No. 12 seed Liberty (28-7, 13-5 CUSA) sees its season come to an end with an 81-52 loss to No. 5 seed Oregon (25-9, 12-8 Big Ten) in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The margin is the worst loss the Flames have suffered in the Big Dance in program history.

“Congratulations to Oregon,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “They were really good. That was as worthy of an opponent as we have played in a long time. They did a terrific job taking away some of the things that we do well and they were dominant tonight.”

In the first ever meeting between the two programs, Oregon came out on fire, hitting their first three shots to take an early 8-2 advantage. It would extend to 13-2 by the first media timeout as Liberty opened 1 of 6 from the floor and the Ducks were 5 of 7. The onslaught would continue as Oregon went on a 13-0 run and Liberty was held without any points for over 5 minutes, missing five straight field goals. The lead grew to 18-2 Oregon, the largest deficit Liberty has faced all season. The Flames were never able to overcome that early spurt by the Ducks who now advance to take on Arizona in the NCAA Tournament second round.

Liberty started attacking the bucket as Oregon was overplaying the Flames on the three point line, getting Zach Cleveland in the pick and roll. He scored two at the cup and got to the line for two free throws as the Flames started to find something on the offensive end, trailing 22-8 at the under 12 media timeout.

In a sequence that seemed to embody the entire game, Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad hit a pull-up jumper with 41 seconds left in the first half to push the lead to 21. The Flames attempted to roll the ball in to get the shot clock to expire and have the final shot of the first half. Shelstad picked up on Liberty’s attempt and was able to dive on the ball for the steal. He would then hit a three with five seconds remaining in the half. The lead ballooned from 19 to 24 in those closing seconds of the first half.

The Flames struggled offensively throughout the first half, shooting just 25% from the field and 2 of 15 from three. Liberty, one of the more efficient shooting teams in the country entering the Big Dance, struggled throughout on the offensive end.

The Flames scored the first four points of the second half, cutting the lead to 20, and were playing with a lot of energy. It wouldn’t last as Oregon quickly responded with six straight to push the lead to 26 as the Ducks would coast to the win.

Liberty finished the game shooting 32.8% from the field and 6 of 22 (21.6%) from three.

“Oregon had a ton to do with it,” McKay said of the poor shooting performance. “You can look at the numbers and get a little ill. But part of it was our defense. They had too easy of looks, and I think they did a great job in denying Colin the ball, and he usually initiates our offense, and we’ve got built-in counters to that. But man, their length at the rim with Bittle and Angel and Cook and Evans, it’s a hard equation for us.”

The poor shooting is something that wasn’t expected. Entering Friday night’s game, the Flames were second in the country in effective field goal shooting (58.9%), 6th in field goal shooting (49.4%) and 6th in three-point percentage (39.0%). The worst three-point shooting performance of the season entering today’s game was a 3 of 14 performance (21.4%) in a win against New Mexico State on January 18 at Liberty Arena. The Flames had shot over 50% from the field in five straight games before Friday, including all three games last week in Huntsville at the CUSA Tournament. The lowest shooting performance from the floor this season was 40.7% in the loss at Jacksonville State on Feb. 1 and the lowest points scored this season was 58 in a win over FIU on Feb. 22.

“I’m proud of our group,” McKay said. ” I know every coach who loses a game comes up and talks about how proud they are. But we have an unbelievable group of young people. We’re not going to let one bad night ruin the journey that we got to experience together. They were fabulous. We got beat tonight by more points than we had in our six combined losses, so this one is a tough one. You don’t want to end your season like this.”

Zach Cleveland led the Flames with 10 points on 4 of 10 shooting from the field to go along with his 6 rebounds and 6 assists. After an incredible week last week in the CUSA Tournament, earning MVP honors, Kaden Metheny struggled to 9 points on 3 of 13 shooting, 3 of 12 from three.

Taelon Peter and Brett Decker each scored 8. Zander Yates chipped in 5 while Owen Aquino had 3 and Colin Porter scored 2.

Jackson Shelstad led Oregon with 17 points, making 7 of 11 from the field and 3 of 4 from three. Nate Bittle added 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Ducks finished the game shooting 54.4% from the field and 10 of 21 (47.6%) from three. The field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage is the best any team has shot against Liberty this season.

This is Liberty’s first trip back to the NCAA Tournament since 2021 when the Flames were a No. 13 seed and fell to No. 4 seed Oklahoma State in the first round. This is the first ever meeting for the Flames against a Big Ten foe in the NCAA Tournament. Liberty is now 0-8 all-time against the Big Ten. The last time facing a Big Ten foe was in the 2023 NIT second round a 75-71 setback at Wisconsin. Prior to that, Liberty faced Northwestern at the 2022 Cancun Challenge, a 66-52 loss.

“I love what I get to do where I get to do it,” said McKay. “It’s a privilege to be a coach, especially at our university because of the commitment that our campus has to the pursuit of excellence to being a part of something bigger than yourself. I’m disappointed. I’m overly competitive at times and I did not see this coming. There’s a word in it’s an old Jewish hymn, the word is dayenu, They used to sing the song in worship, and the context of it is, if all of this would have happened and what we wanted next didn’t, what we had already have had happen would have been enough. What we got a chance to do and, even though we don’t get a chance to advance, the journey and the shared experience that our guys got to have, like dayenu, it would have been enough.”