News & Notes Around FlamesNation: 3/11/16

Basketball season comes to an abrupt end
In a season that started so dim, but remarkably got brighter as the year progressed, the ending was ugly. But as we look back on the 2015-16 men’s basketball season, we won’t remember the humiliating loss to UNC-Asheville in the quarterfinals. No, we will remember the 7 game win streak. We will remember the 5^th place Big South finish and first round bye. We will remember the birth of a new era under head coach Ritchie McKay. If you haven’t already, listen to Coach McKay, A.C. Reid, and Lovell Cabbil describe the season here:

Basketball commits update

Josiah Talbert and Olathe East’s season came to an end Thursday night in the Kansas state quarterfinals. Entering the game Thursday night, Talbert was averaging 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. He shot 51% from the field, 35% from 3, and 86% from the free throw line.
Brody Hicks and Cave Spring advanced to the state semifinals before losing to Hopewell. The Knights finished the season 22-5.
LCA’s Jeffrey Barber was recently named first team all conference and honorable mention for his region.
2017 commit Elijah Cuffee finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists in a win for Poca High last week. They continued their run towards the state championship in a game on Thursday night. No update on that one for you, yet.
Liberty also picked up a new commitment from a 2016 guard, Georgie Pacheco. He averaged 18 points per game for Deep Run this past season and scored 27 points in their final game while knocking down 6 of his 8 3-point attempts.
While not a Liberty commitment, 2017 big man Brendan Newton is certainly high on the Flames’ radar. He finished his junior season as the VACA Player of the Year while helping lead his team to a 32-1 record. Faith Christian won the school’s first ever state title and also claimed a national championship.

Rashad Jennings buys his mom a brand new house
Liberty alum and New York Giants star Rashad Jennings has always been vocal about wanting to buy his mom a house. In a video he posted on social media this week, he did just that.

Lady Flames 2 seed in Big South Tournament
After closing the regular season with a loss to Presbyterian, the Lady Flames are the #2 seed in this week’s Big South Tournament. Liberty opens play in the quarterfinals at 6pm tonight. LU is seeking their 17^th Big South Tournament title in the last 20 years. The Big South also handed out its awards this week with Catherine Kearney being named 2^nd team all-conference while Ashley Rininger and Sadalia Ellis each received honorable mention all-conference honors. Rininger also was named the scholar-athlete of the year. It’s the first time since 1996 that Liberty did not receive a first-team all-Big South honoree and the 4^th time in the school’s Big South history.

Baseball 2-2 in last week
Liberty’s baseball team took 2 out of 3 games against UConn last weekend before losing to Elon, 10-5, on Tuesday afternoon. The Flames are 7-6 on the season. LU’s first 4 losses this season came by 1 run each and their loss to UConn was by 2 runs in extra innings. Andrew Kowalo leads the team in batting as he’s hitting .357 and also has 6 doubles, 2 triples, 2 homeruns and 12 RBI’s.