The Liberty Raiders will take on the Midland Trail Patriots at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, Liberty beat Independence 58-50.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Midland Trail, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Thursday. They put the hurt on Mount Hope Christian Academy with a sharp 73-50 win on Monday. The Patriots pushed the score to 61-33 by the end of the third, a deficit the Warriors cut but never quite recovered from.
Liberty better focus on containing Thad Brown and Payton Bailes as the pair were huge in Midland Trail's win. Brown went 11-for-21 en route to 25 points in addition to five assists and four steals, while Bailes shot 78% from the field to rack up 19 points. Brown has become a key player for Midland Trail: the team is 8-3 when he posts at least 15 points, but 4-7 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Jacob Ewing, who posted six points.
Midland Trail was working as a unit and finished the game with 15 assists. They are 11-2 when they've passed the ball that well.
Liberty's victory ended a five-game drought on the road and puts them at 7-11. As for Midland Trail, their win bumped their record up to 12-10.
Liberty suffered a grim 56-34 defeat to Midland Trail in their previous matchup two weeks ago. Can Liberty avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
