Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan Liberty’s Cianna Smith (2) goes up for a basket during a game against LaBrae on Jan. 3.
LIBERTY — Liberty is used to winning.
Until last year, when they went 7-12, the Leopards hadn’t had a losing season since going 3-21 in 2016-2017. A turbulent COVID season, combined with youth and inexperience, contributed to the Leopards’ woes in 2020-2021.
But now, with virtually the same roster, Liberty is undefeated and rampaging through the Grey Tier of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference.
So what changed?
“They’re much more mentally tough this year and much more confident in themselves,” said head coach Deidre Watson. “It took a growing year for them, and they understand what it takes to win now.”
The goal initially wasn’t to go undefeated. Watson said they just wanted to have a winning season, but as the year progressed that idea started to become more of a possibility.
“As they started to gain confidence and get momentum, they just thought, ‘Oh let’s go undefeated,” Watson said. “It’s more about where they want to go and what they feed off of. I feed off them in practice.”
Liberty’s core scoring trio of juniors Demi Watson and Cianna Smith and sophomore Aaliyah Foster is a big reason why the Leopards are 11-0.
Each player is a bonafide scorer in their own right, and each can score in a variety of different ways on the floor. They’re each averaging at least 15 points per game, and any of the three are capable of scoring 20-plus on any given night.
“We’re not independent — we look out for our teammates,” Smith said. “If there’s an open pass, we’re going to make the open pass. We’re all a team and we all want to win. So we have to make those extra passes to get those extra points.”
The plethora of scoring options makes the Leopards a difficult out for opponents to gameplan for because if coaches scheme to stop one or two of them, the others will make them pay.
“A lot of times you have teams where there’s a girl averaging 20 points and everybody else is averaging two,” Deidre said. “Because they’re willing to share the ball, they always get open and it’s hard to guard us. It’s tough when you can’t focus on one player. They’re all so talented, but being unselfish is the biggest thing.”
Make no mistake, the Leopards are going to run the floor and push the pace in games. This is a team that likes to use its speed and athleticism to score in transition and can create fast break and transition opportunities even when there don’t seem to be any.
“Most girls basketball teams play kind of slow and robotic to an extent, but I don’t limit them in that way,” Deidre said. “I let them play, I let them be athletic. I give them sets that they can run, but I give them the freedom that if you feel like you can take a girl off the dribble, go for it. If you have an open three, take it. And I think that free rein allows them to have more confidence.”
With all its young talent and just three seniors, including senior and defensive stopper Jordan Banks, Liberty isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Demi said Banks’ leadership has been instrumental in the leap forward the team has made this year.
“She helped us a lot — she got our energy up and brings a lot of maturity to the team,” Demi said.
During this undefeated start, the Leopards aren’t just squeezing by their opponents. For the most part, they’re dominating them in comprehensive fashion, winning by an average margin of 25.3 points per game.
Despite that success, Deidre said that her players have adopted a little bit of an underdog mentality that they’ve also been able to feed off of during this run.
“Sometimes they feel like people don’t really give them any recognition,” Deidre said. “In (a recent game), there were a couple players from other different teams that were there cheering against them, and it just fuels them even more.”
Currently, the Leopards are ranked No. 6 in Division III in the state of Ohio, according to Maxpreps, and Smith said the goal this year is to make a deep run in the state playoffs.
“We have to work hard to get to where we want to be, and we want to go to states, so we have to put in the work to get there,” Smith said.
nmadhavan@tribtoday.com