Originally published December 27, 2014 at 5:55 PM | Page modified December 27, 2014 at 10:48 PM

KIRKLAND Camariah King and her Holy Names teammates on Saturday faced Liberty, the team that kept them out of the state tournament last year.

The memory of falling short in 2013 still stung and Holy Names, ranked No. 9 in Class 3A, used that bitterness in part to fuel a 59-53 win over the Patriots at the Rebel Challenge at Juanita High School.

Hitting late free throws helped, too, as the Cougars won their sixth straight.

Holy Names makes a late push

The Cougars (6-1 overall) built an 11-point lead by being tougher on the boards, but nearly lost control in the fourth quarter because of poor execution and turnovers against an aggressive pressing Patriots defense. King supplied 25 points and helped ice the victory by sinking 4 of 6 free throws in the final 44.8 seconds. Holy Names led 54-43 when Janessa Willie hit 1 of 2 foul shots with 2:55 remaning, but Liberty clawed within four points twice. Avery Granberg got the Pats within 55-51 on two free throws with 1:01 showing and Devin Andersons putback off her own free-throw miss cut the gap to 57-53 with 34 seconds to go.

Player of the game

Willie, a 5-foot-8 senior, gave the Cougars toughness inside, and her hustle plays preserved several fourth-quarter possessions against a resilient Liberty (6-2) team.

Keys to the game

Holy Names was the aggressor in the first half, both offensively and defensively, and that led to the Cougars building leads as big as 10 points and taking a 30-23 advantage into halftime. That was the difference.

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Prep girls basketball: Holy Names 59, Liberty 53