Liberty basketball could not have asked for a better season opener. 

With three players in double digits, the Lancers beat Mesa Ridge 67-61 on the road Tuesday night. It was Liberty’s second straight win over the 2024 5A state champions after beating the Grizziles 47-44 in last year’s season opener on Dec. 3. 

“It’s a special first win,” first-year Liberty head coach Devon Grant said. “Not the way we wanted to go as far as execution, but any time you can beat a Mesa Ridge team is pretty good.”

Junior Cam Waithe-Cunningham led the Lancers with 20 points, followed by juniors Akai Council with 18 and Zay Bradley with 10.

“Akai is special,” Grant said. “I think he is starting to figure that out and use his voice more. That’s big for the team. I think Akai is just getting comfortable. I don’t think he really knows how special he can be but once it starts clicking he is going to be a problem.”

The Lancers are a new-look team with new coach Grant, who took the role after Aaron Thomas moved his family to Las Vegas for his job as a defense contractor. Liberty, which finished 17-7 last season, is also without 7-foot star forward London Praytor, who graduated and plays Division I basketball at Toledo. 

“We are adjusting,” Grant said of the change in head coach. “The process was kind of late, but the kids are tough, they know what type of talent they have, now it’s just coming together and keep grinding throughout the year.”

After Liberty led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter. Mesa Ridge cut the Lancers’ lead to four in the final 10 seconds. Still, a dunk by Liberty’s Zach Hoskins solidified the road victory. 

“It feels good,” Waithe-Cunningham said. “We worked all summer for this and it’s a tough team but we handled business as a collective.”

Mesa Ridge’s James Matlock had 16 points. The Grizzlies lost all-state point guard Bryce Riehl to graduation and he is playing at CSU-Pueblo.

“We communicated well,” Grant said. “We stuck to game plan for the most part. We could have boxed out better but I feel like we did what we wanted to do, we can just do it at a higher level.”

Liberty set a hot pace early to lead 19-15 after the first quarter, and maintained its momentum to lead 27-23 at the half after two missed free throws by the Grizzlies. A 10-2 run in the third quarter helped the Lancers jump to a 12-point lead with a layup by Council into the fourth.  

“With our team we want to push the ball as much as we can,” Grant said. “The only thing is, coach (Joel) Babbitt is really good defensively and made adjustments but we countered and made adjustments as well.”

The win over Mesa Ridge gives the Lancers confidence going into Wednesday’s game at Windsor, the defending 5A state champions. 

“It’s still early but puts us on the right track,” Grant said. “We want to just keep trending upward. Don’t want any bad days in practice and keep pushing so when it’s time to make a run, we are hitting on all cylinders.”