“That was a great win for us after a couple losses,” said NPL Head Coach Bear Mattison after the Mounties’ win. “I keep telling the guys .. we’re better than our record shows. We just have to limit the silly turnovers and for the most part we did that tonight. We still have a lot to clean up, but much better tonight.”

The Mounties, now 2-3 on the season, finished the first quarter Thursday with a 7-0 run to build an 18-10 lead over the Wildcats, led by 9 early points by Adynn Wheeland and 5 from fellow senior Blake Oakley. 

The teams traded scores to start the second frame, until Liberty again went on a run .. scoring the first half’s final 5 points to take a 31-18 lead into the break. The Mounties spread their scoring out in the second quarter, as Oakley (3), Wheeland (2), Louis Mercantino (2), Evan McTish (2), Luke Kreger (2) and Sudan Benner (2) all scored for NPL.

“We played a great first half,” said Mattison, “created a lot of turnovers and scored points off those turnovers. We did a great job of forcing them to take bad shots, and we were able to get those rebounds. Rebounding has been one of our weak points so far this season and it was nice to see we were able to control the boards tonight.”

McTish led the way for the Mounties on the boards, grabbing 14 rebounds, while Oakley snagged 10, Mercantino had 7 and Wheeland had 5. 

A Wheeland bucket to open the third quarter gave the Mounties their biggest lead of the night .. 15 .. and after an Athens’ bucket, Mercantino matched it with a baseline jumper to make it 35-20.

A 6-0 Athens’ run cut the lead to 9 points before Mercantino ended the run with a three to push the lead back to 12, and after a Wildcat score, Wheeland pushed it to 13 with a three of his own, giving the Mounties a 41-28 lead.

After Athens got the lead back to single digits at 43-34, Benner came up with a pair of steals and scored twice to give Liberty a 47-34 lead, but Athens scored the third quarter’s final 5 points to cut the Mountie lead to 8 at 47-39 as they entered the final frame. 

“I’m never comfortable with a big lead,” said Mattison, “We’ve been working on staying calm whatever the score is.”

McTish made it a 10-point lead to open the fourth, but two Wildcat buckets cut the deficit to 49-43. Wheeland hit 1-of-2 free throws before Athens drained a pair of three-pointers and got a long outlet pass and a bucket to take their first lead since they went up 3-0 to open the game. 

Down one at 51-50 with just under 5 minutes left in regulation, McTish hit two free throws, followed by three freebies for Athens to put the Wildcats up 54-52. Oakley tied it up with two made free throws and McTish put Liberty up one from the line, but Athens would hit 1-of-2 before the end of the fourth to tie it at 55 and with both teams missing opportunities to score in the last minute, they headed to overtime. 

During the fourth quarter comeback, Liberty lost both Wheeland and Kreger.

“The stress level was high going into overtime with Adynn (Wheeland) and Luke (Kreger) fouled out,” said Mattison. “But it’s comforting as a coach that I can lean on my seniors to settle things out when the opponent is on a run. And our bench guys stepped up big tonight.”

Athens opened the extra frame with a bucket before Mercantino drilled a three for the 58-57 lead, but Athens answered with their own three to go up 60-58 with 2 minutes left. 

Oakley tied it up with two free throws and Mercantino came up with a steal and score to put the Mounties up 62-60 with 1:24 remaining. The Wildcats got a foul call on a three-pointer and made two from the line to tie it up again, then got the rebound on the missed third shot from the line and drew another foul, making 1-of-2 for the 63-62 lead with under a minute left. 

The Mounties would make those points Athens’ last, however, and Oakley hit four straight free throws to seal the 66-63 win.

“Our senior leadership really helped tonight,” said Mattison. “Adynn (Wheeland) can get the guys to relax and just play basketball .. Louie (Mercantino) hit a big three during that spurt to kind of stop the momentum ..  Blake (Oakley) can handle the ball well during situations like that, and hit some huge free throws.”

Wheeland finished with 19 points and Oakley had a double-double, adding 18 points to his 10 boards and 5 blocked shots to lead the Mounties. Mercantiono had 12 points and 7 steals, McTish had 9 points and 3 blocks, Benner had 6 points and Kreger chipped in with 2 points. 

“Sudan (Benner) coming off the bench as a freshman and getting a few deflections and scoring a few points and Brody Grinnell playing great defense .. they stepped up big when we needed them,” said Mattison. 

“Our saying is ‘relax .. have fun .. play basketball,” Mattison continued, “and we did that all night long. Super proud of the guys tonight.”

The Mounties (2-3) will get a small break after the big win, as they’re scheduled to return to action next Tuesday when they host Towanda for their second of 5 straight home games. 

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