Liberty concludes the regular season with a loss to UNCA, 63-45. Here’s our rapid reactions:
- At least a share of the Big South’s regular season title was on the line, and the Flames gave the Bulldogs all they could handle for the first 20+ minutes of the game. In the end, Asheville’s upper-classmen, namely Ahmad Thomas, were too much for the Flames to overcome.
- Liberty finishes the regular season at 19-12 overall and 14-4 in conference play. A quality season for the team, as we prepare for next week’s Big South Tournament.
- The Flames finish in 3rd place, an improvement on last year’s 5th place finish. Liberty will face the 6 seed at approximately 3pm on Thursday. We still don’t know who the 6 seed will be, as it could be either High Point or Radford based on this afternoon’s games. We also don’t know who will be the 1 seed and host for the tournament.
- Liberty’s losing streak is pushed to 12 straight against Asheville. The Flames haven’t defeated UNCA since 2011.
- Myo Baxter-Bell was the lone bright spot on the offensive end for the Flames. The redshirt-sophomore finished the game with 18 points on 7/12 shooting and also added 6 rebounds.
- All Flames not named Baxter-Bell, were a combined 9/41 from the field. Nobody else scored more than 5 points.
- Liberty struggled all afternoon shooting from deep. Coach McKay’s squad finished the afternoon 3/24 from 3. It was the team’s worst shooting performance from 3 all season, matching the January 21st performance when the Flames were also 3/24 from 3 against Winthrop.
- Nice conference regular season for the Flames in Coach McKay’s 2nd season back. Liberty has quickly gone from a basement dweller to a championship contender.
- Stay tuned as we’ll have plenty of coverage in the coming days on next week’s Big South Tournament.
