Playing its first ACC opponent since the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Liberty (6-3) was blitzed by the home-standing NC State Wolfpack (7-3) on Wednesday night, on their way to an 85-45 win from the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Whatever Will (Wade) and his staff said to their group, they came out with an urgency and a defensive purpose that was significant,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “They dictated the play for 40 minutes. I’m very complimentary of that group, they played connected. You’ve got to solve some problems when you are playing NC State. The biggest thing is you have to pick the way you defend them.”
Liberty missed its first three shot attempts, all from inside the paint, but finally cracked the ice when Brett Decker and Kaden Metheny connected from deep for a pair of three-pointers from the wing. It tied the game at 6, but the Wolfpack took over from there. They went on an extended run of 22-5 that spanned 8:44 of game action, taking a commanding lead, 27-11 with less than 8 minutes remaining in the first half. Bothered by the length of the Pack, the Flames were unable to find any consistency or flow on the offensive end of the floor. Liberty went nearly 5 minutes without scoring, missing seven straight field goals as NC State took complete control.
Liberty’s first bucket inside the three-point line came at the 9:01 mark of the first half when Harper got to the bucket in transition. Harper was the only Liberty player to make more than one field goal line the first half, as he connected on all four of his shot attempts inside the arc in the opening 20 minutes. The Wolfpack took a 45-19 lead into intermission behind 57% shooting from the field and a 26-10 edge in points in the paint. It was the fewest points Liberty scored in a first half since November 20, 2021 when the Flames scored 19 in a 76-60 loss to Manhattan in the ASUN/MAAC Challenge.
NC State started the second half where they left off, jumping out to a 15-1 run to push its lead over 40. Their lead got to as high as 42 and the Flames never cut it closer than 37 the rest of the way.
In the loss, Liberty posted a season high in turnovers with 17, topping the previous high water mark this season of 12 committed in the loss to Bradley during Feast Week. NC State scored 21 points off those turnovers. The Flames also finished with a season low in three pointers made with 6, the previous low was 7 made triples in the loss to Towson, also as part of the ESPN Event Invitational.
JJ Harper led the team with 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting, making all of his shots from inside the arc. Brett Decker also got to 12 points on 4 of 12 from the field and 3 of 8 from three.
For just the third time over the last three seasons, Zach Cleveland was held scoreless. He missed his only two field goal attempts but added 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Colin Porter returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s game against Coppin State. He scored 5 points with 3 assists and 1 rebound in 26 minutes.
Liberty finished the game shooting 35.3% from the field and 6 of 28 from three (21.4%). The Flames were also just 3 of 10 from the free throw line. The Wolfpack shot 51.7% from the field and were 10 of 24 from three. The home team held a 42-24 advantage in points in the paint and 35-13 edge in bench points.
“We have nights like this,” McKay said. “You can’t shoot 43% (from three) every night. This is part of our process. They have great length. They were forcing us down the sideline, down the baseline, and we kept going down there. That’s on me, I’ve got to make sure we’re better at that. I kind of knew what they were going to do, they were just great at it, very active hands. We had 17 turnovers, that might be double what we had all season long. I think we average 8 or 9. They were the biggest problem.”
The Flames fall to 1-3 away from home this season and 3-23 all-time against ACC opponents. Liberty’s last game against an ACC team was a 67-58 loss to Virginia Tech in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament in San Jose, California. The Flames also fall to 0-3 all-time against NC State with the two squads having not met before Wednesday’s matchup since Dec. 11, 2004, a 94-60 Wolfpack triumph.
NC State head coach Will Wade continues to have the upper hand against Liberty and Ritchie McKay. While Liberty’s head coach has resided in Lynchburg for the last 11 seasons, Wade has jumped around some. He began his head coaching career at UT Chattanooga before moving on to VCU, LSU, McNeese, and now NC State. Despite that movement, Wade has found a way to play McKay and the Flames at each of his last four stops, posting a now 5-1 record against Liberty. The rivalry began when Wade was at VCU, as the Rams and Flames played a home and home series during McKay’s first two years back at LU, both resulting in VCU wins (85-57 on 12/27/15 and 64-59 on 11/15/16). When Wade went to LSU, he scheduled the Flames, picking up a win on Dec. 29, 2019, 74-57, ending Liberty’s 14-0 unbeaten start to that season. November 15, 2021, Wade and LSU defeated Liberty, 74-58. Last year, McKay finally got a win over Wade as the Flames defeated his McNeese team, 62-58, in the Paradise Jam Championship Game.
“It was a great idea before the game,” McKay said of playing an ACC opponent. “I appreciate Will because he’s unafraid to play anyone. We’ve had trouble getting Power Five teams to play us. They’ve got a scheduling philosophy where they try to play teams where they think they might compete for a conference championship, and we’re going to be a team like that. We still have some things that we have to get better at. Grateful that we had the opportunity. This will help us. They played harder than us for the first 20 minutes, and they out-executed us. If we’re going to be who we want to become, then we have to have that same disposition.”
The Flames return to action on Tuesday night for its final home game at Liberty Arena this calendar year as Liberty takes on Midway for a 6 p.m. tip on ESPN+.
