On an emotional senior night, Liberty wasted little time taking care of Stetson, 77-49. With the win the Flames improve to 26-3 overall and 12-2 in the ASUN behind the second largest crowd of the season, 6,762.
“Really privileged to get to coach this senior class that played their last regular season home game in the Vines,” Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay said. “Those young men are special people. Whether it happens or not, I think it would be honoring and certainly their numbers would merit their jerseys hanging from the rafters one day.”
The Hatters entered the night at 9-4 in league play with its worst loss of the conference season coming by 13 points at North Florida.
Liberty gets a little bit of revenge from its shocking, 48-43, loss at the hands of the Hatters last month. In that game, Stetson utilized a box-and-1 for much of the second half, and Liberty’s offense struggled. Hatters’ head coach Donnie Jones went back to the junk defense for the rematch, but Liberty had much more success against it this time.
The Flames shot over 50% from the floor in the first half for the second straight night, making 13-of-25 field goals, led by Darius McGhee who had 10 first half points. Liberty utilized a 19-3 run midway through the opening 20 minutes to seize control and never look back.
Freshman big man Mahamadou Diawara fouled out with 14:23 to play with 7 points. He entered the game averaging 12.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, and without him on the floor the Hatters didn’t really have a legitimate post presence.
After Stetson cut Liberty’s lead to 13, the Flames responded with an 11-0 run to push the lead out of reach at 52-28 by the under 12 media timeout. The run was capped by a Caleb Homesley three pointer as he got fouled. The redshirt-senior would miss the free throw. The run would extend to 18-1 as the lead ballooned to 59-28.
Liberty dominated in points off turnovers, 28-1.
Homesley finished with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting as he has scored 20 or more points in 4 out of 5 games. He added 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Pacheco-Ortiz had 12 points as did Darius McGhee. Seniors Scottie James and Myo Baxter-Bell combined to shoot 8-of-8 from the floor, scoring 17 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
The Flames have now won 20 consecutive games at home dating back to last season, which was the 5th longest streak in the country entering the game.
Liberty will be able to clinch the ASUN 1-seed and at least a share of the regular season title for the second consecutive season with a win Thursday night at Kennesaw State. The Owls haven’t won an ASUN game this season and lost to the Flames, 83-45, in Lynchburg in late January.
