Basketball Recap: Lamar Lee Leads a Balanced Attack to Beat Vanguard

On Friday, the Liberty Chargers made easy work of the Vanguard Panthers and carried off an 87-62 victory. Given the Chargers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 198th, while the Panthers are ranked 498th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Lamar Lee

Steals

01/24/25 vs Vanguard	3
01/22/25 vs North Kissimmee Christian	4
01/16/25 vs Poinciana	2
01/15/25 vs Celebration	3
01/13/25 vs Gateway	2

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Liberty to victory, but perhaps none more so than Lamar Lee, who dropped a double-double on 23 points and ten assists. Lee has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 39 times he's played. Another player making a difference was Ixion Toro, who dropped a double-double on 25 points and 13 rebounds.

Liberty smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 27 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in 19 consecutive contests dating back to last season.

Despite the defeat, Vanguard saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Turral Berry posted 27 points and three steals. That was a full 43.5% of Vanguard's points, marking the fourth time in a row he's had more than a third of the team's points. Brian Glover was another key player, putting up 12 points and five assists.

Liberty is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups, which lines up perfectly with their 12-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 72.0 points per game. As for Vanguard, they have been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four games, which put a noticeable dent in their 7-11 record this season.

Liberty will welcome Tohopekaliga at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Liberty is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 68.6 points per game this season. Vanguard has already played their next contest (against Excel Christian Academy), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.