Basketball Recap: Liberty Comes Up Short

Liberty lost against Rustburg back in February of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Liberty Minutemen were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 58-57 to the Rustburg Red Devils. While losing is never fun, the Minutemen can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 313th, while the Red Devils are ranked 107th).

Several Minutemen players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Ayden Padgett, who went 6 for 9 en route to 15 points in addition to six rebounds and four steals. Padgett is crushing it when it comes to steals: he's grabbed at least two every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Evan Lee, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and ten boards.

This is the second loss in a row for Liberty and nudges their season record down to 3-8. As for Rustburg, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 9-3.

Liberty will challenge Staunton River at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. One thing working in Liberty's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last three matches. Rustburg has already played their next game (against Appomattox County), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.