TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

This one might not have been an NBA-range 3-pointer, but when the score is tied, aren't all buzzer-beaters created equal?

Luis Munoz's putback as the horn sounded lifted Liberty to a 44-42 grind-it-out home victory over Bakersfield on Wednesday and gave the Patriots a two-game lead midway through the Southwest Yosemite League schedule.

Half of Liberty's student section mobbed Munoz after the game-winner.

"I was lucky enough to be there," Munoz said. "It felt great. It was just the best feeling I ever had."

In the teams' first meeting -- the championship of the Lloyd Williams Shootout in December -- BHS star Tyrone Wallace broke a tie with a long 3 as time expired.

"Obviously Tyrone made a much more difficult shot," Liberty coach A.J. Shearon said, "but to come back was really nice and was something really good for us at this point in the season."

This time, the Drillers (16-8, 3-2 SWYL) could hardly make any shot. They had just 12 points at halftime, missed their first seven free throws and never led.

"It was ugly for a lot of it, both sides," Shearon said. "To their credit, they didn't let us pick the tempo up. They missed a lot of shots they normally make.

"But in the fourth quarter, they stormed at us."

Bakersfield did hang around, though, and finally tied the game with a fourth-quarter flurry that ended with Derrick Brown's 3-pointer to tie it 42-42 with 1:07 to play.

"We truly believe our team should not look any different from the first quarter to the fourth quarter," BHS coach Greg Burt said. "Tonight, you saw urgency in the fourth quarter, but where was it the first three quarters? We have to figure that out."

Wallace scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half and also finished with 5 steals and 7 rebounds.

Jake Martin, who led Liberty with 22 points, missed a jumper on the other end, and Bakersfield had a chance to take the lead.

But on a possession in which Wallace never touched the ball, Landon Goesling missed a 3-pointer and Liberty took over for a final chance.

"It was my fault," Burt said. "I was getting us into a play, and it was too loud. My voice wasn't loud enough."

Out of a Liberty timeout, Martin came off a screen but missed a 3 from the top of the key. Brian Nunn tipped an offensive rebound towards the basket but missed, and the ball fell to Munoz.

"The last bucket was really descriptive of the game," Shearon said. "It wasn't the first option, it wasn't the guy with the offensive rebound, it was the guy who came out of the scrap with it."

Munoz's layup hit the backboard, teetered on the rim and then fell through with zeroes on the clock.

"To tell you the truth, I thought I missed it," Munoz said. "I was just lucky enough to get it off and get it in,"

Liberty (20-6, 5-0) has been a master of tight games in league play: It beat Stockdale by five and Independence by one and now adds this result. Bakersfield, meanwhile, lost in double overtime at Frontier.

"We are a good enough team to compete for a Valley championship when our kids bond and meld together and say that's what we ultimately want to do," Burt said.

"I still believe that when this team figures that out, we can be very good. It's just going to be that process of grinding to get better."

The result: If the Patriots can win their next four games, the rubber match between these teams Feb. 17, the season's final night, won't matter in the SWYL standings.

"We'll celebrate this until about midnight," Shearon said. "But if we go and lose on Friday at Frontier, that cancels out this win tonight."

And with these teams, don't be surprised if league race one comes down to a buzzer-beater, anyway.