Gielo finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds in 37 minutes
We’re switching it up a little bit in how we recap each basketball game. Instead of the canned post game recap, we will bring you “Overtime.” Which is just our way of expressing our thoughts & opinions from the game and how they affect the Flames moving forward. Anyways, here’s Overtime for Liberty’s 71-68 win over Campbell to move to 2-1 in the Big South.
- With the win, Liberty wins consecutive regular season conference games for the first time since February 2012 when the Flames defeated Coastal and Campbell in the final 2 regular season games of the season.
- It looked like Liberty was going to run away with the game midway through the first half, and I expected the Flames to win comfortably. But that 10-0 run to start the 2nd half for the Camels changed the entire game. From then on, Liberty had to do all they could to keep Campbell at bay as they were playing with superior confidence.
- The real difference during that run and the 2nd half for the Camels, was Reco McCarter. In the first half, McCarter, the reigning winner of 2 consecutive Big South player of the week selections, was 0-of-6 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3. He was passive as evidenced by his 0 free throw attempts. But something happened to him at the break as he came out in the 2nd half with reckless abandon. McCarter finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 free throw attempts. At 6’6″, he is a tough matchup for most Big South teams.
- You can’t say enough about Drew Smith and Tomasz Gielo. The junior forward combo were brilliant. They combined for 32 points and 14 rebounds on 11-of-21 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe. Not to mention Drew’s monster putback which made Sportscenter’s Top 10 plays.
- One thing I’ve noticed the past 2 games, is Coach Layer has shortened Liberty’s bench. The Flames are relying on their starters much more than during nonconference play, with Joel Vander Pol, Antwan Burrus, and Joe Retic the only subs getting any significant run off the bench.
- The Flames ended up with just 10 turnovers. If they can keep that level of production up throughout the remainder of the season, they will be tough to beat.
- On the final play, with Liberty up 3 with just 7 seconds to go, I asked on twitter if the Flames should foul. That situation happens frequently, and it’s always one that causes much debate. Layer decided not to foul, and it worked even though Andrew Ryan got a pretty clean look.
- The Flames welcome High Point to the Vines Center on Saturday as Liberty looks to win 3 straight regular season conference games for the first time since February 9-14, 2012.
I’d like to think we are finding ourselves a bit, but I’ve thought this prematurely before.. The 10 TOs are sure encouraging though.
and we definitely should have fouled at the end. Can you imagine the reaction to not fouling if Campbell had hit a shot in the last possession??