JFK hit the fast forward button on the Leopards, and Liberty couldn’t find a way to hit pause.

The Eagles’ full-court press defense frazzled Liberty, resulting in 22 turnovers and a 56-51 victory for JFK at Gillen Gymnasium on Tuesday.

After a solid 12 minutes to start the game, in which Weaver scored 16 of the Leopards’ 22 points and sank three 3-pointers, the Eagles (2-3) switched to a full-court press, and Liberty (2-2) never looked the same. JFK, which trailed 22-12 with less than 4 minutes remaining in the second quarter, went on a 10-0 run to end the half, tying the game at 22 and stealing the momentum.

“With them turning up their press and applying some pressure, we got rattled a little bit and got away from the pace and the composure we had at the beginning when we had that lead,” first-year Liberty coach Levon Lamb said. “I was just trying to get them settled back down, but once they sped us up, it was kind of hard to bring them back down.”

Staff photo / Joe Simon Liberty’s Manuel DuBose, left, dribbles while being defended by John F. Kennedy’s Gabe Green on Tueday.

The faster Liberty moved, the worse things got.

The Leopards had just two turnovers in the first quarter, but they committed 20 over the final three quarters. JFK took advantage, scoring 13 straight points during a 5-minute span that split the second and third quarters, and the Eagles carried the momentum into the second half.

“We’re never sure how we’re going to start if we press, but we want to press,” JFK coach Mark Komlanc said. “We started in a half-court zone, and we got out of position a couple times. … We had to fall back and kind of wait for the second quarter. We threw the two-man press in, and that bothered them a little bit. I wish we would’ve scored off of it a little more, but we have a ton of potential. We just have too many moments where we’re not showing it.”

That up-and-down play was evident in the second half.

Led by Cameron Hollobaugh, JFK went ahead by seven in the third quarter and looked ready to pull away before the Leopards recovered and got back within three. Hollobaugh and TJ Harden kept Liberty at bay, pushing the Eagles’ lead to 11 midway through the fourth quarter.

The Leopards kept battling and started to move the ball better, with six players scoring in the fourth quarter to trim the lead back to three. Ill-timed turnovers were Liberty’s undoing, along with Hollobaugh and Harden, who made free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

Hollobaugh scored 15 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, and Harden had 10 of his 14 in the final two quarters. Weaver had just six points after his big first half and finished with 22.

“Turnovers have been an issue for us, and that’s one thing we try to work on everyday in practice,” Lamb said. “We try to talk and go over it and get control of (the game). It seems like we do well the first two quarters, and after that we get so impatient with the ball. We start doing stuff that we’re not accustomed to, and it hurts us in the long run.”

Manuel DuBose added 12 points for the Leopards, who are trying to rebound after two losing seasons.

Lamb, a former West Virginia University basketball player, likes the direction of the team and can see progress.

“We’re getting better,” he said. “We got out of the gate pretty fast, which I was excited about that. We’re even now, we’re 2-2 … and hopefully we’ll get a turnaround here. We’ve got two more games before the break, and hopefully we can move in a positive direction coming into the new year.”