The Liberty and Lee's Summit North girls basketball teams will be fighting for supremacy in the Suburban Big Seven Conference at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 15, at Cokely Fieldhouse.
They will also bringing attention for a very good cause.
The Blue Jays and the Broncos will be raising money for Springfield Kickapoo girls basketball coach Stephanie Phillips, who recently took a leave of absence as coach of the Chiefs as she battles with Stage 4 colon cancer.
A $3 donation gives anyone who wants to attend free admission to the game. There will also be special festivities at halftime, including a 3-point shooting contest raffle.
All entries into the 3-point contest are $1 and a person may enter the contest as many times as they like. Four people will be picked to shoot.
All who attend are also encouraged to wear pink to the event to raise awareness for breast cancer.
Rancho Grande Cantina is sponsoring the event.
Donations will also be accepted at Liberty's boys basketball game against Lee's Summit at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12.

Liberty senior J.T. Nixon did it again.
And this one might have been the most improbable.
Nixon has developed a knack for hitting big shots in the closing seconds. He hit a 3-pointer that beat Kearney last season in a William Jewell Tournament semifinal game.
He then hit a 25-footer for the Blue Jays to beat Lee's Summit North on the road in January.
But this one, against Park Hill South on Tuesday, Feb. 3, took his status as a big-shot artist to a new level. And it helped Liberty cement its spot as the district's top seed.
If you want to see the shot, go to lhsbasketball.blogspot.com
Liberty was trailing 43-41 in the final seconds against the Panthers at Park Hill South. Bryan Adams grabbed a rebound and fed the ball to Marshon Norfleet, who dribbled the ball down the court.
Norfleet threw the ball to Nixon in the corner. It appears Nixon doesn't even look at the rim before he lets it go. And more incredibly, the shot was a little long. It bounced hard off rim, went up in the air, bounced off the backboard, hit the rim two more times before falling in.
Liberty 44, Park Hill South 43.
The Blue Jays, 14-4, now have wins against district opponents Park Hill, Park Hill South and St. Joseph Central.
If you want to see the shot, go to lhsbasketball.blogspot.com.

A decision that is looming for the Hickman Mills School District will have a tremendous impact on the Liberty North athletic programs.
Hickman Mills is pondering whether to combine Hickman Mills and Ruskin together for budgetary reasons. If the district decides to bring the two schools together, it would radically alter the Greater Kansas City Suburban Conference alignment.
The alteration would be profound for Liberty North on the field and it could lead to substantial financial savings.
Under the current 2010-11 and 2011-12 alignment, Liberty North is in the Suburban Small Six with Grandview, Kearney, Hickman Mills, Platte County and Ruskin.
If Ruskin and Hickman Mills combine, a proposed realignment would have Ruskin-Hickman Mills moving up to the Suburban Big Seven with Lee's Summit West, North Kansas City, Park Hill, Park Hill South, St. Joseph Central and Truman.
The bottom two teams in enrollment in the Suburban Mid Six, Oak Park and Staley, would move down to the Small Six, creating a conference of Liberty North, Kearney, Grandview, Oak Park, Staley and Platte County.
The realignment would create some natural rivalries for Liberty North and greatly reduce travel costs. The Eagles would only have one conference road trip to south Kansas City instead of three and have two conference games a season against Kearney, Oak Park, Staley, schools that are less than 15 minutes away from Liberty North.
I have been told that the chances of Ruskin and Hickman Mills consolidating are good. But it is not a done deal. A decision has to be made within the next month because MSHSAA has to set football districts soon.

