St. Cloud and Liberty are an even 5-5 against one another since December of 2015, but not for long. The St. Cloud Bulldogs will be playing in front of their home fans against the Liberty Chargers at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the pair posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
St. Cloud has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three contests by 39 points or more this season. They really took it to Freedom for the full four quarters, racking up a 69-30 victory at home. With St. Cloud ahead 55-12 at the half, the match was all but over already.
St. Cloud's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Josiah Cotto led the charge by scoring eight points along with five rebounds and five steals. Cotto set a new season high mark in steals with five. The team also got some help courtesy of Ryan Rodriguez, who scored 11 points along with three steals.
Meanwhile, Liberty fought the good fight in their overtime game against Faith Christian on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They took a 65-59 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Lions. While losing is never fun, Liberty can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 482nd, while Faith Christian is ranked 179th).
Liberty's defeat came about despite a quality game from Genola Thermozier, who scored 24 points along with seven rebounds. Thermozier set a new season high mark in points with 24. Another player making a difference was Tasir Best, who scored nine points along with 17 rebounds.
Even though they lost, Liberty were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
St. Cloud's win bumped their record up to 4-2. As for Liberty, they now have a losing record at 3-4.
This contest is shaping up to be a blowout: St. Cloud hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 61 points per game. However, it's not like Liberty struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 52.4 points per game. The only thing between St. Cloud and another offensive beatdown is Liberty. Will they be able to keep them contained?
St. Cloud beat Liberty 87-74 in their previous matchup back in January. Does St. Cloud have another victory up their sleeve, or will Liberty turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
