Liberty Christian simply did not have an answer for Kyle Johnson.

Giving up six inches in the paint, the Eagles struggled to stop the dominant force, falling 60-55 against Wright City in a back-and-forth Mayor’s Cup matchup last Friday. Johnson paced the Wildcats with 18 points and 18 rebounds.

“He had a phenomenal night,” said Wright City Coach Ryan Benz of the 6-foot-6 junior. “He made some big shots near the end of the game when we really needed it.”

Wright City’s post players combined for 44 rebounds.

“The biggest turning point was not being able to box out,” said Liberty Christian Coach Tanner Meyer. “Johnson was a monster in the paint and no one was wanting to box him out. Whenever we jumped, we gave up on our position, and he jumped over us.”

His performance was complemented by junior Hayden Beck, who netted 21 points and snagged an equal amount of rebounds.

“Overall, I thought we played a great game,” said Benz. “We were really pacing on the offensive end. We said we wanted to get it down low, and I thought we did a fairly good job of that.”

The game never swung too far in any direction, with both teams trading leads on offense.

“It was a game of runs, and I told the guys, ‘whoever makes the right run at the right time is going to win it,’” said Benz. “We just had to respond to every run, and we managed to do that every time they would cut into the lead.”

Liberty Christian came out pushing the tempo to control the first quarter, but Beck scored off a hustle play to give the Wildcats a 17-16 command heading into the second.

“We tried to trap and run early, but they figured that out quickly, so we hurried up and got out of that,” said Meyer. 

The Eagles tied the game again late in the second period, but senior Branden Contreras  knocked down a trey to push Wright City ahead 35-31 at halftime.

“I was trying to get our guys to get the ball out and run, because while we were tired, they were more tired than us, it seemed,” said Meyer. “I was trying to utilize that, but we were never really able to get out and run.”

The Wildcats extended their lead to eight in the third quarter, but Liberty Christian responded with a 7-0 run capped off by senior Josh Dames. The Eagles regained the lead late in the period, but Wright City would against respond, ahead 47-45 going into the final period.

“In the second half I think they did a better job of closing out on us down low,” said Benz. “We started knocking down some outside shots, which extended their zone out a little bit more. Because of that, we were able to get some easy layups.”

While many of their inside shots were being altered by Johnson, the Eagles used their perimeter accuracy to stay in contention.

“We were taking shots from outside, which thank goodness we had the best three-point shooting game of our year,” said Meyer. “That definitely kept us in the game.”

Liberty Christian was guided by Dames with 19 points, while senior Brayden Wilmsmeyer netted five three-pointers, scoring 18 points. Junior Cole Christian added 15 points.

Contreras finished with 14 points for the Wildcats.