Holcomb loses both to Liberal

The Holcomb Longhorns were swept by Liberal tonight in the season opener. The Longhorn girls fell 66-19, The Longhorn boys fell to Liberal 64-55.

The Longhorn girls fell 66-19, in a game that was marred by turnovers and cold shooting for Holcomb. The Longhorns had 23 turnovers while Liberal had just 9 turnovers. The Longhorns had just one field goal in the second half.  The Longhorns were down 10-0 early in the first quarter and after a timeout by coach Novack rattled off 5 points in under a minute to make it 10-5 Liberal, That was the closest Holcomb would be the rest of the way. Liberal was led by Junior Katie Horyna with 25 points and  Machia Mullens with 14 points and 8 rebounds. The Longhorns were led by Juniors Maddison Ruda and Lauren Jones  both with 5 points.  The Longhorn girls start 0-1 on the season.

The Longhorn boys fall to Liberal 55-64. There were five ties and 7 lead changes in the game. The Longhorns finished the first quarter up 15-12 off of 3 three pointers by Kobe Hands. Holcomb would lead at half 29-26 after shooting 6/11 behind the arc in the first half, while Liberal shot just 4/13 behind the arc in the first half. The Longhorns had a 38-33 lead with 3:15 left in the third, but Liberal would outscore them 11-2 down the stretch and be up 44-40 going  into the fourth. Holcomb would be within 3 points 50-47 with 5:30 to go in the fourth, but would go on a four minute drought while missing 4 front ends of one and ones at the foul line, they would be down by 10 in the final ninety seconds 59-49 and eventually fall 55-64 to Liberal.  For Liberal Jordan Mendoza had 15 points off of three 3 pointers and Lee Hatcher had 16 points while going 6/7 at the foul line. Holcomb had 12 points from Kobe Hands off of four 3 pointers, and Jackson Stoppel had 21 points. The Longhorns struggled from the line going 4/11 while Liberal went 15/20 from the line. The Longhorn boys start 0-1 on the season.

Next up for the Holcomb Longhorns is game one of the clarion classic versus Palmer Ridge at home on Thursday.