Liberty High School junior guard Ava Kopetskie celebrated her birthday on Jan. 17. For a basketball player, there aren’t too many better ways to party than scoring 40 points.

Kopetskie became the first girl or boy in Hurricanes basketball history to tally 40 points in a game when Liberty stormed to an 80-17 road victory over East Stroudsburg South on her birthday.

The junior got even more motivation from Hurricanes coach Jarrett Carnes on that record-breaking night.

“I was feeling it that night,” Kopetskie said. “And my coach set goals for the whole team. If we met our team goals, coach promised we could stop at Chick-fil-A for my birthday on the bus ride home.”

The single-game scoring mark was just one of four program records Kopetskie broke during the season.

Along with her indiv

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