New Hope used a balanced scoring attack in beating Liberty Union 60-45 Tuesday night.
Hunter Cavanaugh led the way with 14 points while Xander Rink and Nathaniel Ames each had 12 points and Tyler Cook put in 10 for the Statesmen.
“They are a big, strong team and we knew we were going to have to grind for 32 minutes,” New Hope coach Shane Roese said. “I’m just really proud of the toughness our kids showed tonight. Outside of four to five minutes in the second quarter, we physically controlled the game.”
New Hope had a fast start in scoring the game’s first 15 points.
The Lions finally scored with 3:30 left in the first and closed with a 12-7 run to make the score 22-12 entering the second quarter.
New Hope’s shooting cooled off in the second and LU used some strong rebounding to close the gap to three points with 30 seconds left. A Rink layup with five seconds showing put New Hope back up five, 31-26, at halftime.
Coming out of the break, Rink scored the first two baskets followed up by a score from Cavanaugh and a three-pointer from Ames which gave New Hope a 40-26 lead with a little over five minutes left in the quarter.
The Statesmen had to play the last 4:50 of the third without center Lane Bruning who had picked up his third foul and Liberty closed to 49-39 entering the fourth.
LU never got any closer than nine points in the final period as they were held to six points.
“Liberty did a nice job not allowing Lane to get going tonight,” Roese said of holding the senior to eight points, “but everyone stepped up around him and filled the gap. Xander, Nate, Ty Cook and Nate Ames — each of them had moments where they made big baskets.
“Overall, the key was our defense – it was solid all night. We were physical and communicated the best we have all season.”
Liberty finished the night hitting only 31 percent of their shots from the field, while New Hope hit 48 percent of its shots.
The Lions did end the night with a 36-33 rebounding edge.
Rink led New Hope with eight rebounds and Cook and Bruning each had seven.
Cavanaugh had four assists and three steals and Rink had five assists.
New Hope (9-3) is back in action Thursday at Liberty Christian and then heads to Portsmouth to take on Notre Dame Saturday.
New Hope 60, Liberty Union 45
Liberty Union — Slade McClaskey 2-2-6, Bake Shawver 2-0-5, Donovan Savage 1-0-3, Noah Shook 0-2-2, Eli Kocher 1-3-6, Tomas Winter 4-1-10, Landon Piccirillo 1-1-3, Luke Williams 4-1-10. Three-point goals — Shawver, Savage, Kocher, Winter, Williams. Total — 15-47 10-13 45.
New Hope — Hunter Cavanaugh 4-6-14, Xander Rink 4-4-12, Landen Parker 1-1-4, Nathaniel Ames 5-0-12, Tyler Cook 4-0-10, Lane Bruning 2-4-8. Three-point goals — Parker, Ames (2), Cook (2). Total — 20-47 15-18 60.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Liberty Union 12 14 13 6 45
New Hope 22 9 18 11 60
