Liberty senior guard Avery Ingle is a trailblazer.

In her final season of high school basketball, Ingle continues to set the course for the Eagles.

Ingle not only is averaging 16.5 points per game for the Eagles (11-14), but she crossed the 1,000-point barrier for her career and helped her team to its first tournament championship.

I really had two goals coming in this season, Ingle said. I wanted to win our tournament and I wanted to get to the 1,000-point mark. It's great that both were able to happen.

One accomplishment Ingle would like, though not a first for the program, would be a district win and a prolonged postseason run. That starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday when Liberty hosts Hannibal.

No matter the outcome, Liberty coach Joe Walterbach said Ingle has cemented her legacy and it goes much further than her 1,074 career points.

There are a bunch of records that she set, Walterbach said. It's more than her just being one of the first ones to play at the school. Some of the records she has set will last for years.

Ingle, who said she plans to plan college basketball, has established program records for steals (124), 3-pointers (119) and blocked shots (25).

Ingle said she feels gratitude for her school and the others who have been with her since the program's beginning guard Jordan Baumann and forwards Savannah Kruse and Kylie Seaton.

The quartet has gone from one to eight to 11 wins during their varsity tenure. The program's first season in 2013-14 was sub-varsity only.

We've been together since, literally, the first day, Ingle said. We've been through three coaches, but these girls have stayed together the whole time. We've all worked so hard to build things up. Personally, I'm excited to be able to set records. Last year was just a really good year. I think it's really good to be the first record holder because then I'm not taking records away from anybody else who worked hard to achieve them.

Ingle hit the game-winner to give Liberty its first title in its own tournament, and she recently came up with a big steal to seal a recent win over Zumwalt East.

Walterbach said Ingle and her fellow seniors have built a culture of success for the future at Liberty.

We spent some time working out every day as a group with all levels involved, Walterbach said. The younger girls get to see the things Avery and the other seniors do and know what they need to emulate. The great thing with Avery is what they may not see. She's in the gym every day, working on her shot. We opened up the gym for her so she could keep working on it on a Sunday.

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Ingle has set standard for Liberty on and off the court - STLtoday.com