The Palmer Terrors struggled with offensive rebounds on Saturday (the Liberty Lancers had nine more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Palmer fell 42-35 to Liberty. If Palmer hoped to take revenge for the 52-34 loss against they when the teams met, then they were left disappointed.
When it comes to explaining why Palmer lost, one person who can't be blamed is Leah Martinez. Despite the final result, she dropped a double-double on 21 points and ten rebounds. That was a full 60% of Palmer's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Alexa Stevens, who scored three points along with six rebounds and four steals.
Liberty's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Ava Dawes, who scored 13 points along with three blocks. Dawes hasn't dropped below two blocks for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Alyssa Gardner, who scored nine points along with six rebounds and three steals.
Palmer dropped their record down to 6-8 with that loss, which was their fourth straight on the road. Those losses could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 28.0 points per game. As for Liberty, they are on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a massive bump to their 9-5 record this season.
Palmer will head out on the road to square off against Coronado at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Hopefully Coronado focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 25 on Monday. As for Liberty, they the luxury of staying home another game and will welcome Rampart at 7:00 p.m. on January 24th. Rampart has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
