The Liberty Flames tied the school’s Division I record with 23 wins in a season, following the team’s 80-70 win. Lovell Cabbil had a career-high with 30 points.

First Half

North Alabama opened the game with a couple of deep three pointers and a putback off a miss to take an early 8-6 lead by the first media timeout. Liberty’s early offense came from Elijah Cuffee and Lovell Cabbil 3-pointers as the Lions repeatedly doubled and even triple teamed Scottie James on the block.

Lovell Cabbil scored 5 points early as he also got free on a breakaway lay-in after the Keenan Gumbs steal. Both teams struggled shooting from the floor in the opening minutes, failing to reach the 40% shooting mark. Six 2nd chance points for UNA helped keep them close on the scoreboard despite struggling to see the ball go through the hole.

Cabbil continued with the hot hand, making all of his first 5 field goal attempts, 4 of which were from behind the arc. He would go into the A free throw and rebounding advantage continued to keep the Lions right in the game throughout the first half.

McKay went with Myo Baxter-Bell and Scottie in the lineup alongside one another quite a bit throughout the half. Caleb Homesley connected on a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half to give the Flames a 35-28 lead at the break.

Second Half

Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz and Cabbil had back-to-back three pointers to push the Flames’ lead to 10 at 43-33 and forcing UNA coach Tony Pujol to call a timeout as Liberty attempted to gain control of the game early in the 2nd half. Caleb Homesley would then get free as his drive and lay-in pushed the lead to a game-high at 12 by the under 16 media timeout.

Cabbil’s hot play continued in the 2nd half as he got loose in the paint for an easy lay up, followed by a Darius McGhee 3-pointer as the lead quickly grew to 14. The Lions wouldn’t go away as they cut the Liberty lead to 7 with 7:55 left to play following a slow offensive stretch by the Flames. Out of the timeout, Cabbil missed a 3-pointer and North Alabama followed with a deep 3 to cut the lead to 4.

Elijah Cuffee got open in the corner for a huge 3 pointer to push the lead back to 7. The Lions quickly responded with a dunk, but then Cabbil had an old-fashioned 3-point play to push the lead back to 8. The senior guard had 22 points, besting his previous season high of 20 points, he had that mark against UNA in the first meeting. It wouldn’t take much longer, as he got to the line to push past his career-high of 25 points.

Cabbil would end up getting to 30, the first Flame to do so since Ryan Kemrite accomplished the feat in the 2017 CIT opening round against Norfolk State. The Flames would cruise to the win.

Stat Check

Cabbil scored 30 points, on just 10 field goal attempts. He made 8 of them and was 5-of-7 from 3 and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.

Scottie James threw down the hammer in the final 30 seconds to get his 8th double-double of the season with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Caleb Homesley got to 13 points, his 11th straight game double digits.

Lipscomb Watch

Lipscomb stayed even with the Flames with an 83-67 win at Kennesaw State Saturday afternoon. The Bisons will be back in action Wednesday night at Florida Gulf Coast.

What’s Next?

Liberty has a week off before traveling to face North Florida (12-16, 6-7) next Saturday in a rematch from a January 19th meeting where the Flames won, 70-64, in a closely contested matchup.