With 8 regular season games left and Liberty currently 3 games behind the logjam at first place in the Big South standings, the Flames have no margin for error if it wants to be a contender for a regular season title. Winthrop is one of three teams currently tied for first place at 7-3 and pays a visit to Lynchburg Thursday night.
The Eagles haven’t lost since a 3 point setback at home on January 9th to the Flames, winning 6 straight since then, and surging into a first place tie with Radford and UNC Asheville. The two teams have been going in different directions since that meeting in early January as Liberty lost 5 straight before picking up a win at Presbyterian Saturday.
During the losing streak Coach McKay’s squad has dealt with a significant amount adversity. Leading scorer Lovell Cabbil injured his right knee on the final play at Winthrop. He fought through the pain until being shut down for the previous two games. Isaiah Williams, who has started 10 games, was suspended indefinitely prior to the January 21st game against UNCA. Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz suffered an ankle injury in the final minute of the home loss to Campbell last week. He was able to play 34 minutes against PC Saturday. McKay says that he anticipates Cabbil will be able to play against Winthrop while Williams’ status remains “unchanged.”
It was unlikely hero who stole the show in Liberty’s win Saturday as true freshman Keegan McDowell played a team-high 36 minutes while setting numerous career highs including 19 points. This is the same McDowell who didn’t play but 32 minutes in his first 7 conference games before seeing an increase in each of the past 3 games. He was held scoreless 12 times and was shooting 20.5% from 3 in his first 20 career games. Since his playing time has increased in the past 3 games, McDowell is shooting 59% from the field and 75% from 3 while averaging 12.6 points per game.
“People have kind of written us off, that’s fine. We’re turning the page and starting each day from scratch,” McKay said of his team’s recent 5 game losing streak. “I never worry with this group because they’ll get back up. They’re like weebles wobble (they don’t fall down). I really think they’ve got the character that necessitates a team that could play for something significant.”
