First-year Liberty Christian Coach Sarah Gibson decided to walk the line between making a statement and playing it safe on Saturday.When just four players showed up on time for a pregame shoot-around, she decided to begin the game with those same four. With the Eagles’ usual starters, including their two leading scorers, watching from the bench, Gibson gave four other contributors a chance to play the entire first quarter.Facing a minimal deficit, she inserted her usual crew back in, and Liberty Christian cruised to a 56-23 victory over Thomas Jefferson“We only had four show up on time, so that’s the way we started the game,” explained Gibson. “The others responded well and handled their role on the bench.”The first quarter actually revealed positive foreshadowings, with a few players who will be the future of the program showing early signs of leadership.“The four girls that did start — Olivia Zook, Sarah Ratcliffe, MaKenna Meyer and Haley Hoffman — did very good considering the position they were thrown into,” said Gibson.Thomas Jefferson led 7-3 after on quarter but would quickly find themselves outmatched once Matilyn Voss and crew entered the game.Meyer put the Eagles ahead on a layup with 4:35 remaining in the half.“As an eighth-grader, (McKenna) got the time ahead of her and great mentorship from Mattie to lead her into being the next point guard,” said Gibson.Voss and Meyer helped the Eagles to an 18-10 halftime lead, which wasn’t comfortable enough for Gibson.“It took longer than I wanted to separate ourselves once our original starters came in,” said Gibson. “We didn’t really decide to put it away until the second half. Thats when we finally started dictating the game.”Liberty Christian opened the second half on a 14-2 run, ignited by a 19-point performance from Voss in the third quarter.The Eagles carried a 39-14 advantage into the fourth period, ending the game with a flurry of transition buckets resulting from Thomas Jefferson’s inability to handle pressure.“We didn’t want to let them get comfortable in a slow game,” said Gibson. “If we let them walk the ball up the court, it was going to allow them to hang around, so we wanted to push the ball up the floor.”Voss finished the game with a team-best 29 points through three quarters, while senior Avery Dickson netted 16 points in the same time frame.“We’re trying to work on making good decisions late in the games,” said Gibson.Meyer scored six points.The Eagles shot 12 of 19 from the free-throw line.LIBERTY CHRISTIAN GIRLS WINDerrick Forsythe photo.