Coastal advances to the round of 16
Coastal advances in playoffs
Being the only Big South football team still playing, Coastal Carolina has advanced to the 2nd round of the playoffs for the 2nd consecutive season. The Chanticleers defeated #12 Bethune-Cookman 48-24 for their 1st ever win in the playoffs at Brooks Stadium. Coastal was led by quarterback Alex Ross’ 4 touchdown passes. The Chants advance to take on #8 Montana in Missoula on Saturday where the forecasted high is 8 degrees. Quite a difference from Conway where its been in the 70s most of the week.
LU Basketball update
The Flames seem to have finally found their groove after a rough start to the season. Liberty was 1-5 in their first 6 games, but have seemed to right the ship while in Texas during the Corpus Christi Challenge. The Flames did it with defense. Liberty is now the top scoring defensive team in the Big South as they allow their opponents to score 66 points per game. Surprisingly enough, the Flames are also the top defensive rebounding team in the conference as well and rank 2nd in rebounding margin.
Davon Marshall and Antwan Burrus have clearly established themselves as the top offensive threats for the Flames. Marshall leads Liberty at 12.6 points with Burrus right behind him at 12.1. Marshall and Burrus have combined to take 42% of Liberty’s field goal attempts. John Caleb Sanders is 3rd on the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game while shooting an impressive 46% from 3, and leads the team in assists with 4 per game.
Marshall is leading the Flames in scoring
Big South basketball update
John Brown is off to a stellar start of the season. Prior to their Thursday night matchup with Georgetown, the Big South preseason Player of the Year leads the conference in scoring (21.7) and field goal percentage (63.6%) and is 2nd in rebounding (9.8). His front court teammate, Allan Chaney, is right on his heels in both categories. The Virginia Tech transfer is averaging 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Chaney did miss the Panthers last game following his defribillator scare on November 24th during a game against Wofford.
An early season surprise has been VMI freshman QJ Peterson. Peterson is averaging 21.4 points per game during his first 8 collegiate games including a season high of 38 points against Bridgewater on November 20th. Peterson has been named Big South Freshman of the week twice so far this year.
Women’s hoops update
The Lady Flames went 2-1 since our last update with victories over Savannah State and Richmond as well as a loss to Fresno State. Ashley Rininger was named Big South Player of the Week following her impressive performances against Fresno State and Savannah State. In Liberty’s first Division I win of the season, Rininger tallied 29 points and 11 rebounds against Savannah State.
The Flames will start conference play this week with a home contest against Radford on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Rashad Jennings suffers concussion
In a scary moment on Thanksgiving, former Liberty running back Rashad Jennings suffered a concussion. He was running the ball in the 4th quarter when he inadvertently caught a knee to the helmet as he was being tackled. Before leaving the game, Rashad had rushed for 35 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Cowboys.
Football Commit
Turner Gill & company picked up a commitment this week from WR Corbin Jackson. Jackson hails from Charlotte where he attends Victory Christian High School. The 6’0″, 176 pound athlete helped lead his school to the program’s first NCISAA Division 3 State Championship in 2012. Jackson adds to an early commmit list that includes QB J.T. Bradwell, DL Javon Majors, and offensive lineman James Passmore and Gregg Storey.
FlameFans thread of the week
Iron Bowl 2013. It was the talk of the country this week and it was no different on FlameFans. Auburn upset Alabama on a last second field goal return for a touchdown in a game that will go down as one of the all-time greats in college football history.
