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Bristol takes care of Liberty

Tribune Chronicle / Bob Ettinger Tommy Donadio of Bristol drives to the rim as Travis Myers (15) and Kevin Hawn (right) of Liberty defend at Bristol on Tuesday night.

BRISTOLVILLE — The Bristol boys basketball team is on top of its game.

That’s exactly the way Panthers’ skipper Craig Giesy likes it and it’s exactly the way his team closed out the regular season in an 86-54 non-conference victory over visiting Liberty.

“Early on, we were flat,” Giesy said. “We played really well in the second, third and fourth quarters. We just had to keep the pedal down. We had some unforced turnovers and we reached too much (in the first period). Our offense didn’t have any flow at all. We fixed those things and the game started to go our way.”

After finishing the regular season with a single loss, the Panthers (21-1) will open the Division IV state tournament as the top seed at the Orwell district. They host 12th-seeded Fairport Harding at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 with the goal of unseating defending state champion Cornerstone Christian to gain a berth in the regional tournament. Barring upsets, a battle with third-seeded John F. Kennedy is looming in a district semifinal.

“We tried to beef up our schedule a bit,” Giesy said. “We tried to play more All-American Conference teams. We lost three seniors and we weren’t sure who would step up and what roles they’d all fill. The fact we were able to play so well (over the course of the regular season) says a lot about the kids. Between the two senior captains, Phil Aliberti and Stevie Burbach, the leadership was way better than I thought it would be this year.”

Tribune Chronicle / Bob Ettinger Phil Aliberti of Bristol gets off a shot in the paint as Kevin Hawn (3) and Travis Myers (left) of Liberty defend in non-conference action at Bristol on Tuesday night.

Dan Banks’ bucket with 1:10 to play had Liberty knotted at 16 with the Panthers. Less than three-and-a-half minutes later, Bristol was running away from the Leopards after having finished a 16-1 run. In the span of 1:04 during that stretch, Landon Slusher netted seven points as the Bristol lead went to 32-17 with 5:21 to play in the first half. At the break, Bristol held a 46-28 advantage.

“Bristol does that to you,” Liberty coach Chris Kohl said. “They make you make mistakes, then, when you make mistakes, they make you pay for them. That’s a nice team over there. Coach Giesy does a nice job with their tempo. The players do a nice job pressuring you. They shoot the ball well. They create turnovers and make you pay for them. Whey they force turnovers, they convert.

“They’re a hard team to beat unless you play one of your best games. Obviously, we didn’t do that tonight.”

A 12-3 spurt that spanned the intermission had the Panthers up, 49-28, with 7:07 left in the third. Midway through the quarter, Bristol used an 18-4 run to push its lead to 32 at 72-40 with 1:16 left. That would be the final spread just more than nine minutes later.

“Our goal is to get the other team outside its comfort zone,” Giesy said. “When they’re throwing the ball all around the gym, we’ve executed our plan pretty well. We get an easy bucket or two and, combined with the turnovers and that they started to force things a bit, it got out of control.”

The Panthers recovered from that rough first period to score 26 points in both the third and fourth periods to salt the game away.

Tommy Donadio (26 points) and Aliberti (19 points, 6 steals) combined for 45 points to lead the Panthers. Bryan Gabrielson and Gage Elza chipped in with 13 points and 12 points, respectively, and Slusher added eight more.

Dra Rushton netted 22 of the Leopards 54 points, Banks had 11 and Kevin Hawn added 10.

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