Cedar Rapids Washington survives Da’Shon Fisher and Iowa City Liberty in overtime, 65-61

CEDAR RAPIDS — Still kneeling on the little scooter he uses because of recent surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, sweating heavily through his collared shirt and tie, and seemingly a bit emotionally spent from the grinder of an overtime basketball game his team was just able to sneak away with, Cedar Rapids Washington Coach Justin Decker uttered the perfect three words for this situation.

“It’s never easy,” Decker said, shaking his head, after his Warriors outlasted Iowa City Liberty, 65-61, in a thrilling Class 4A substate semifinal Friday night at Wash.

It looked easy-esque through most of the first half, as Washington ran to a 21-6 lead after a quarter, thanks to forcing a bunch of Liberty turnovers. It was still a 34-21 Warriors edge at halftime.

But then Da’Shon Fisher happened. The 6-foot-2 Liberty junior guard was limited to two first-half points because of some foul trouble but got on an absolute offensive heater in the second half and brought his Lightning back.

There was Fisher with the drive left through the lane. There was Fisher shaking and baking, suddenly pulling up and going over his defender to hit a mid-range jumper.

There was Fisher dribbling outside the arc, firing and hitting a 3-pointer. There was Fisher stealing a Washington pass and finishing off the play with an authoritative dunk.

“Those pull-ups, there was nothing you could do about that,” Washington’s Traijan Sain said. “That’s just a high-quality shot if you can put it in.”

Fisher finished with 29 points, 27 in the second half.

“What we focused on was you can’t get 12 points in one shot,” said Liberty Coach Ryan Kelley. “It starts with stops. Your focused on getting one stop at a time, then making sure we got a good shot. To be fair, it helps when you have a player like Da’Shon Fisher, who can just say ‘I’m going to take over.’ That’s what he did. He was incredible on the offensive and defensive end.”

A 3-pointer by Liberty’s Luke Ramsey well past the arc gave the Lightning their first lead of the game with 6:40 left in regulation. Washington (13-9) went right back ahead and stayed ahead until Gage Kampman scored inside after Liberty was able to wrestle a ball away from Washington’s Jesse Sellers after he had grabbed a rebound with 20 seconds left.

Wash got off a final shot right before the buzzer that missed, and it was 56-56 to overtime. A Sellers jumper on Wash’s first OT possession and two J.J. Willis free throws made it 60-56 with 2:43 left.

Liberty (10-13) never quite got all the way back from that slight deficit, as Washington hit enough free throws to put it away.

“I have trust and faith in all my guys,” said Sain. “Even if I’m out (of the game), I trust the five guys that are on the court. We just have a lot of confidence.”

Sain joined teammates Jaden Harris and Sellers with 14 points apiece for the Warriors, who get third-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy (19-3) in a Tuesday night substate final at Solon. Kennedy won both regular-season games.

“I have so much respect for Jon McKowen and for what he does for their program at Kennedy,” Decker said. “I think for us, we want to prove that we’re here, we’re actually here, so why not go through a good Kennedy program to prove that. If it’s not quite our turn, and they beat us on that night, then it’s their night. But I think our guys will be ready to go, they’ll be well prepared.”

AT CEDAR RAPIDS WASHINGTON

IOWA CITY LIBERTY (61): Christian Barney 0-1 0-0 0, Griffin Kraft 3-5 0-0 6, Luke Ramsey 3-6 0-0 9, Graham Beckman 3-4 0-0 6, Da’Shon Fisher 13-19 2-3 29, Gage Kampman 3-4 0-1 6, Trey Hughes 2-7 0-0 4, T.J. Telis 0-0 0-0 0, Ja’Quez Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Owen Swartzendruber 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 27-47 3-6 61.

C.R. WASHINGTON (65): J.J. Willis 1-3 5-6 7, Traijan Sain 4-12 5-8 14, Jaden Harris 4-6 5-10 14, Jesse Sellers 5-13 2-3 14, Will Hodges 2-7 4-5 8, Bryce Brim 2-3 0-0 5, Omoro Crusoe 0-0 0-0 0, Stevie Cain 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 19-46 21-32 65.

Halftime - C.R. Washington 34, Iowa City Liberty 21. End of Regulation - Iowa City Liberty 56, C.R. Washington 56. 3-point goals - Iowa City Liberty 4-13 (Ramsey 3-6, Fisher 1-2, Hughes 0-4, Hall 0-1), C.R. Washington 6-17 (Sain 1-3, Harris 1-2, Sellers 2-6, Hodges 0-2, Cain 1-2, Brim 1-2). Rebounds - Iowa City Liberty 29 (Kraft, Kampman 7), C.R. Washington 23 (Willis, Sain 6). Total fouls - Iowa City Liberty 20, C.R. Washington 10. Fouled out - Kraft, Kampman. Turnovers - Iowa City Liberty 13, C.R. Washington 6.

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