Tale of two halves
Through the team’s first 22 games, Liberty has yet to trail at halftime. The Flames are 14-4 when leading at the half and 3-1 when tied, leading to the team’s overall record of 17-5.
The Flames have outscored opponents by 231 points in the opening half while that number drops to 113 points in the second half. In Conference USA games, the Flames are actually being outscored in second halves by 37 compared to outscoring opponents by 75 in the first half.
It’s quite an impressive feat what Liberty has been able to do in the first halves this season, but it begs the question as to why the team has surrendered those leads in the second half on occasion.
“There’s always going to be something you could point to in defeat that you think, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get better here,'” said head coach Ritchie McKay. “That’s just the reality of the game we play. We’ve asked is it depth or lack thereof, is it matchups, a lot has been made of our free throw percentage. I don’t think there’s one specific thing that has led to that. Teams get real aggressive when they are behind against us and just try to play over the top of us, we know that’s the M.O. I think we defend pretty well, but sometimes just the game is way more physical than maybe the previous game. We’ve got to adjust to that.”
Liberty blew a 16-point second half lead against Western Kentucky in the conference opener as the Hilltoppers used a 17-3 run late to steal that game on the road. Louisiana Tech and Jacksonville State had early second half runs to grab the lead and seize control of the game in the first meeting with the Flames.
“I think we’ve had some poor halves that have led to defeat, but we’re not too far away,” McKay said. “We’ve been competitive every night out. There hasn’t been one game that it’s gotten too far away from us.”
Rebound struggles
Under McKay, Liberty has never been a very good offensive rebounding team, but the Flames are typically really good on the defensive glass. Over the past eight seasons, the Flames have ranked in the top 100 each year in defensive rebounding rate. Seven of those seasons have been in the top 50 with three top five finishes. This season, particularly in conference play, Liberty has struggled rebounding the ball.
In the nine CUSA games, the Flames have been out-rebounded in eight of them, but, more importantly, the Flames have given up double digit offensive rebounds in six of those contests including 18 at Kennesaw State last week. This has led to the Flames having its worse defensive rebounding rate since McKay’s first season back in Lynchburg in 2015-16 as the Flames currently rank No. 119 in the country.
McKay was quick to point out this struggle earlier this week.
“Rebounding,” he said. “We’ve been really good on the defensive glass for the last 6-7 years, like tops in the country, in the top 10%. We’re giving up way too big of a rebounding rate right now. We will shore up our glass and maybe steal an offensive rebound or two.”
Porter is McKay’s security blanket
Coach McKay equated Liberty junior point guard Colin Porter to being like that of Linus’ security blanket and understandably so. Porter is currently averaging 8.9 points, 3.9 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game while shooting a staggering 46.5% from three.
“You just trust him,” McKay said. “Trust him with the ball, trust him on the defensive end. When Colin doesn’t play well, it affects us. We can kind of get around the other guys maybe not having their best nights, but when he doesn’t it’s usually not good for our winning equation.”
It’s more than just the raw numbers when it comes to the effect Porter has on the court for the Flames. He is an extension of the coaching staff and a steadying force.
“Colin does so many little things,” McKay stated. “He really does what the team needs. He evaluates that on the fly in a given game and is usually 90% in his decisions.”
