Liberty suffered its first loss of the season, falling 72-69, to Towson in the semifinals of the 2025 Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational. The Flames fall to 5-1 on the season while the Tigers improve to 5-2. Liberty will conclude its time in this event on Wednesday, taking on the loser of UC San Diego and Bradley at 2:30 p.m. in the third place game which is televised on ESPNU.
“Tough one,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “Feel like I’m probably the most responsible for that result just because of how short I’ve had the bench relative to yesterday and then today. I felt like we had to ride our starters down the stretch there. I think we were fatigued. Don’t want to take anything away from Towson. They are a good team. They are battle-tested, and they are a really hard out.”
One of the top mid-majors in the country the past few years as Towson has won 20 or more games in each of the past four seasons and went 16-2 in the CAA last year to win the regular season title, the Tigers tested the Flames in ways than no other team has to this point of the season. Liberty struggled to shoot from three, making just 7 of 30 from behind the arc, for 23.3%. The Tigers also held advantages in offensive rebounding (12-6), second chance points (17-6), and bench points (26-6).
“26-6 points off the bench was probably the biggest key,” said McKay. “We’ve got some guys that can score, I’m just not giving them long enough minutes. I’m riding those starters a little bit because I trust them the most defensively. That’s where we need the most growth.”
All five Liberty starters played 33 minutes or more. It’s the second straight game in as many days where the top five played at least 31 minutes. The Flames struggled to their worst shooting performance of the season so far, shooting 45.8% from the field and just 23.3% from three on 7 of 30 from behind the arc.
“Towson had a lot to do with that,” McKay said of his team’s struggles on offense. “They’ve got such length and athleticism. They came in with three or four guys off the bench. The game was super physical. When we don’t have a flow or we can’t move, it’s hard for us. It seemed like they stood up every cutter. That was a good game plan. I felt like we had some open looks that we are used to seeing go in, they just didn’t. That’s ok.”
In the first five games of the season, Liberty led for 191:15 of 200 minutes while only trailing for 4:17. That quickly changed Tuesday afternoon against Towson as the Tigers took an early lead and led for 6:19 of game action before the first media timeout with their largest lead coming at 10-4 at the 16:17 mark of the first half. Part of the slow start for the Flames was due to missing the team’s first three point shots of the game, a drought that ended when Kaden Metheny got one to go with 15:56 on the clock in the first half. Liberty would take its first lead at 17-14 midway through the first half on a Colin Porter three-pointer.
It was a back and forth affair the last half of the opening 20 minutes with three ties and five lead changes in the opening half. Liberty pushed its lead to as high as six at 33-27 with 3:34 left in the opening period, but the Tigers closed the half on a made Dylan Williamson three-pointer as time expired with Liberty leading 37-36 at the break.
The Flames were able to extend its lead to a game-high of eight points after a Brett Decker layup in the paint, scoring off a Towson turnover, with 14:32 remaining. After getting a stop on defense, Metheny had an open look at three that could have pushed the lead to double figures, but it rimmed out. The Tigers responded to go on a 7-0 run to immediately cut their deficit to one. The lead extended to 12-2 on a second chance three-pointer from Towson’s Tyler Schmidt as they regained the lead at 56-54 with 9:02 remaining.
Liberty answered with four straight, capped with a bucket by Zander Carter as the Flames regained the lead. That would be the last field goal Liberty would get for over five minutes, as Vermont took the lead back with another 7-0 spurt. The Flames had opportunities in the closing minutes, cutting the lead to one on a three-point play from JJ Harper. He then missed a three-pointer as did Porter over the next minute of play when Liberty had a chance to take a lead with less than two minutes remaining. Porter’s triple missed with 36 seconds left. Zander Yates also had a chance to tie it with a three that missed, and then Brett Decker’s three as time expired was blocked by Towson’s Tyler Tejada.
“12 offensive rebounds that hurt,” said McKay. “They got 10 points from the line. It seemed like they made every critical free throw. I think our guys battled. I love the heart that they play with. Had a couple of looks there that we’re used to seeing go down. We haven’t experienced any poor shooting this season and we did tonight. I thought we had some good looks. We will hopefully learn from this.”
Zander Carter and Josh Smith were the only guys off the bench McKay went to for more than four minutes. Zander Yates and RJ Jones each got a few minutes.
Metheny led the Flames with 16 points on 4 of 10 shooting from three. The rest of the team was just 3 of 20 from behind the arc. JJ Harper had 14 points and 7 rebounds. Brett Decker had 13 points but was just 1 of 8 from three. He added 5 rebounds. Zach Cleveland finished the game with 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. Porter chipped in 8 points.
“They elected to put a bigger guy on Brett which affected him a little bit, but we will learn from that,” explained McKay. “There are opportunities to drive the ball and play in rotation. You could tell by just having 10 assists we weren’t there. I think that’s mostly on me. I can’t play five guys 35 minutes. The quality of the opponent makes that really hard.”
Liberty and Towson last met in 2019, a 66-54 Flames win at the DC Holiday Hoops Festival. Towson leads the all-time series now at 10-4 and pick up their first win in three tries against the Flames on a neutral floor. This was Liberty’s first loss in a MTE tournament since the start of the 2023-24 season. The Flames went 3-0 at both the Myrtle Beach Invitational (2023) and Paradise Jam (2024), winning titles at both.
“This is good for us,” said McKay. “The quality play is good. I want to win every game. I want to get an at large bid and all that, but before all that, we have to get better along the way. When you have high caliber opponents, I think there is opportunity there. Everybody is excited to play us. It is what it is. I don’t mean that arrogantly or any self-promotion, but we have to bear that responsibility of we’ve got to expect everybody’s best punch.”
Liberty will take their next punch on Wednesday afternoon in the third-place game of the 2025 Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational. The Flames will play the loser of Bradley (3-3) and UC San Diego (5-0). Those two will meet Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. from State Farm Field House in a game on ESPN2. Liberty’s game on Wednesday will tip-off at approximately 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