The Bank Midwest/William Jewell Holiday Classic got the matchup it wanted to close the tourney.
Liberty, 8-1 and the No. 2 seed in the Nelson Division, will play No. 1 Kearney (8-0) at 9 p.m. tonight at the Mabee Center. The two teams met last year in a semifinal with the Blue Jays getting a 3-pointer at the buzzer from J.T. Nixon for a 56-53 victory.
The key battle in the game will be how Liberty defends Kearney's size in the paint. The Bulldogs, the Class 4 runner-up last season, feature a fearsome frontline of 6-foot-9 senior Dillon Starzl (14 points and 9 rebounds a game before the Jewell tourney) and 6-foot-7 senior Grant Cozad (14.5 ppg, 8 rpg).
Liberty goes into the contest shorthanded. Senior Bryan Adams (6-7) is still out with a stress fracture in his foot. The Blue Jays will go with junior Denton Koon (6-6) and senior Marcus Lucas (6-5) against Starzl and Cozad.
Koon has been the Blue Jays' best offensive option this season, scoring 18 points and 9.6 rebounds a game. Junior Jordan Lewis averages 11 points a game and Nixon is averaging 9.9 points a contest, hitting 47 percent (16 of 34) of his attempts from three-point range.
Without Adams, it's going to be hard for Liberty keep Kearney off the glass. Rebounding will most likely determine if the Blue Jays can get their first Jewell tourney title since 2006.

This is it. It's the regular season finale of the high school football season. Playoff fortunes will be made. For the season, we are 69-14 (with the Thursday wins from Kearney, Chillicothe, Winnetonka and Staley figured in). So here we go, week 10.....

Liberty 38, Blue Springs South 17: The Blue Jays were beaten pretty badly in the second half against Blue Springs last week. There is no doubt. There also isn't any doubt that the Blue Jays are a better team than the Jaguars. Liberty should secure its first playoff berth in four years with a solid win.

We come to a big week in the high school season. Clear paths to the playoffs will be made in week nine. A 6-3 week last week makes us 58-13 overall. We start this week with one of the most anticipated matchups of the season.

Liberty 38, Blue Springs 35: Truth be told, if the two teams played 10 times, I think Blue Springs would win seven times. So why am I picking the upset? Because Liberty has enough weapons to keep up with the Wildcats. Also, I don't think the Blue Jays have played their best game yet. Liberty has to be almost perfect (no turnovers, solid defense) to get it done and I think they do it, setting up a district championship.

Kearney 49, St. Joseph Benton 7: Another district walkover for the Bulldogs.

Winnetonka 31, North Kansas City 10: Winnetonka, 5-3, have lost two in a row, including a district opening loss to Fort Osage last week. But the Griffins handle the Hornets this week, setting them up for the Class 5 District 10 second seed in the playoffs.

Park Hill 41, Oak Park 7: The Trojans continue their roll in Class 5 District 11.

Park Hill South 24, St. Joseph Central 14: The Panthers, 4-4, stake their claim to the Class 5 District 11 second seed.

St. Pius X 28, Lincoln Prep 0: The Warriors, fresh off an upset of Pembroke Hill,  will win their second district game before playing O'Hara next week.

Savannah 21, Smithville 16: The Savages, 5-2, beat the Warriors in a close, rugged Class 3 District 16 game.

Staley 52, Westport 7: The Northland's lone undefeated team will get little resistance.

Here we go! District time! And we have some great games this week. We have been perfect in picking the last two weeks and are 52-10 overall. Let the week eight picks begin.

Liberty 33, Columbia Rock Bridge 20: The Blue Jays are facing a vastly improved Bruins team with two NCAA Division I recruits. Liberty has beaten the common opponents - Columbia Hickman and Lee's Summit North - by larger margins. Liberty gets a big win to start district play.

Liberty High's girls tennis team has a rematch in the Class 2 sectionals.
The Blue Jays will play host to St. Teresa's at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at Bennett Park. The Stars beat the Blue Jays 5-1 last year in sectional play. Park Hill and Blue Springs South will meet in the other sectional at Clayview Country Club.
The two winners will meet in the quarterfinals at Bennett Park. That match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Liberty beat Blue Springs 5-0 in regional play Tuesday, Oct. 13 at Bennett Park. Leslee Feldhaus, Abby Fish, Kelsey Heuer, Kristin Filardo and Alex Flanagan won singles matches for the Blue Jays.