Liberty has officially announced the additions of transfers Owen Aquino and Taelon Peter to the men’s basketball roster for the 2024-25 season. Both recently committed to the Flames after recent visits.
“Owen comes from a terrific junior college program. It’s been a long time since I recruited a junior college player,” said Liberty Men’s Basketball Head Coach Ritchie McKay in a release. “From the moment I first saw him, I thought his game would really fit for the way we play. I think he impacts winning in so many different ways, and we really look forward to his presence in our program.”
Aquino, a 6’8″ forward from Eastern Florida State College, has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He was named the FCSAA Player of the Year after averaging 15 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists this past season, helping his team to a 26-4 record and conference championship. The 6’8″, 210 pound forward started all 31 games he played in while shooting 60.7% from the field. He also shot 30.6% from three while making 15 of 49 triples and shot 61.4% from the charity stripe. Aquino had 15 points or more in 16 games this season and scored over 20 five times while topping out at 29 twice. He had one triple double and nine double-doubles on the year.
Ranked as a top 50 national JUCO prospect, Aquino is originally from Madrid, Spain where he was invited to play with the Spain Under 20 national team at the European Championship in Greece. He averaged 4.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in the seven games for Spain. He previously played for the Spain Under 16 national team in the European Championships in 2019.
“We’re elated that Taelon Peter is joining our family,” said McKay. “Obviously, the success he had with Coach Downey at Arkansas Tech attracted us more to the type of player he was, but when you get to know his person, you get even more excited about his addition and potential impact on our team and campus.”
The 6’4″ Peter, a Division II Arkansas Tech transfer guard Taelon Peter, has one season of eligibility remaining. This past season, he was named GAC Player of the Year and a unanimous First-Team All-GAC selection. The 6’4″, 185 pound guard started all 32 games he played in while averaging 18.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. He shot 49.9% from the field and connected on 81 of 198 three-pointers (40.1%) and shot 86.8% from the free throw line.
He played three seasons at Arkansas Tech, seeing his production increase each season. He averaged 10.0 points per game in 2021-22, seeing that increase to 15.5 points per game in 2022-23. He began his collegiate career at Tennessee Tech where he played in six games and scored 10 points during the 2020-21 season.
Peter is originally from Russellville, Arkansas where he attended Russellville High School. As a senior, he was named Class 5A West Player of the Year, River Vallely Now Player of the Year and an Arkansas Basketball Coaches Association Top 5 Player. He led his team to a 23-6 record as a senior, averaging 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals per game.
The Flames continue to be aggressive in the transfer portal and have two scholarships available.
