Liberty (20-3, 12-0 CUSA) utilized a 16-0 second half run to break open a tied game and roll past Missouri State (13-10, 7-5), 79-76 on Saturday afternoon. The 10th largest crowd in the history of Liberty Arena, 3,991 fans were in attendance. The Flames improve to 12-0 at home this season and have recorded nine 20-win seasons in 10 years.
“Really hard fought game,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “A lot of respect for Cuonzo (Martin) and his staff. They do a terrific job. I knew this one was going to be tough. I was never comfortable over there. I’ve seen them go on runs kind of like they did against us tonight. Proud of our group. We have a good team. Happy Zach Cleveland finally got a triple-double.”
In the first half, the game was back and forth with neither team leading by more than six. There were five times and six lead changes with each team exchanging 8-0 runs. The Bears have a unique front line combo in seniors Keith Palek III and Michael Osei-Bonsu who provide matchup problems for much of Conference USA. Palek scored 11 points in the first half while Ose-Bonsu had 5 points but only played 10 minutes due to picking up two fouls. Zach Cleveland’s bucket at the horn gave the Flames a 42-38 halftime lead.
“They are definitely unique,” McKay said of Palek and Osei-Bonsu. “They’ve got a four and five that can really stress you, especially as small as we are. It’s hard to double them. I thought our guys, we took advantage of what we couldn’t do on the defensive end, we may have taken advantage of them being on the (other) end. I think there is some give and take when you are in a game like this.”
The nip and tuck affair continued early in the second half with the score tied at 42 in the opening minutes. That all changed shortly after Osei-Bonsu picked up his third fouls and went to the bench. The Flames blitzed Missouri State with a 16-0 run as the team was 4 of 5 on three-point shots during the run to open up the score by the first media timeout of the second half. The run would extended to 22-2 as Liberty took a 20-point lead at 66-46 midway through the second half.
“If I could bottle that, we would be undefeated,” McKay said of the Flames’ burst. “There’s an ebb and flow to the game. We had major foul trouble, so our substitutions got a little choppy. When Osei-Bonsu is down there and Palek, those are tough matchups for us. For us, we’ve got to keep valuing each possession. There was some really good things we did out there. I don’t want the margin of victory to thwart what our guys accomplished today because Missouri State is a really good team.”
Despite shooting 65% from the field in the first half and finishing the game at 55.1%, the Liberty offense would go quiet from there, being held to 13 points over the final 12 minutes of game, only making one field goal over that time – an RJ Jones three-pointer at the 6:23 mark of the second half. The Flames still led by 17 at that point, but Missouri State would come storming back. The Bears scored 9 straight to cut the lead to single digits. After four Liberty free throws. Missouri State scored 7 straight, cutting their deficit to 75-73 with 20 seconds remaining. From there, Colin Porter made four free throws and got a pivotal steal with 7 seconds remaining to help the Flames escape.
“It’s part of basketball,” McKay said of the Bears’ late run. “I’ll go Kelvin Sampson on you. When we don’t score and turn it over and they score, the lead closes. That’s what was happening. We have a really good offensive team, but just because you make a run and build a 20-point lead doesn’t mean….that’s the expectation this team gets because at times we look really good, really fluid and everyone thinks that’s how they’ve got to play all the time. Nobody does that. They started playing really well, knocked down some shots, got some offensive rebounds and we missed some shots and turned it over.”
Liberty has now won 14 straight, tying the longest win streak in program history as the Flames started the 2019-20 season at 14-0. The win streak is also the fourth longest in the country, only trailing Miami Ohio (23), Arizona (22), and Saint Louis (17). 12-0 in conference play, the Flames are one of just five teams in the nation currently unbeaten in conference play, and Liberty is the first team to start 12-0 in Conference USA since Memphis went 16-0 during the 2012-13 season.
“I don’t think about it,” McKay said of his team’s current winning streak. “(Assistant coach) Kyle (Rode) said something in (the locker room) about the standard that this group has set from the first year in Conference USA and the last (17) games (since our last) loss in the league. To be in a league that has the coaching quality and the excellence in the different recruits on different rosters to have won that much, I just feel really grateful for.”
After flirting with it all season, Cleveland recorded his first career triple-double as he finished the game with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. It’s the first triple-double for a Liberty player since Jesse Sanders had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists against High Point on January 21, 2012. Cleveland registers the 7th triple double in program history, joining Sanders who had four, as well as Kyle Ohman and Ed Gomes.
Just one game after failing to reach double figures for the first time this season, Brett Decker scored 20 points for the 9th time this season. He was 6 of 9 shooting, 3 of 5 from three, and a perfect 5 of 5 from the free throw line. Josh Smith added 12 points, his second straight double figures game, doing that for the first time in a Liberty uniform. Colin Porter added 10 points with 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals. He made 7 of 10 from the free throw line.
Liberty begins a two-game road trip this week on Wednesday at New Mexico State. The Aggies are currently 11-11 on the season and 4-8 in conference play entering their game Saturday at UTEP. Tip from the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Wednesday is scheduled for 9 p.m. on ESPN+.
“We take it one game at a time, I know it’s coach speak,” said McKay. “The last thing you can do in this league is look so far ahead. We are not invincible, we know that. We are searching for improvement every night out. When we get to Huntsville, that’s the true tell tale sign of how ready you are. I just think our guys have this commitment to what you do every day being more important than what you do every once in a while. I think they take each game for the life that it has of its own.”
