Liberty trailed for 32 minutes of game action and by as many as 15, but the Flames were able to crawl back and knock off the #1 seed and tournament host UNC Asheville, 69-64, Friday night.

With the win, Coach McKay and his Liberty team advances to the Big South Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2013. The Flames will face in-state rival Radford, on Sunday at 1pm in the Dedmon Center. The game will be televised by ESPN.

The Flames jumped out to an early 6-2 behind their big men, Scottie James and Myo Baxter-Bell, who combined for the team’s first 6 points. Following the opening burst, Asheville responded with a 15-4 spurt to seize control of the game. The Big South regular season champ, pushed their lead to double figures at the 5 minute mark of the first half. That margin remained until Myo’s free throws cut the Bulldogs lead to 8 with 14:27 left in the game.

From there, the underdog slowly chipped away at the lead until Scottie James gave the Flames the lead with a pair of free throws at the 3:34 mark. It was part of a 15-0 run, that saw Liberty go from 5 down to a 10 point lead with 33 seconds left.

James paced the team with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. He also added 14 rebounds in his 26 minutes of action. Lovell Cabbil nearly had a double-double, finishing with 14 points and 9 rebounds.

As has been the case numerous times this season, Liberty had a balanced scoring attack. In addition to James and Cabbil, five Flames scored 7 or 8 points.

The Flames improve to 20-13 on the season, clinching the program’s first ever back-to-back 20 win seasons. The 41 wins over the past two years, is the most in any two year stretch in school history, besting the record of 40 set in 1996 and 1997.

Liberty will be seeking revenge against the Highlanders, after dropping both regular season matches. The long-time rivals have played each other 4 times in the Big South Tournament, including Radford’s upset of Liberty in the quarterfinals a year ago, but they have never met in the Championship game.

Ritchie McKay is looking for his 2nd ever trip to the NCAA Tournament as a head coach as he led New Mexico to the Big Dance in 2005.