{"id":8504,"date":"2019-03-02T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T16:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=8504"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:29:28","slug":"liberty-s-historic-season-ends-in-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/liberty-s-historic-season-ends-in-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty\u2019s historic season ends in state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Liberty Hawks boys basketball team ended its historic season with a 79-66 loss against the Nueva School from San Mateo.<\/p>

It was a season in which the Hawks set a record for the most wins in school history and secured the program\u2019s first ever Valley Championship.<\/p>

In the first round of the Div. V CIF State Championship against Nueva on Tuesday, the history season looked like it would continue early.<\/p>

The Mavericks, however, overcame a sluggish first half to walk away with the win and end the Hawks\u2019 season.<\/p>

\u201cWe had a great season,\u201d Liberty head coach Johnny Gonzales said. \u201cI feel bad that it had to end tonight, but I\u2019m still proud of the boys and their effort.\u201d<\/p>

Liberty\u2019s Makani Whiteside was having his usual strong performance early in the game. The senior made his long-range shots in the first half and added a pair of dunks which electrified the packed house at Liberty.<\/p>

In the second half, however, the Mavericks hounded Whiteside every time he touched the ball.<\/p>

\u201cFirst half, they were in a regular 2-3, but coming out in the second half, they changed it up,\u201d Whiteside said. \u201cThey extended it. They doubled, tripled teamed me. We tried to adjust, but by the time we did it was too late.\u201d<\/p>

The Hawks had a 13-point lead in the second quarter, but the Mavericks made a run of their own to cut the deficit to single digits in the final minute of the first half.<\/p>

Whiteside\u2019s jumper at the buzzer then gave the Hawks a 35-25 lead at halftime.<\/p>

The Hawks\u2019 lead evaporated for good halfway through the third quarter when senior Kyle McGraw knocked down a pair of free throws.<\/p>

McGraw punished the Hawks all night, ending the game with 28 points. Freshman Connor McGraw also had a major contribution in the win with 20 points.<\/p>

\u201cIn that second half, they came out firing,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cThey got stops and we weren\u2019t able to bounce back.\u201d<\/p>

After trailing by 18 at the end of the third quarter, the Hawks cut the lead to 10 with 35 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Nathanael Samarin. But that would be as close as they would get. The Mavericks only had to knock down their free throws at that point to seal the win.<\/p>

\u201cWe made history,\u201d Whiteside said. \u201cWe did things the school has never done before. Ended in the state playoffs, but to even get to the state playoffs is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>

Whiteside was forced to give up the ball in second half with multiple defenders covering him. He finished the game with 27 points, 18 of those coming in the first half.<\/p>

\u201cThey knew about Makani,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cThey knew he was our guy. They were doubling up.\u201d<\/p>

The Hawks made a comeback effort in the fourth quarter with help from the bench. Johnny Levine led that effort with seven points in the fourth quarter.<\/p>

\u201cLevine brings a lot of energy,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cHe had some steals, got some free throws and knocked them down.\u201d<\/p>

The Hawks will now look to build on the success they had this season.<\/p>

\u201cThe spring league starts in two weeks. There\u2019s no time for rest. It\u2019s time to get back in the gym,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cNo need for them to keep their head down. They get to cherish this forever.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Liberty Hawks boys basketball team ended its historic season with a 79-66 loss against the Nueva School from San Mateo. It was a season in which the Hawks set a record for the most wins in school history and secured the program\u2019s first ever Valley Championship. In the first round of the Div. V […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-8504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}