By Bru Nimmons
Sports Editor
bnimmons@thepccourier.com

LIBERTY — After a first half slugfest, the Liberty High School girls’ basketball team came out of the locker room with a purpose as it attempted to pick up its first win of the season in its region opener against Greenville Tech last Tuesday.

A Reagan Swofford three-pointer opened the quarter as the Red Devils went on a 13-3 run on the strength of their defensive intensity putting them out of reach of the Warriors and allowing them to pick up a 36-29 victory, their first under head coach Pat Jackson.

“We’ve been battling this and that, but I have an awesome coaching staff that told me to just hold on, it’s coming,” Jackson said after the win. “All those losses before, they hurt but we played hard, and we battled. My favorite saying is ‘Let’s go put on for the city’ and I said let’s go put on for Liberty.”

The Red Devils did just that, taking the lead in the opening quarter on a putback by eighth grader Madison Henderson and never relinquishing the lead the rest of the way despite multiple comeback attempts by the Warriors.

While Kameria Paul led the Devils in scoring on the night with 11 points, it was the play of senior guard Trinity Garrett that made arguably the biggest difference for Liberty. The senior guard finished with eight points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals, including back-to-back, coast-to-coast layups off steals all while battling numerous injuries.

“I was super proud of how Trinity Garrett stepped up,” Jackson said. “She’s been dealing with a bunch of issues with her ankle and shoulder, but she played hard.”

With the win, the Devils (1-6, 1-0 Region 1-2A) got off on the right track in region play and had a chance to keep it going on Friday against Blacksburg with results unavailable at press time.