Last year, Liberty’s first in the ASUN, was supposed to be Lipscomb’s year. They were coming off the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018 after winning the ASUN Tournament, and the Bisons were returning all major contributors from that team – Garrison Mathews, Rob Marberry, Eli Pepper, Kenny Cooper, Andrew Fleming, Matt Rose, and Michael Buckland.
The 2018-19 non-conference season went as was expected for Lipscomb under 6th year head coach Casey Alexander. The Bisons were 9-4 in non-conference play with wins over TCU and Vermont and all 4 of their losses to top 50 programs. Lipscomb then raced out to a 7-0 start in league play, winning those games by an average of 17.1 points per game. It looked like they would coast to a regular season title and 2nd straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
But there was one pesky team that looked as though it might offer some resistance.
ASUN newcomer Liberty was 11-4 in non-conference play, capstoned by a 15-point win at UCLA. The Flames then took the league by storm, winning the first 7 games in conference play, by an average of 14.9 points per game.
This setup a huge showdown in the Vines Center on January 29th between two 7-0 teams in the ASUN. The game drew national attention leading up to it.
Lipscomb was up for the challenge. Liberty was not.
The Bisons led by 18 at halftime and quickly pushed their advantage out beyond 20 points and by as much as 29 before winning, 79-59.
“They came out and just punched us in the mouth,” Liberty senior Scottie James said this week as he recalled the game. “They kept us down the whole game. It was a wake up call.”
“They came in and they smacked us,” Liberty senior Caleb Homesley had similar thoughts. “We thought we were prepared for it, but we weren’t and that was on us. I think for us, that was the turning moment in our season. I think we needed that loss to do what we did at the end of the year.”
Since that loss, Liberty is 29-3 and won a share of the regular season title, the ASUN Conference Tournament Championship, and then defeated Mississippi State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We had some humble pie during that 40 minutes of hour and 56 minutes elapsed time, I remember it well,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay.
He likened it back to a game Virginia loss during his 5th season with the Cavaliers under Tony Bennett. Virginia was beaten by Tennessee, 87-52, on December 30, 2013. After that loss, UVA won 21 out of 24 games, including the ACC Tournament, and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in decades.
“Our group, I think we did something similar,” McKay said about last year’s Liberty team. “We really got back to who we were and trying to play at our strengths and being about stuff that mattered as opposed to the noise, if you will. I think that game served as a catalyst for maturity. I think it was good for us, and I think our guys have responded terrifically well.”
On Saturday, Liberty will welcome in the same Lipscomb team in name but much different on paper. This year’s Bisons team is led by first-year head coach Lennie Acuff as Casey Alexander went to neighbor and rival Belmont as their new head coach following last season. Gone are Mathews, Marberry, Pepper, Cooper, and Rose.
At 18-1 and 4-0 in ASUN play, Liberty is looking to replicate what it did down the stretch last season and repeat as league champions, while Lipscomb is a much younger team that is building something new.
“Last year, we had three games that were a lot different, especially from the first game,” Scottie James recalled. “A lot of hard fought battles from there on, but they’re a different team. We’re worried about ourselves – how we play, guarding how we guard, just working on getting better at what we do.”
