Liberty (17-12, 6-8) lost to UTEP (15-15, 6-9), 67-51, in front of 3,643 fans at Liberty Arena in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday night.

“UTEP, they played fantastically tonight,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “I think we helped them a little bit, but I don’t want to take anything away from them. They were really good.”

The Flames led, 10-9, after a Zach Cleveland bucket in the paint at the 16 minute mark of the first half. Liberty would then go 11 minutes of game action with only three points, while the Miners outscored the Flames, 21-3 over that span, pushing their lead to 30-13. Liberty would cut the deficit to 12 going into the locker room, but UTEP immediately pushed it to 20 on an 8-0 spurt out of the break. The Flames went on a 12-0 burst in less than 3 minutes to cut it to 8 but would not get any closer.

Liberty had a season high 17 turnovers, just 9 assists (tied for a season low) while the Miners scored 23 points off the Flames’ turnovers. Kaden Metheny led the team with 15 points while Kyle Rode added 13. Zach Cleveland was held to 6 points and had 5 turnovers but did haul in 10 rebounds.

Entering the final week of the regular season, the Flames have two games remaining. The team’s final road game of this campaign is on Tuesday night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee against Middle Tennessee. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

SEASON HIGH TURNOVERS, SEASON LOW ASSISTS

The Flames had a season high in turnovers with 17 and (tied for a) season low in assists with 9. It came against a team in UTEP that leads the nation in turnovers forced. Meanwhile, Liberty entered Saturday’s action 11th in the country in assist to turnover ratio.

“It’s a team that is terrific defensively, obviously when you lead the country in forced turnovers,” said McKay. “We had a lot of turnovers tonight and they scored 23 points off our turnovers. That’s really hard to survive. Hats off to them for being able to execute their game plan and coming out with a win in our Arena, which is really hard to do, historically, especially when you have a nice crowd.”

Add to it the Flames struggling from the field, making just 39.1% of their field goals on the night and only 28% of their three-point shots and it made for a long night.

“We’re not going to win many games with 9 assists and 17 turnovers,” McKay continued. “We’re just not built that way.”

FLAMES FALL AT HOME

It’s a rare occurrence when the Flames lose at home, doing so for just the second time in conference play this season. Following Saturday night’s loss, Liberty is now 88-8 at home over the last 6 seasons and 56-7 all-time at Liberty Arena. This is also the biggest margin of defeat the Flames have ever suffered in Liberty Arena.

“We don’t lose much in here,” said McKay. “I know we’re not used to it, but UTEP played better and coached better.”

UTEP is now just 2-9 on the road this season, winning both of their games away from home this week, including a win at Jacksonville State on Thursday.

“They made some uncharacteristic shots over the top of us, shot better from the three point line than they have in a while,” McKay stated. “They had a lot of freedom after pulling off the win at Jax State the other night. They played like there was nothing to lose, that happens in basketball.”

LIBERTY COULD STILL GET 3 SEED

As crazy as this sounds, the Flames could still end up the three seed in next week’s Conference USA Tournament. Liberty must win its two games this week – at Middle Tennessee and against Western Kentucky – to conclude the regular season. If that happens, Liberty would be 8-8 in conference play and end in a tie with Western Kentucky for third place. The Flames would win the tiebreaker over the Hilltoppers as WKU was 0-2 against Sam Houston (who will finish 1st or 2nd in the league) while the Flames went 1-1 against the Bearkats.

“Every game challenges you,” McKay said. It’s Conference USA, 40 minutes. Even when we’re victorious, it’s a really tough game. It’s a challenge digging a hole is really hard. You’ve got to adjust to how the game is being called. The game was called differently. We have to respond to that.”

McKAY POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE