Red Hot Liberty Eagles Spoil Highland Cougars Home Opener

Lewistown, MO – The Highland Cougars opened their home season against the red-hot Liberty Eagles, falling 58-42.

Liberty entered with a 3-0 record and a Saukee Turkey Tournament title already under their belt, and their momentum showed early, though Highland struck first.

The Cougars opened with energy as Brighton Johnson secured a two-point rebound and Briscoe Post knocked down a corner three, forcing Liberty coach Dan Sparrow into a quick timeout. However, the adjustment worked. The Eagles responded with a run of their own and would not trail again, taking a 31-20 lead into the locker room.

Liberty returned from the break with the same intensity, scoring immediately and forcing a timeout from Coach Matt Thomas—nearly mirroring the game’s opening sequence.

“We’ve got to figure out how to come out at half different,” Coach Thomas said, referencing last week’s loss to Kirksville. “We were down 12 at halftime, and we can’t come out and lay the egg, and we did. What do we do? We turned it over twice, and I called a timeout.”

Liberty stayed in control the rest of the way, outscoring Highland 27-20 over the final two quarters. Despite the loss, Thomas noted an improvement in competitiveness.

“I thought our effort was pretty good,” he said. “It got lax, but it got better tonight.”

Briscoe Post led the Cougars with 10 points.

Highland falls to 0-2 on the season and will have little time to reset as they travel to Hallsville on December 5th to take on the Indians.

POINTS LEADERS

Highland Cougars: 13 • 7 • 12 • 8

Briscoe Post — 10

Brighton Johnson — 6

Carson Bartz — 6

Liberty Eagles: 19 • 12 • 19 • 8

Vince Cramsey — 28

Reed Sparrow — 10

Gavin Edgar — 9