Neighborhood-rivalry high-school basketball games are meant to be this way — nothing comes easy, both teams play hard, scoring is difficult and the contest is close throughout.
Such was the case when the host Wakefield Warriors nipped the Washington-Liberty Generals, 40-39, Friday night (Feb. 7) in a Liberty District boys game between Arlington teams.
Keyon Tiggle’s three-point play on a follow shot and free throw with 33 seconds to play gave Wakefield (10-10, 5-5) the 40-39 lead for good in the seesaw clash.
Washington-Liberty had a couple of chances to win, but there was a missed shot with 10 seconds left, followed by a turnover as the buzzer sounded.
The loss was the sixth in a row for the Generals (6-16, 3-8), which had defeated Wakefield, 58-44, a couple of weeks earlier. The win snapped Wakefield’s two-game slide.
The Feb. 7 contest had six ties and as many lead changes. The biggest lead by any team was four points, owned by W-L a number of times.
Adding to the game’s intensity? The head coaches — Wakefield’s Tony Bentley and Washington-Liberty’s Bobby Dobson — are close friends. Bentley used to be an assistant for Dobson at W-L.
“This game is hard,” Bentley told ARLnow. “Bobby is my mentor. I hate beating him and I hate losing to him.”
I give our team credit tonight,” Bentley said. “We had trouble scoring and we turned the ball over too much, but we played hard and didn’t give in.”
Tiggle’s three points came when he grabbed an offensive rebound after a Gabe Henneman missed shot, scored on the short follow shot, was fouled and made the free throw.
Tiggle usually is a starter, but not in that game owing to strategy reasons.
“Keyon didn’t waver or complain or anything about that,” Bentley said. “He knew his turn would come in this game and we would need him.”
Wakefield was led in scoring by Kooper Odar. The center had 12 points to go with five rebounds and three blocked shots. Jeremiah Poole scored seven and had four assists.
Shane Morrison scored six with as many rebounds for Wakefield;Henneman had seven rebounds and three points; and Isiah Ledbetter had four points and five rebounds off the bench.
Dyson Beaty scored three with two steals, and Antonio Posey had a basket and two rebounds.
For Washington-Liberty, Adam Dodino scored eight with two steals; Gabriel Smith scored seven; Carmichael Williams had seven points and eight boards; Sean Allen had five points, six rebounds and two blocks; and Luke Jones (four rebounds) and Emmett Engelhardt scored four each.
