Jayvon Maughmer was one of the most decorated Division II basketball players over the past few seasons. Playing at Cedarville, he averaged 20 points per game a year ago and was named his conference’s player of the year. When Maughmer entered the transfer portal following the 2023-24 season and Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay pursued him, it was Maughmer’s defense that caught McKay’s eye not his offensive ability.
“On my visit, he told me, ‘We know what you can do on the offensive end,'” Maughmer said of when McKay and the Flames were recruiting him last year. “On most visits, they don’t tell you what you need to work on, but that’s what they did. They told me I needed to work on my defense. I want to take pride in getting better on the defensive end and it just became my thing.”
In his first year with the Flames, Maughmer has quickly become the team’s top perimeter defender, frequently getting the opposing team’s top perimeter scoring as his defensive assignment. As the season has gone on, Maughmer has continually improved on the defensive end to where he’s now one of the top defenders in Conference USA.
His work on the defensive end is most noticeable by what he did against Jacksonville State’s Jaron Pierre, Jr. Pierre, who was recently named CUSA’s Player of the Year, is one of the top scorers in the country. He is averaging 21.8 points per game while shooting 42.7% from the field and 39.4% from three-point range. Against Liberty and Maughmer, Pierre has had two of his lowest scoring performances of the season, scoring 9 and 13, respectively. Pierre has shot just 7 of 35 (20%) from the field and 4 of 15 (26.6%) from three in the two games against Liberty.
“We’ve had some really good perimeter defenders here over the years,” said McKay. “Elijah Cuffee was elite. Joseph Venzant was a terrific defender. Jayvon is quickly approaching in that renown. He’s got a uniqueness in his coachability, whatever you ask him to do, he’s going to do.”
It’s certainly been quite the transition for Maughmer from being the go-to offensive player to the go-to defensive player. He averaged nearly 18 points per game two years ago before eclipsing the 20-point per game average last year. He was Cedarville’s primary option, and it led to a lot of winning. He scored double figures in more games than he didn’t with the Yellow Jackets. His scoring this season is as low as it’s been since his freshman year at Cedarville. He’s currently averaging 8.7 points per game. It’s not because he doesn’t have the ability, he’s just not asked to carry the scoring load due to the talent around him. Last year at Cedarville, Maughmer attempted nearly 15 shots per game. That number has been cut in half this season as he’s shooting less than 7.5 times each game for the Flames.
“He’s a complete player,” McKay said of Maughmer. “What he doesn’t give us from the standpoint of what he did at Cedarville, he’s even better defensively at this level. Because he has so many other pieces around him, I don’t think he’s as aggressive an offensive player; therefore, he doesn’t get as many attempts and doesn’t see it go in. So, his scoring average is down from what it was at Division II, but not his impact.”
Maughmer has seamlessly made the transition from a top scorer in Division II to a top perimeter defender at a premier mid-major level. His efforts have helped the Flames to one of its most successful regular seasons in school history. Liberty is currently 25-6 overall and 13-5 in CUSA play, finishing as the regular season champs and earning the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Maughmer will help lead Liberty into this week’s CUSA Tournament where the Flames will take on the winner of 8-seed UTEP and 9-seed Sam Houston in the Quarterfinals on Wednesday, looking for the program’s fourth conference tournament title under McKay.
“I don’t think it’s much difference for me,” said Maughmer of transitioning from a top scorer to top defender on his team. “I may not be scoring as much, but I’m helping my team win in a different way.”
