Facing the Centennial Titans for the third time this year, the Redhawks escaped with their third win (32-31) against their district rival Tuesday night in the third round of the playoffs at Lebanon Trail High School.

The win extends the team’s streak of making it to the regional playoffs to a fifth consecutive year. For head coach Ross Reedy, it never gets old.

“For me it’s still special because it’s a new group,” Reedy said. ‘It’s really cool in this situation because we’ve had three new coaching changes and nine new players, essentially. It’s really cool to get to experience it with them because you know it may seem like something we do all the time, Liberty, it’s the first time for a lot of people.”

It almost didn’t happen.

Leading for most of the game, the Titans hit a late 3-pointer to tie the game at 31. Then with less than a minute left, junior Zoe Junior was fouled and sent to the free throw line.

Knowing a made free throw could seal the game for the Redhawks, Junior did just that, scoring the team’s 32nd and final point.  

“I just knew that it was really important and really essential that I made it,” Junior said. “So I was just calm and I cleared my head and I focused on making the ball go to the net. I felt really exhilarated and like the crowd was going wild, but I had to stay focused because I had another one to shoot.”