Liberty (16-11, 5-7) fell on the road to FIU (9-18, 4-8), 76-71, on Thursday night in Miami, Florida.

“The same ol’, same ol’ for us,” Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay said. “If you can’t keep the ball out of the lane, it’s going to be difficult for your team to secure the victory. We’ve got to do a better job of that. That’s something that we’ve tried to focus on. We haven’t executed it in a way yet that warrants an opportunity to win a game on the scoreboard. Florida International did a really good job of driving our guards and they were good at it.”

The Panthers earned a victory, getting back in the win column after dropping three straight and seven out of eight. Entering halftime with a three point lead, FIU went on a 10-0 spurt out of the locker room to push their lead to double figures. It would grow to as many as 14 points before the Flames came storming back with a 19-3 run to reclaim the lead, 57-55, about midway through the second half.

Liberty would go nearly 5 minutes without a field goal, allowing the Panthers to grab a five point lead down the stretch. The Flames had the opportunity to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Kyle Rode’s contested three pointer missed the mark.

Kaden Metheny led the Flames with 21 points while Kyle Rode added 18. Brody Peebles and Colin Porter each reached double figures with 10 points. Zach Cleveland appeared to injure his lower right leg in the first half, causing him to exit the game momentarily. He did return to the contest but it appeared he was hampered by his injury for the rest of the night, finishing with just 5 points and 1/7 from the field.

After a two game road trip, the Flames now return home for three of its final four games of the regular season. Liberty hosts New Mexico State on Thursday night, Feb. 29 at 9 p.m. in a game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

PANTHERS DOMINATE ON THE INTERIOR

Liberty’s defense struggled to keep FIU’s guards out of the paint, and the home team also owned the glass and took advantage of the second chance points. The panthers scored 44 points in the paint, had 11 offensive rebounds which helped lead to 16 second chance points. They also affected the game on the other end of the floor with 9 blocks.

“To beat a good team on the road, you can’t give up 11 offensive rebounds, 44 points in the paint,” McKay said. “You can’t unless you shoot lights out.”

Liberty was a solid 40% (8/20) from three point range, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the efficiency the Panthers were able to have on the interior.

FLAMES DIG OUT OF HOLE, UNABLE TO MAINTAIN LEAD

Similar to Saturday’s game at Sam Houston where the Flames fell behind 18-2 in the opening minutes and trailed by as many as 25 points, Liberty also got down by double digits, stormed back, but were unable to pull out the victory. Liberty did pull into the lead in this one in Miami on Thursday night. Grabbing a slight margin but were unable to hang onto it down the stretch.

“We dig these holes, we come back,” McKay said. “That speaks to our guys character, but we have to overcome our limitations with a little bit more discipline, a little bit more execution.”

ROAD STRUGGLES CONTINUE

Like most of the rest of CUSA teams, the Flames continue to struggle on the road. The Flames have now dropped two straight away from home and are 1-6 in CUSA games on the road. CUSA continues to be the toughest conference in the country for teams away from home. Fortunately for Liberty, the Flames get to play 3 of its final four regular season contests from the friendly confines of Liberty Arena.

“Truth is way more evident when it’s experiential truth and its not just head knowledge or metrics or analytics,” McKay said of the road struggles. “We’ve experienced the margin for error when we go on the road. We are in every game, that’s the character of our group and I think our program has an expectation to win. Right now, the focus for us is to keep getting better.”

McKAY POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE