Liberty County High School Richard LeCounte was doing backflips on the court as the Panthers celebrated the GHSA Class AAAA State Championship after their 58-52 win over Jonesboro. It was a much different moment than a season ago; Liberty faced Jonesboro in the Final Four, but a nagging hip injury and foul trouble for LeCounte prevented the Panthers from going to the title game.
It was a game the Panthers simply were never in; Jonesboro outgunned them from the start. A 71-43 loss certainly will burn in a player’s mind, and 373 days later the Panthers avenged the loss ending the Cardinals’ run to a three-peat.
LeCounte and his teammate Davion Mitchell were considered the best sophomore guards in that state of Georgia in 2015, and this season they simply got better.
At just 24 years old, former assistant Julian Stokes given the top spot as head coach; he realized he had been given the keys to a powerful machine, and he didn’t want to fail.
“I was confident in my ability, but there were so many times that I would second guess myself or be arguing in my head about a decision I made,” Stokes says. “But I had great assistants, and the players certainly bought in. We started playing good basketball consistently.”
The love affair that Liberty has with basketball was on full display when the city of Hinesville, coupled with Liberty County School System, hosted a parade for the Champion Panthers. The Panthers were not the only Liberty County team that returned with a gold ball at the parade; they were joined by the GISA Class AA Boys State Champions, the First Presbyterian Christian Highlanders (who earned their fifth title in the last 10 years) and the Liberty County Recreation Department Girls All-Star team.
Making a special appearance to pay their respects was the 1965 Liberty High School Boys State Championship basketball team. Led by Sam Harris, forever known as “Coach”, the Panthers won before Liberty County was totally integrated in 1971. Harris served as an assistant principal at Bradwell, retiring in the 1990s as one of the most beloved members of the system.
LeCounte averaging 20.2 points this season, and Mitchell, contributing 24.2 points per game, were a major part of the offense for the Panthers ever since they stepped on the floor as freshmen. The lopsided loss against Jonesboro at the end of the 2015 season showed one major weakness that Liberty needed to be able to compete with the best in the state: lack of a third scorer.
This year, Will Richardson came to the rescue.
During Richardson’s freshman year at crosstown Bradwell Institute, he started to turn some heads. A pure shooter with the ability to penetrate and score off the dribble, he could be a consistent scorer when teams would go to defensive schemes designed to contain LeCounte or Mitchell. Richardson transferred to Liberty County High School for his sophomore year and made an immediate impact in the Panthers’ scoring rotation.
“Will certainly was a key component that we needed to be able to put us in position to win a state championship,” Stokes says. “The teams we saw down the stretch last year had two things: tons of height, and at least three consistent shooters that were able to score. If one of the main scorers had a special defense against them, you had the other two players that could handle the bulk of the scoring.”
Richardson, the lone sophomore on the varsity squad, averaged 13.2 points per game over 29 games, giving the Panthers their much-needed third scorer.
While the roster was mostly underclassmen, there was definitely some key leadership from seniors Tryriq Reece, Martial Washington, JiShaun Harris, and Comer Kite. An outstanding football player with explosive speed, Washington added to the athleticism of the Panthers and will continue his sports career after high school, playing football for the Georgia Southern Eagles. Harris and Reece were strong veteran players that have played in big games and understood the task at hand before the season began. Harris gave the Panthers an added dimension inside that would create more second and third shot opportunities with a presence on the boards along with scoring in the paint.
Rounding out the talented Panthers are juniors Tracy White, Jaalon Frazier, Antonio Golden, Tyreon Freeman, Tyler Thomas, and Cherell Roberts.
Of the 29 games played this season, the Panthers only experienced defeat once; the team suffered a 75-74 double-overtime loss on December 5 to former region foe Statesboro on the road. That one loss revitalized the Panthers because it began a 26 game winning streak. The closest point differential would a 45-41 win against Richmond Hill in mid-January. During the 2015-2016 campaign the Panthers outscored opponents 2276 to 1717.
Savannah upstart New Hampstead, which has created a strong program in only its second year of existence, battled Liberty hard in the Region 3-AAAA semifinals, but a 71-66 Liberty win put them in the title game against Thomson and the Panthers won by 19 points.
Securing home court advantage through at least the first two rounds as the number one seed made life good for the Panthers.
“It’s great to win a region title, but the best part is that we didn’t have to travel and we were able to play at home in front of our fans; they are absolutely the best,” Stokes says. “We had amazing support from all over. Our fan base has been so excited and energetic this season.”
One by one, the teams that Liberty faced went down, often by double digits. In the Final Four game against Lithonia, who was considered one of the best teams in the state regardless of class, Stokes said the team started to realize the potential and they would get a chance to redeem themselves after the lopsided loss against Jonesboro.
The Cardinals traveled a different path to Macon than Liberty did. Two-time state champion Jonesboro had played in some national tournaments and been able to compete against some of the top talent in the United States. Led by small forward M.J. Walker, a top prospect in the Class of 2017, Jonesboro came to Macon with the intention of winning a third state AAAA basketball championship.
“Once you get to this point, there is no need to have to give big pregame speeches,” Jonesboro head coach Daniel Mahelman says. “We know we are here and that to win we have to play every second of the ball game.”
It was a game that would be a battle of arguably the best two juniors in the state in Mitchell and Walker. A pair of heavyweights, the beginning of the game wasn’t a lot of different than Ali and Frazier feeling each other out to find an advantage. The only difference was that the tempo of the AAAA state championship was at break-neck speed.
Jonesboro knew that Mitchell, who is committed to Auburn, was going to be the main cog in Liberty’s scoring machine, so they isolated him, denying him any points until the second half. It would be a mistake the Cardinals would regret. Jonesboro’s man-to-man defense actually gave Liberty an advantage because it allowed them to use their athleticism to penetrate the basket a decided Liberty strength. The Panthers were putting up good shots in the first quarter and even getting extra shots off of rebounds, but nothing fell. Frasier was a beast on the boards for Liberty, grabbing 12 of his 15 rebounds in the first half. Richardson and his strong shooting would be key, since Mitchell was targeted and Richardson came through finishing with 19 points including a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.
LeCounte was an absolute physical freak in the way he glided across the wood so quickly on the court. Scoring in transition, he added a pair of three-pointers, including one at the buzzer at the end of the first quarter to give the Panthers a 14-10 lead.
The Panthers’ defense was stellar in stopping Walker, only allowing him four points in the first half. Physical play had also created some foul trouble for the Cardinals. When driving to the basket didn’t work, Jonesboro had to get creative, setting staggered screens to try to get shooters open on the three-point arc or around the lane. The Cardinals even found some defensive success with a limited use of a zone that at least neutralized Liberty’s offensive attack. Liberty clutched a 26-22 lead at the half and would not relinquish it the rest of the game. Liberty was only 37 percent from the field in the first half; however, the team held Jonesboro to 35 percent.
The anticipated main event between Walker and Mitchell came alive with a fury in the second half. Frustrated with the stingy defense the Cardinals had put on him, and under the eye of his future Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl, Mitchell let loose. A life-long gym rat with the confidence of hundreds of days of early morning shooting alone, Mitchell sprinted down the floor in transition past the Jonesboro defenders and went up and power slammed the basketball into the cylinder for his first two points of the game in the second half. With five minutes to go in the third quarter, Mitchell ripped a three-pointer putting Liberty up by 11 points. In the final 16 minutes of the game, he moved the basketball, played good defense, and scored 14 points.
Sensing the fury of his opponent, Walker started to come into his own, creating shots off the dribble, going hard into the lane off balance and hitting the shot. His four points that he had in the first half became a game-high 22 points by the end.
In a game that featured a number of athletes that also are great football players, it had the tenacity and hard nose toughness of the gridiron; but those same players exhibited the graceful movement that basketball is known for. Jonesboro dug deep in the final minutes and closed the gap to 50-48 with a 1:48 left to play.
Just as the Panthers had done all year, they simply found another gear, outscoring the Cardinals 8-4 in the final minute of play to edge the two-time state champions and earning the Panthers the school’s first state title in any sport.
“Sometimes the whole season seems surreal. It was a great season, and it’s something that I am always going to be proud to be a part of,” Stokes says. “These young men worked hard in practice all season, and they certainly represented this area well. I think we certainly turned some heads.”
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Liberty brings home the gold ball
By John Wood
