Willy Mueller has been on a tear.

The Liberty Christian senior forward most recently amassed 22 points and 24 rebounds as the Eagles opened the Battle of Bourbon on January 3 with the 78-56 win over Bismarck.

While the result was nice and it set up a semifinal matchup against Newburg (5-3) after press time, Mueller said that he would like to see, to a man, the Eagles flying around every time the team is together.

“I think that we have to have the mindset that we’re going to practice like we play,” said Mueller of going hard every time the team sees the floor, whether the scoreboard is lit up or not. “Doing that will only help us when we’re out there for games.”

The big win will likely help the team erase the memory of a stinging 87-54 loss to Westwood Baptist on Dec. 19.

Liberty Christian coach Butch Clark said that, even though the team had a tough shooting night, what was worse was that his charges didn’t respond well to adversity. Westwood, a team Liberty could see in the postseason, led the game 21-10 at the end of the first quarter.

“That was disappointing,” Clark said. “Not so much because we lost. They’re going to be as good a team as we’re going to play all year. We just let it get away from us. They were, obviously, more ready to play than we were. We didn’t respond well to an early punch. It also hurt that we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. They scored (30) points after offensive rebounds and we lost by (33). That’s the game right there.”

Even though it was Westwood with the early punch that night, Liberty has thrown its share of haymakers this season.

The Eagles (11-2 overall, 5-1 in conference) are averaging 76.5 points per game while allowing just 49.2 points a game.

Offensively, the team has been led by the big three of junior guard Phoenix Obermann)22.2 points per game), Mueller (15.6 points, 14.8 rebounds per game) and senior forward Tommy Meyer (15.4 points per game).

Clark said, for as nice as those numbers are, the team is going to need more.

“Everybody has a role to play on this team for us to be successful,” Clark said. “We’ve got to find ways for others to step up on nights when (the scorers) might not be having their best night. We haven’t found it (the perfect combination of everyone’s efforts) yet. We’ll get there.”

Junior guard Cole Nelsen said that regardless of result in Bourbon, where the team hopes to play in the event championship on Friday, the Eagles should come away with some very valuable information.

Just as Mueller said, Liberty Christian can use its time in Bourbon to make strides going forward, no matter the result. After all, it will be a tournament atmosphere in Joplin at the Missouri Christian Schools Athletic Association (MCSAA) state tournament where the team truly hopes to shine.

“I think these games will do a lot to prepare us both mentally and physically,” Nelsen said. “That preparation will be important in March. We’re going to have to work hard now to get ourselves ready on the court, but it (the tournament setting in Bourbon) can help prepare us for what’s going to happen (logistically) down there.”