Basketball Recap: Liberty Common Comes Up Short

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Liberty Common can now relate to. They were just a bucket shy of victory on Saturday and fell 47-46 to the Yuma Outlaws. While losing is never fun, the Eagles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 73rd, while the Outlaws are ranked 20th).

Liberty Common's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Pierce Richardson, who went 6-for-10 on his way to 15 points and seven boards, and Caiden Castillo, who posted 15 points.

Even though they lost, Liberty Common was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. This was only their sixth loss (out of 19 games) when they've passed the ball that well.

Yuma was led to victory by Brody Sheffield and Jonathan Thomson. Sheffield scored 19 points and four steals, while Thomson shot 67% from the field to rack up 16 points in addition to eight rebounds and three steals. Sheffield's big performance that afternoon made it five games in a row in which he has scored at least 19 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Alex Pensado, who earned four points.

Liberty Common has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five games. That's put a noticeable dent in their 13-12 record this season. The win was the fourth in a row for Yuma, bringing their record for this year to 20-5.

Liberty Common does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Yuma, they have already played their next matchup, a 41-40 loss against Centauri on the 13th.