Liberty drops its 6th straight, losing at Furman 79-56. Here’s our rapid reactions from the game:

  1. We knew it was going to be a long season before it started with so much inexperience. It’s easy to forget this fact once the season gets underway and the team shows promise. As Coach McKay has said repeatedly since returning to Liberty, it’s a process. Of course, like him, we hate the process.
  2. McKay switched up the starting lineup inserting Ryan Hiepler in place of Ryan Kemrite. Hiepler had a few solid minutes on Saturday against Charleston Southern and Kemrite has been struggling in recent games.
  3. In what seems like it will be a reoccurring theme, the Paladins doubled Evan Maxwell every time he touched the ball. While Maxwell didn’t struggle as much with ball security like he did against Charleston Southern Saturday, the double team basically took Maxwell out of the game. He did not attempt a field goal until the 2:56 mark of the first half, finishing the game with 12 points and 6 rebounds. 5 of his points came in the final 2 minutes and 7 points came in the final 4:17 when the game is already well in hand. Liberty has to find ways to keep Maxwell involved even if he’s being doubled.
  4. Furman went to the full court pressure in the first half when they were trailing, and it caused fits for Liberty. It sped the tempo of the game up and forced several Liberty turnovers as the Paladins closed the gap and eventually took their first lead of the game which they never relinquished.
  5. The game turned in the last part of the first half when the Flames made just 1 field goal from the 11:29 mark until 1:05 was left in the first half. This allowed the Paladins to close the first half on a 17-6 run. After a Liberty 3 to open the 2nd half, Furman went on a 12-0 run to break the game open.
  6. Liberty had 21 turnovers, leading to 22 Furman points off those turnovers. It will be nearly impossible for the Flames to win a game this year with those numbers.
  7. Points in the paint: Furman 38, Liberty 22.
  8. After starting the season as the team’s leading scorer and shooting 17/30 through the team’s first 4 games, Ryan Kemrite has made just 12 of his last 47 field goal attempts during the team’s 6 game losing streak.
  9. The 79 points Furman scored, are the most Liberty has allowed this year.
  10. The 23 point margin is Liberty’s worst non-conference loss since November 9, 2012 when the Flames lost to Richmond by 42.
  11. Liberty looks to stop their skid and pick up their first Division I win on Saturday against Lamar in the Vines Center.