Liberty (14-6, 5-0) vs. Jacksonville State (14-6, 7-0)
Lynchburg, Virginia – Liberty Arena (Capacity: 4,000)
Saturday, Jan. 29, 7:00 p.m.
ESPN+
Last Meeting: First meeting
Series History: N/A
Projected LU Starters:
2 Darius McGhee (Sr., 5-9, 150) – 22.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.9 apg
23 Joseph Venzant (Fr., 6-3, 170) – 4.7 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.7 apg
20 Keegan McDowell (R-Sr., 6-6, 180) – 10.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 0.9 apg
22 Kyle Rode (Jr., 6-7, 220) – 6.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.0 apg
33 Shiloh Robinson (R-Jr., 6-7, 200) – 9.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.1 apg
Projected Jacksonville State Starters:
0 Jalen Finch (Jr., 6-1, 165) – 7.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 4.4 apg
22 Jalen Gibbs (Sr., 6-3, 185) – 11.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.6 apg
23 Darian Adams (Sr., 6-3, 200) – 14.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.2 apg
11 Kayne Henry (Sr., 6-7, 210) – 9.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 0.8 apg
50 Brandon Huffman (Sr., 6-10, 255) – 9.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 0.2 apg
PREVIEW
A battle of the unbeatens in ASUN play, Liberty will welcome Jacksonville State to Liberty Arena Saturday night in the first ever meeting between the two programs. The Gamecocks are in their first season in the ASUN, and they have started off league play with a bang, winning their first seven games in conference. Though this may be the first ever game between the two teams, they will both be leaving ASUN and joining Conference USA beginning with the 2023-24 season so they should become well acquainted with one another in the coming years.
Jacksonville State was expected to immediately contend in their new conference home this season, being picked in the preseason poll to finish third behind the three-time defending conference champs Liberty and fellow ASUN newcomer Eastern Kentucky. The Gamecocks finished non-conference play at 7-6 with their best win coming on a neutral floor against Drexel and losses to Wichita State, Troy, Valparaiso, South Alabama, VCU, and Alabama.
Finishing non-conference play with two wins, Jacksonville State has now won nine games in a row, and they come into Lynchburg fresh off a 70-64 win at Kennesaw State on Thursday night. The Flames will be looking to extend the second longest active home winning streak in the country which is currently at 45 games.
“We embrace having ti be hard,” Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay said of the road block that JSU presents. “If you are fortunate enough to advance to the NCAA Tournament, it’s going to be hard. Only 18.9% of teams make it to that NCAA Tournament, that’s not a lot. If you are fortunate enough to be one of those, you are going to play someone good.”
JSU head coach Ray Harper is in his sixth season at the helm for the Gamecocks, leading them to the NCAA Tournament in his first season in 2017 where they lost to 2-seed Louisville in the first round. He has a very veteran team with a lot of skilled weapons.
Darian Adams leads the way on a talented Jacksonville State roster. He was named first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference last year after leading the team with 15.7 points per game. The 6’3″ Adams was named preseason all-ASUN entering this year, his 6th season at the college level. Adams began his career at Troy where he redshirted his first season and then he has utilized his extra year of eligibility due to the COVID pandemic. Adams is coming off a 22 point game Thursday night at Kennesaw State where he made 7 of 10 threes.
Mount St. Mary’s transfer Jalen Gibbs is currently averaging 11.3 points per game and is making 43.9% of his three point attempts in his first season with the Gamecocks. He started all 30 games during the 2019-20 season at Mount St. Mary’s where he averaged 11.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game.
Demaree King is currently second on the team in scoring at 12.1 points per game. He has made 63 of his 128 (49.2%) three-point attempts. The talented trio of Adams, Gibbs, and King are all shooting 39.8% or better from three-point range and have each made at least 37 three-pointers so far this season.
Point guard Jalen Finch was second on the team in scoring last season, but with all of the weapons on this team this year, he has resorted to more of a distributor role, leading the team in assists.
“Coach Harper does a great job,” McKay stated. “They are good on both ends. They have four or five guys that can really stretch it, and then some other guys that don’t get the same number of minutes but are as potent offensively. Then, they’ve got a couple of bigs that they can play through. It presents a lot of challenges.”
One of those big men is Brandon Huffman who began his career at North Carolina. After three seasons with the Tar Heels, Huffman transferred to Jacksonville State where he started 25 of 26 games in his first season with the Gamecocks last year.
Kayne Henry is a stretch four who can do damage in the paint, but he also has the ability to step out behind the three-point line and do some damage there as well. Henry scored a career-high 24 points in Jacksonville State’s win over Bellarmine last week where he was eight of nine from the field and four of five from three.
“It’s got some significance because we only play them once,” said McKay. “They’ve got a really good record and have been impressive thus far. It’s a big game, but it’s January 29th and we still have a month or so to go in the season.”
Only playing them once, Saturday’s game could go a long way in determining who ends up the regular season champion in the ASUN and gets to play at home throughout the conference tournament.
KENPOM PREDICTION
Liberty 69, Jacksonville State 64
