Liberty Christian Head Coach Butch Clark has an easy way to fix his team’s shooting woes this season. “I was thinking about bringing in Steph Curry next week, if he’s free,” Clark joked after …
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Liberty Christian Head Coach Butch Clark has an easy way to fix his team’s shooting woes this season.
“I was thinking about bringing in Steph Curry next week, if he’s free,” Clark joked after his team’s 57-40 home win over Crosspoint Christian Friday night.
The Eagles (14-1) have struggled to shoot the ball well most of the season, but are in first place in the Metro Conference with a 12-0 record.
They have beaten the second- and third-place teams — Providence Classical and Rivers of Life — by a combined 27 points.
Clark has emphasized shooting for most of the season, and thinks a few tweaks could bring his team to another level offensively.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on the shooting machine the last week or two,” he said. “It’s mostly fundamentals.”
Liberty Christian has pressured more on defense this season to compensate for the rough shooting nights.
Friday against Crosspoint, the Eagles pressed fullcourt to create offense.
The press isn’t something Clark wants to do every game, insisting on trapping out of a halfcourt zone instead.
He said certain situations, however, can make a fullcourt press a valuable tool to have.
“They lost their point guard from last year, and they don’t really have a true point guard right now,” Clark said. “So it just depends on the team we’re playing.”
The Eagles scored on “cheap buckets,” as Clark called them, in the second quarter and were able to extend their lead to 30-18 at halftime, despite their shooting struggles.
The lead was pushed to 44-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
Junior guard Jake Pietzman led the team with 18 points and 13 rebounds.
Junior forward Kameron Bagby grabbed 10 rebounds, and freshman guard Andrew Voss finished with 17 points.
The Eagles shot 35 percent from the field and missed 10 of 19 free-throw attempts Friday night, but the outcome was never in doubt,
While Clark continues to work on his team’s shooting touch, he knows a stingy defense will keep Liberty Christian in every game.
“You aren’t always going to have good shooting nights,” he said. “But if your defense is good, you can survive that. And that’s what we did.”
COLLISION COURSE — Liberty Christian's Andrew Voss collides with a defender Friday night. Voss scored 17 points in his team's 57-40 win over Crosspoint Christian. Kory Carpenter photo.
