Zach Cleveland hit a game-winning buzzer-beater off the backboard to lift Liberty (21-3, 13-0 CUSA) over New Mexico State (11-13, 4-10 CUSA), 77-75, in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Thursday night.

“New Mexico State is good,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay following the win. “I know their record might say this, that, and the other, but Coach Hooten has a well-coached team. He has their team play with a lot of pride and toughness, and they are always a tough out. I was pleased that we got the desired outcome, but certainly it was a good college basketball game that had some Huntsville-intensity. That felt like a conference tournament game.”

The game was tied at 75 after the Flames got a stop on defense when Jemel Jones, who scored a game high 23 points, missed his jumper with seven seconds remaining. Zach Cleveland pulled in his 14th rebound of the night and quickly got the ball to Colin Porter who raced down the floor. Porter had his shot deflected out of bounds under the Liberty basket with 1.4 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Porter threw the ball in bounds to Cleveland on the left side of the paint and he immediately rose up and banked the shot in as time expired and the Flames secured a program record 15th straight win.

“I had a play drawn up that was similar,” McKay said of the final play. “I think we were down 4 and Zach said, ‘No, let’s do something different.’ And Zach drew up a play and Colin got a three in the corner. So, I asked Zach, ‘Hey, can we run my play now?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ But it didn’t work. He did a great job of adjusting to the defense. He took his time we are really fortunate.”

The game had 17 ties and 18 lead changes as it went back and forth throughout the evening. The largest lead the Aggies had was four while the Flames led briefly by 10 points following a 12-0 burst out of the locker room. New Mexico State quickly responded with a pair of three-pointers in a span of 32 seconds to get the lead back down to four. Liberty sweeps the season series against NMSU, winning in Las Cruces on Cleveland’s buzzer-beater and surviving in Lynchburg earlier this year when Jemel Jones had a chance to win the game with a three in the closing seconds.

The 15th straight win is the best for the Flames in program history, besting a 14-game win streak Liberty had to start the 2019-20 season. The current win streak is the third longest in the country as the Flames also remain unbeaten in conference play. Liberty improves to 8-1 on the road this season and a perfect 7-0 on the road in conference play.

Cleveland finished the game with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists. He was also 5 of 6 from the free throw line including a pair in the final three minutes to tie the game. He recorded his 8th double-double of the season, coming just one game after his first career triple-double in Liberty’s win over Missouri State.

“I was supposed to dive to the block,” Cleveland said of the game-winning shot. “But JJ was there, so I kind of migrated to the open space right there and then off the glass, Tim Duncan style. I always shoot one of those before we go in the locker room. As Flames fans know, I don’t shoot too many outside of the paint, but it was fun. Full circle.”

JJ Harper led the Flames in scoring with 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He was 2 of 4 from three and made all 3 of his free throws to go along with 4 assists. Harper had a crucial three-pointer with 2:17 remaining to tie the game at 73.

“JJ was great tonight,” said McKay. “He did it on both ends of the floor. A lot of teams will play off of JJ. he’s a confident shooter, his numbers bear that out. He will inject the team with what it needs. They played off of him. He had the willingness and the confidence to shoot and he made it. Obviously, you need plays like that in order to get a win on the road.”

Colin Porter and Kaden Metheny each scored 15 points. Porter was 6 of 15 shooting and 3 of 7 from three with 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Metheny was 7 of 14 from the field and 4 of 11 from three. Brett Decker added 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Liberty shot 43.9% from the field for the game, the team’s second lowest shooting night of the season. The only game where the team shot worst was on Dec. 10 in the loss at NC State. The Flames also had 15 second chance points.

The Flames will continue their road swing this weekend, playing in El Paso, Texas against the UTEP Miners on Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN2. The Miners are currently 10-15 on the season and 6-8 in CUSA play following their 69-64 road win at Jacksonville State on Wednesday night.