Liberty wins their 6th straight as they knock off Charleston Southern, 76-69. Here’s our rapid reactions:

  1. After trailing the first few minutes of the game, the Flames led the rest of the way as they push their win streak to 6 games to remain in first place in the Big South. The Flames were able to pull out the win less than 48 hours after going to double overtime on Thursday night.
  2. Myo Baxter-Bell came out a man on a mission, as he scored 14 points in the first half. The redshirt-freshman went on to finish with 19 points on 6/9 shooting. The 19 points tie a career-high which was set against Presbyterian a couple of weeks ago. Myo also finished with 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
  3. After a cold shooting night and not scoring in the first half on Thursday night at Gardner-Webb, Liberty’s leading scorer Ryan Kemrite knocked down his first 4 three-pointers, all of which came in the first 12 minutes of the game. He finished the game with 16 points even after missing his last 3 three point attempts to finish 4/7 from 3 on the afternoon.
  4. After a career night Thursday against Gardner-Webb, Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz had another solid night. He finished the game with 12 points, a career-high 8 assists, and tied his career-high with 6 rebounds. He did have 2 turnovers, ending his streak of 9 straight games with either 0 or 1 turnover.
  5. Charleston Southern cut Liberty’s lead, which reached as many as 16, to just 2 points with less than 6 minutes to play. AC Reid knocked down his only 3 pointer of the night, after missing his first 5 attempts, then the Flames got a stop, Reid got the defensive rebound, and Georgie got in the lane for a bucket. The lead was quickly pushed into safe territory at 7.
  6. In the final 75 seconds, Liberty made 9 of 10 free throw attempts to seal the win. 5 different Flames stepped to the line during this stretch as Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz, Brock Gardner, Lovell Cabbil, A.C. Reid, and Ryan Kemrite were succesful at the line.
  7. Liberty had 11 assists on 12 made field goals in the first half, and finished the game with 16 assists on their 22 made buckets.
  8. The Flames’ are momentarily in first place in the Big South at 12-2. Liberty is half a game ahead of UNC Asheville who is at Longwood in a game that tips at 5pm. Winthrop, who knocked off Gardner-Webb earlier today, is 11-3.
  9. Liberty has pushed their winning streak to 6 straight. Remember that the Flames won 7 straight last season before faltering down the stretch.
  10. The Flames have a big game at home on Valentine’s Day against High Point. The Panthers are currently 8-5 and in 4th place in the Big South prior to their game against Radford tonight. If Liberty defeats HPU on Tuesday, the Flames will clinch a top 3 finish.

Notable quotes:
Lovell Cabbil – “(Making free throws down the stretch) is huge. Even besides the Gardner-Webb game, there’s been many college basketball games where if you don’t make free throws then you’re giving the team a chance to come down and score. It’s easy for them to get back in the game that way, but when you make your free throws it’s putting them away second by second.”

Myo Baxter-Bell – “(Being 12-2) is very exciting, but we have a saying be 1-0. So, each day we take the game like we’re 1-0. We leave it there. We try not to look too much at the record and just focus on each game.”

Coach McKay – “This is new territory for us, we’re in a tie for first place. I think the pressure comes from (the media). More people bring attention to you. We’ve got to go through it, in order to get better at it. This team is capable of much. Although I think we’re ahead of schedule, I wouldn’t put anything past this group. We have the mindset and the belief that if we’re not right, we can get beat by anyone. We’ve had some tough nights. If we’re right, we can beat anyone.”