Behind ASUN Player of the Year Darius McGhee’s hot shooting, 2-seed Liberty (25-7, 15-3) coasted to a win over Bellarmine (15-18, 9-9), 76-56, Tuesday night at Liberty Arena in the ASUN Quarterfinals.
“It’s really hard to advance in the postseason,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “Grateful we played the way we did because I have a ton of respect for Bellarmine and how difficult they are to guard and how much toughness that group plays with.”
The Knights took the early lead in the opening minutes, leading 8-7 by the first media timeout. That was before Darius McGhee heated up. The 5’9″ senior guard would score 26 points in the first half to help propel the Flames to a 48-31 halftime lead. In the second half it was more of the same for the Flames as Bellarmine was never able to make a serious run.
McGhee led the team with 29 points and 6 assists while Colin Porter had 11 points. The starting backcourt for Liberty combined for just 1 turnover in 52 minutes. Kyle Rode chipped in 9 points while Joseph Venzant had 7 points and 7 rebounds. Freshman forward Zach Cleveland had a team-high with 8 rebounds.
Liberty advances to the conference semifinals for a sixth consecutive season. The Flames will return to Liberty Arena on Thursday night against 3-seed Eastern Kentucky with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
IT’S THE DARIUS McGHEE SHOW
What Darius McGhee did is just unfair. After a slow start in the first few minutes, the three-time ASUN Player of the Year took the game over. He scored 17 straight points for the Flames over the middle part of the first half, pushing Liberty into the lead. During that span, McGhee went on a personal 14-2 run.
He finished the first half with 26 points on 8 of 10 three-point shooting as the Flames went into the locker room with a 48-31 lead. He only scored 3 points in the second half as he only attempted four field goals with his team so far ahead.
“I mean, he was cooking in the first half, but he’s got that ability,” said McKay. “We’ve seen it now for four or five years where when he’s feeling it, he’s a really hard guard. He’s a hard guard anyway. He’s got unlimited range. It was probably a little unnoticeable but our guys were trying to find him on every possession. The sacrifice that those other players make to recognize who’s got it going speaks to the character of this group and that’s why they’re so fun to coach.”
HOT SHOOTING PROPELS FLAMES
If Liberty keeps shooting the way they did Tuesday night, they will be an incredibly tough out this week. The Flames were shooting at a high rate for much of the game. In the first half, the Flames were 17 of 24 from the field for 70.8% and 9 of 15 from three. The shooting came back down to earth some in the second half, but the Flames still finished shooting 56% from the field and 13 of 29 (44.8%) from three.
DON’T CALL IT PAYBACK
Almost exactly one year ago, Bellarmine strolled into Liberty Arena and pulled off a shocking upset of the three-time defending ASUN Champion Liberty Flames. It shocked the team and all the fans. Partly due to that loss, Darius McGhee decided to come back for one more season, utilizing his COVID year.
On Tuesday night, McGhee and the rest of the Flames made sure to get a little bit of payback by ending the Knights four game ASUN Tournament win streak and their season.
“That was a group that came in here last year and walked out of here with a win and ended our season,” said McKay. “There was no revenge, just a ton of respect in our approach. I thought our guys handled it really professionally.”
