks: Scott 1. Steals: Bradshaw 3, Clements 2.     
     On the second day, Liberty Bell faced Toutle Lake, which pulled the first day's stunner in coming from down 18-1 to knock off Tacoma Baptist.
     Toutle Lake pulled off another, this time 51-49 over Liberty Bell, which dropped into the consolation bracket.
     Shelby Wason, who came off the bench to score 19 points on 5-of-6 3-point shooting, led the Fighting Ducks.
     "She was just tremendous , tremendous asset to them and a big headache to us," Court said.
     Liberty Bell led 27-21 late in the first half only to see Toutle Lake bang home two 3-pointers.
     The Fighting Ducks did it again late in the game, hitting a desperation trey to take a lead.
     "Some games you are not meant to win," Court said. "After that, my mind went blank. I don't know what happened. We came out on the short end."
     Liberty Bell (49) - Bradshaw 15, Ferrill 8, Penncock 0, Stevie 7, Clements 7, Scott 10, Kelkka 0, Higbee 0, Watson 2, Cheyene Ott.
     Rebounds: Ferrill 6. Assists: Bradshaw 2. Blocks: Stevie 1. Steals: Ferrill 2, Stevie 2.
     Bailey Bradshaw scored 15 points and Shelby Scott added 10 points. Ryliegh Ferrell had six rebounds.
     Liberty Bell reached the trophy game with a 55-51 win over Wahkiakum.
     Mariah Clements got the team off to a good start with two 3-pointers in the first quarter.
     Paige Stevie added two treys in the second quarter.
     "We were doing some pretty good long-range bombing on them," Court said.
     Clements added another trey and scored seven points in the third quarter.
     The Mules started fouling in the fourth quarter to get the ball back.
     The team's leading scorer, Shelby Scott with a nearly 17 points per game average, was held to two points in the first three quarters.
     But in the fourth quarter she came through in the clutch by making 7-of-7 free throws and the Mountain Lions as a team made 10-of-12 free throws to sew up the loser-out victory.
     Liberty Bell (55) - Bailey Bradshaw 1, Ryliegh Ferrill 15, Paige Stevie 8, Mariah Clements 16, Shelby Scott 11, Kayla Higbee 2, Ari Watson 2.