“For us only having three previous league titles and zero district championships, I couldn’t describe it any differently than a dream come true,” says second year Coach Mattison. 

The Mounties finished 18-9 overall, going 15-7 in the regular season and 12-5 in the league and 8-2 in the small school division to claim the NTL-II title, but started off 1-3 and were .500 at 6-6 at the midway point of the season. 

“We had some tough losses in the first half of the season,” says Mattison, “against South Williamsport (62-55), Northeast at the Montgomery Tournament (61-55) and at home (50-47) and against Muncy (58-53). I feel like we could’ve won all those games, but the mistakes we made at the end were too much to overcome. But I do believe those losses helped us in the second half of the season. We learned from our mistakes and learned how to close games out.”

Four straight wins .. over Cowanesque Valley (75-54), Benton (62-39), Wellsboro (65-43) and Wyalusing (59-42) .. left the Mounties with a 10-6 record as they entered the last week of January .. or what Coach Mattison deemed ‘hell week’ to his squad. 

“We had Sayre away, Troy away and Northeast Bradford away all in the same week,” says Mattison, “I told the team we had to win 2 of our 3 games that week.”

The Mounties went to Sayre and won by 13, avenging a 26-point loss to the Redskins in their first match-up, lost to large school and D4 champ Troy and went to Northeast Bradford and beat the Panthers in overtime. 

“Beating two teams that beat us previously in the year gave the team a lot of confidence,” says Mattison, “and it gave us control of the small school division the rest of the season.”

Liberty rolled through the remainder of their regular season schedule, beating Williamson by 39 points (92-53) and earning 20+ point wins over both Canton (76-53) and CV (69-48) to secure the NTL-II title and take their 15-7 record into the District 4 Class A playoffs as the top seed. 

The Mounties mercy-ruled No. 8 seed Millville (67-31) in the first round, came back from a halftime deficit to beat No. 4 Bucktail (67-55) in the semis and faced No. 6 seed Lourdes Regional, who had pulled off a pair of upsets to reach the final .. over No. 3 seed Meadowbrook Christian and No. 2 Sullivan County.

Liberty went back-and-forth with Lourdes, ultimately claiming a 57-53 victory.

“Everything seemed to be going our way in the championship game when we were up 12,” says Mattison, “but then we found ourselves down 4 in the 4th. During the timeout, I told the team that we were going to score, get a steal with our press and score again.”

Mattison couldn’t have drawn it up any better, as senior Blake Oakley hit a three after the late-game timeout, just his 5th of the season, the Mounties got a steal and senior Louis Mercantino hit his 5th three of the game to give Liberty a lead they’d never give up. 

The two seniors, along with classmate Adynn Wheeland, were crucial to Liberty’s success this season. 

“The seniors leadership this year was second to none,” says Mattison, “I’ve known these guys since they were in 6th grade. They’re great examples of how much time and effort you have to put into something to be successful. Hard work does payoff.”

Wheeland led a balanced Mountie scoring attack this season with 12.7 points per game, was second with 2.9 assists and 39 threes per outing and added 4.5 rebounds and 2.6 steals a game.

“Adynn Wheeland’s effort and confidence night in and night out is unmatched,” says Mattison, “He plays every game like it’s his last. Even though Adynn never wants to come out of the game, he found himself in foul trouble in quite a few games this season. But even though he was frustrated, he becomes the best teammate .. pumping up the guy who comes in for him. He’s a great example of how you should act on the bench .. rooting on his teammates.”

Mercantino led the Mounties with 44 three-pointers on the season and added 2.1 assists, 4.1 boards and 2 steals per game. 

“Louis Mercantino challenged himself to become a better all-around basketball player,” says Mattison, “He became faster, a better shooter, a better ball-handler and learned how to attack the rim. He’s always taken pride in his shooting, but over the years, schools knew he was the shooter so he had to find other ways to score. He became a solid mid-range jump shooter too. He holds himself to a high standard not only in sports but also in the classroom.”

Mattison’s third senior, Blake Oakley, averaged 9.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and team-high 3.9 assists, 2,8 steals and 1.4 blocked shots per game.

“How well Blake can handle the offense is comforting as a coach,” says Mattison, “He understands the game more than most at his age. He can also attack the rim well and play solid defense .. getting steals, blocking shots, getting rebounds. He focused on his shot during the offseason and it showed .. becoming the best free throw shooter on the team and hitting that huge three in the district championship game.”

Juniors Luke Kreger (12.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 2.3 apg, 2.2 spg, 34 3’s) and Evan McTish (9.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.3 spg, 1 bpg, 11 3’s) rounded out the Mounties’ starting five, all of who were rarely substituted for, save for foul trouble situations and at the end of secured games. 

“I’m very impressed with my entire starting five,” says Mattison, “they embraced our challenging practices, in order to get them in shape to play entire games. We could wear teams down in the second half.”

When the Mounties did sub, they looked to junior Brody Grinnell (2.2 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.4 spg) and freshman Sudan Benner (3.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg), who joined the starting five as players that led the Mounties in scoring in at least one game this season when he scored 14 in Liberty’s 62-39 win over Benton.

Mattison has a simple yet rare explanation for how he finished the season with five players averaging above or very close to double-digits.

“We didn’t care who scored,” says Mattison, “as long as we won the game.”

Another result of the Mounties’ unselfishness was the 14 assists per game Liberty averaged .. consistently making the extra pass to find the best shot. 

“The boys communicated so well as a group,” says Mattison, “Being friends outside of basketball definitely helps with that.”

Mattison points to an offseason filled with hard work as the prevailing reason the Mounties’ were able to accomplish so much more than they did during his first season at the helm, when Liberty finished a respectable 12-12, but title-less. 

“We worked so hard over the last year,” says Mattison, “ in the weight room .. doing speed and agility drills .. playing AAU and summer league ball .. to see it all come together and win the small school and District 4 championships is amazing.”

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