State 2B boys championship: Liberty leans on second-half magic to top Brewster for second title in team history
In the moments before tip-off Saturday afternoon, Liberty’s Tayshawn Colvin performed the same pregame routine he’s done since he was a freshman.
A few swipes of the jersey, a pound to the chest and a point to the sky.
“I have a ritual to start every game, and it’s just something I developed early on,” Colvin said. “It just gets me in the right mindset.”
The senior guard proceeded to do what he has done so many times in his high school career. Lead the Lancers to victory.
Colvin scored a game-high 28 points as second-seeded Liberty stormed back in the second half to top defending champion Brewster 64-55 in the State 2B title game at the Arena.
It is the Liberty boys’ second title in school history, with the first coming in 1986. Liberty also took second place in 2015 and 2017.
“Tayshawn and I have been playing together since we were in fourth grade and you can tell the chemistry is there,” Liberty guard Colton Marsh said. “This is just the climax of all that hard work to break the second-place curse at Liberty.”
Marsh added 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Lancers (23-2), while senior guard London Foland came alive in the second half with 11 points.
The Lancers struggled to find their offensive groove in the opening half, shooting just 21.9% from the floor and going 0 for 10 from 3-point range.
But just as they’ve shown throughout the tournament, the Lancers are a second-half team.
“The closest we have been all week is tied at half, so we knew that we just had to stick together and then we would come back out of the break and scrap,” Foland said. “They got some great players and some tall guys like (Morton-White Pass), but these guys could all shoot, so we just had to stay disciplined and keep playing our game.”
Liberty’s second-half determination was on display from the third-quarter whistle. The Lancers forced three consecutive Brewster turnovers to cut the 10-point halftime deficit to one possession within 2 minutes.
Timely 3-pointers from Foland and transfer guard Jake Jeske down the stretch then helped the Lancers get in front and stay there.
“We’d rather just play well the whole game instead of getting down early and having to dig and fight for a win,” Colvin said. “But we are a team that likes adversity, so the energy may not always be there from the start but at halftime there was no doubt that we were still in it.
“And the thing with Jake is that he’s always there and ready, so even when he is struggling we know he can get going like he did today.”
After the offense got Liberty back in front, the defense took center stage, getting five straight stops over the final 1:40 that secured the title.
“At the beginning of the season we struggled on the defensive end and that was one of coach’s biggest talking points over the second half of the year,” Marsh said. “Because of that hard work, we were able to lock in down in the last couple minutes.”
Kelson Gebbers paced the Bears (21-6) with 23 points. Adaih Najera added 14 points.
Colvin made sure his pregame point to the sky wasn’t his final gesture of the day as he answered a chorus of jeers from the Brewster fans with a simple point to his ring finger and a smile.
“I was getting heckled a bit by their fans, so I just told them, ‘Ring me,’ and man, did it feel great,” Colvin said.