Proving that Thursday’s win over over Mississippi State was no fluke, the Liberty Flames improved to 2-1 on the young season with an impressive, 78-62, win over South Carolina. With the win, Liberty improves to 4-1 against SEC opponents over the past few seasons.
The Flames got off to a solid start despite three turnovers in the first four minutes of game action. The Flames led 5-4 at the first media timeout off a Kyle Rode three pointer and a Darius McGhee bucket at the rim in traffic. Liberty had a lot of trouble with the size of Purdue and Mississippi State in the team’s first two games, but South Carolina’s strength is at guard, so Liberty is able to match up well with the Gamecocks in the paint.
Liberty’s defense returned to its stifling play early in this game after two unorthodox performances to begin the season. South Carolina made just 3 of 14 shots to begin the game as the Flames took a 12-8 lead into the second media timeout. Elijah Cuffee hit a triple just before the timeout, and Blake Preston had another solid few minutes off the bench with 3 points and 2 rebounds.
Coming off a 10 point, 10 assist performance in the team’s win over Mississippi State, Parker continued his strong play at the point for the Flames as he had 3 points and 3 assists early. Rode made his second attempt, both coming from three point range to begin the game, as Liberty utilized a balanced scoring attack to maintain the lead, 22-16, with 7:31 left in the first half.
The Flames utilized a 16-2 run to force a Frank Martin timeout at the 4:26 mark of the first half with his team trailing, 33-18. Parker, McDowell, and Cuffee all made three pointers during the run. The Gamecocks would end the run with a bucket and the foul in transition, but it wouldn’t slow down McKay’s team. Liberty would go into the halftime break with a 43-26 advantage.
Liberty went into the locker room shooting 54% from the field while the Gamecocks were being held to 33% from the field.The Flames were 8 of 17 from three point range, with Cuffee, Rode, and McDowell have two made three pointers each. Rode led the team with 9 first half points while McDowell and Parker each had 8 points.
The Flames continued their strong play to begin the second half as Liberty maintained a 53-38 lead at the first media timeout of the second period. Four players got in on the scoring action in the opening minutes of the final 20 minutes with Cuffee picking up four points. Micaiah Abii, who only had two made free throws in the first half, had a beautiful up and under layup on his drive on the baseline for his first field goal of the game.
Drake Dobbs had a nice finish at the rim in traffic as the true freshman point guard gets in the scoring column as Liberty led 58-40 with 11:50 to play. The Flames would extend the lead to 20 entering the under 8 media timeout, at 65-45. Keegan McDowell scored five straight points as he jumped out to a team-high 13 points to go along with his 6 rebounds.
South Carolina tried to cut into Liberty’s lead entering the stretch run, trimming the margin to 15 before Darius McGhee responded with second three pointer of the game as he reached double figures in points and Liberty pushed its lead to 68-50 with 6:02 left to play. The Flames would coast to the final margin of 78-62.
The Flames had a well balanced offensive scoring production as five players reached double figures led by Kyle Rode who finished with 18 points to go along with 6 rebounds. Elijah Cuffee and Keegan McDowell, the two fourth year players on the roster, each had 13 points. Chris Parker finished with 12 points and 5 assists and Darius McGhee chipped in 10.
Liberty is back in action on Sunday afternoon, playing the winner of TCU and Tulsa at 3:30 on ESPN2 for the Championship of the Hall of Fame Classic.
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
