Players of the Gorman High basketball team, from left James Freeman, Darrion Williams and Ryan Abelman, take a portrait during the Las Vegas Sun’s High School Basketball Media Day at the Red Rock Resort and Casino, Nov. 1, 2021.
Friday, Feb. 18, 2022 | 10:35 p.m.
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The Bishop Gorman and Liberty high school basketball teams have played each other three times this season.
Gorman has won all three meetings, including pulling away late in the third quarter tonight for a 77-61 win in the Southern Regional championship game.
The evening, like the previous two meetings, featured everything you’d want in a prep game: clutch shots, physical play, scoring runs and a packed bleachers of fans.
We’ll likely get a fourth meeting between the schools Feb. 26 in the state championship game at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno. Both Gorman and Liberty will represent the Southern Region in next week’s four-team state event, and are expected to easily handle the Northern Regional opponents in the state semifinals to setup a fourth — and final — meeting between the Las Vegas powers.
“Great atmosphere. Packed crowd on both sides and just a lot of fun,” Gorman coach Grant Rice said. “In the first half, they gave us all we could handle.”
Gorman took control of the game in the final seconds of the third quarter with a 6-0 scoring run to break a 43-all tie, using a full court press to force turnovers that led to easy baskets from Darrion Williams, John Mobley Jr. and a dunk from Chris Nwuli.
Williams, who finished with a game-best 29 points on 10 of 15 shooting, scored Gorman’s initial eight points of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to double digits.
With each positive Gorman play, the school’s student section seemed to get louder in creating a distinct home court edge. At the very minimum they produced a great high school environment.
“It’s fun to play (Liberty), for sure,” Williams said. “(The fans were so loud) that I couldn’t hear myself yell.”
Gorman did most of its damage on 3-pointers in connecting on 10 of 16 attempts, including five from Williams and two apiece from senior Ryan Abelman and sophomore Jase Richardson. Liberty, meanwhile, only went 4 of 18.
“We just keep playing hard and we never gave up,” Abelman said.
DJ Thomas led Liberty with 20 points and Joshua Jefferson tallied 16, but the Patriots couldn’t match Gorman’s scoring outburst late in the third quarter.
But that’s not to say they won’t be able to next week.
Liberty, in all three meetings, has battled Gorman basket for basket for most of the game — just not the entire game.
In December, it wasted a double digit lead in a double overtime loss at the buzzer. In January, Liberty had a first half lead and trailed by as few as seven points in the fourth quarter. And tonight’s game appeared to be heading to another close finish before Gorman closed strong to remain undefeated on the season.
All that’s left to cap the perfect record is beating Liberty a fourth time next week.
