Kaden Metheny put on an offensive clinic at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Thursday night to lead Liberty (18-3, 10-0 CUSA) past Middle Tennessee (11-9, 5-4), 81-65. The win extends the Flames’ win streak to 12 as the team remains unbeaten in conference play.
“Everyone knows it,” said Liberty forward Zach Cleveland of Metheny’s hot shooting to begin the game. “It could be Brett, it could be Colin, it could be JJ, just taking heed to whoever has it going. It was Kaden today. Just get him the ball and watch the show.”
Metheny made his first six shots, all from behind the arc and all in the first half as he helped the Flames build a lead by as many as 19 in the opening 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the Blue Raider struggled from distance, missing their first nine shots from range. They would finally find the mark by making 4 of 6 in a second half stretch to cut the Liberty lead from 19 to 11 before the Flames went into the locker room with a 43-29 advantage behind 19 points from Metheny.
To open the second half, Liberty immediately went back to the hot-shooting senior Metheny, but this time he took advantage of MTSU overplaying him beyond the three-point line and he got to the bucket for an easy lay-in. Metheny did this three times before the first media timeout of the second half to help Liberty maintain its double digit lead. Middle Tennessee wouldn’t go away though. They went on a 13-2 run to cut their deficit to 8, as close as they had been since it was 14-6 with 11:58 to play in the opening half.
The experience from the Flames showed when needed. Liberty answered with a quick 10-0 run, jump-started by five straight points from Zach Cleveland and capped with five straight from Brett Decker as the lead pushed back to 18. Liberty would coast to its 12th straight win, the 6th longest active streak in the country. The win streak is also tied for the 2nd longest in school history, tied with a 12-game win streak from the 2020-21 season and only trails a 14-game win streak in 2019-20. Liberty improves to 6-1 on the road and 5-0 in CUSA play.
“We did a good job of reeling it in,” Cleveland said of the MTSU run in the second half. “The first couple games of conference, we were struggling with other teams going on big runs and giving up big leads. There’s still another little bit to improve, but we got better. We cut the run short and made our own run. Just continue to get better at that, shorten their runs. I think we took a step in the right direction today.”
Liberty finished the game shooting 61.5% from the field and 10 of 21 (47.6%) from three. The shooting from the field is the best for the Flames this season against a Division I opponent and third best regardless of opponent. The Flames held MTSU to 32.3% shooting from the field in the first half and finished the game 42.6% from the field. Liberty overcame a 12-0 MTSU edge in offensive rebounds and 18-0 advantage in second chance points.
Metheny finished the game with 29 points, tying his career high. He was 11 of 14 from the field and 6 of 9 from three. Zach Cleveland finished with 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting to go along with 9 assists and 6 rebounds. JJ Harper added 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting wh ile Brett Decker finished with 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting and 2 of 2 from three.
Liberty doesn’t play this weekend as they will return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at Delaware. The Flames defeated the Blue Hens in its previous game, 67-51, at Liberty Arena this past Saturday. Delaware is currently 6-14 on the season and 2-7 in conference action. They play at UTEP on Saturday.
