Basketball Recap: Zach Welborn's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Liberty over High Point Academy

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Liberty can now relate to. They took a hard 62-44 fall against the High Point Academy Grizzlies on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Red Devils can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 153rd, while the Grizzlies are ranked 22nd).

Zach Welborn

Points

03/04/25 vs High Point Academy	13
02/26/25 @ Central	12
02/21/25 @ Chesnee	9
02/18/25 @ Fairfield Central	5
02/13/25 vs Chesnee	11
+ 24 more games

Liberty's defeat came despite a true team effort with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Zach Welborn, who posted 13 points and five boards. Welborn continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Logan Smith, who dropped a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

High Point Academy was led to victory by Jaden McNeil and J'Sean Sanders. McNeil went 6-for-7 on his way to 16 points, while Sanders dropped a double-double with 14 points and ten boards. Thanks to that strong game, McNeil now owns an excellent 41.3% three-point shooting accuracy. Another player making a difference was Chris Copeland, who scored five points and six rebounds.

Liberty moved to 13-16 with that loss, which also ended their three-game winning streak. As for High Point Academy, the victory was the seventh in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 27-3.

Liberty does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for High Point Academy, they will square off against Atlantic Collegiate Academy at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. One thing working in High Point Academy's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last 26 contests.