Moments after the Glenelg Gladiators finished off another impressive fast break midway through the third quarter, Liberty coach Scott Kohr got up off the bench as if to shout instructions to his players, but he turned right around and sat down without saying a word.
There was really nothing Kohr could say to his team.
Glenelg was putting on a clinic on how to run the break, and Liberty was unable to stop it last night in the boys championship game of the Liberty Belle basketball tournament.
Glenelg ran off to a 17-point lead at the end of the first quarter and had things its way practically all game to rack up an 80-63 victory.
Combined with Tuesday night's 66-55 decision over Howard, the win could gain Glenelg (6-1) some basketball respect.
"I don't think people take us seriously," said Glenelg coach Claude Krannebitter. "Glenelg has never been a big basketball school, and maybe we won't be until we get some big-time players. But, right now, we're playing consistent basketball. The last six quarters we've played have been our best all year. The players are finally getting the idea defensively."
Glenelg used a strong matchup zone defense to befuddle Liberty and ignite the fast break that resulted in more than half of the Gladiators' points.
"Bobby Knight has always said that defense makes the offense go, and our kids are beginning to realize that," said Krannebitter.
"If you can't play defense, you don't play on this team. Everybody has to do the job defensively, no matter what their offensive stats are."
Senior forward Damion Miles scored a game-high 22 points despite sitting out most of the fourth quarter after the Gladiators surged to a 60-33 lead.
"Damion was getting frustrated in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades because he was a short and skinny little kid who didn't get to play much," said Krannebitter. "Then, all of a sudden, he grew four inches over the summer, and he's a completely different player."
According to Kohr, Miles even has improved since earlier this month, when Liberty lost by five at Glenelg.
"He was certainly more of a factor this time than he was the first time we played them," said Miles.
Three other Glenelg players scored in double figures last night, with Earl Frazier getting 15, Robin Davis 12 and Ben Gugliotta 11.
Liberty did not start to challenge Glenelg until the start of the fourth quarter, when Krannebitter had his second team on the floor.
At that point, Liberty's Tyrone Ellis took over and scored 14 of his 16 in the fourth quarter.
Ellis stole the ball four times in the fourth quarter and turned all the steals into layups.
Thanks to Ellis and a three-point jumper by James Lee, the Lions (1-7) cut the Glenelg lead to 73-61 with one minute left. But Glenelg spent the rest of the game at the foul line to pull away for the win.
Ellis led Liberty with 16, Lee had 14 and Luke Vriezen had 11.
"They got us to panic in the first quarter," said Kohr. "We didn't execute in the first quarter. They're very quick and aggressive and much more experienced than us. A lot of our guys are still searching because of their inexperience."
In the consolation game, Owings Mills nipped Howard, 41-40, on Corey Zajdel's buzzer-beating layup off a pass from Terry Sims who had stolen the Howard in-bounds pass under the Howard basket with five seconds left.