Eagles Edge Flames, 65-62

Team	1	2	F
Liberty	25	37	62
Winthrop	29	36	65

Looking to start Big South Conference play 4-1 for the first time in school history, the Liberty men's basketball squared off with Winthrop Saturday. Unfortunately, the Flames fell just short of accomplishing the feat, as the contest went down to the wire, resulting in a 65-62 Eagles' decision inside Winthrop Coliseum.

The contest began with a back-and-forth battle between Winthrop's Andy Buechert and Liberty's Evan Gordon. Buechert hit a layup in the opening 19 seconds, giving the host the early 2-0 lead. Gordon responded by hitting a trey to put Liberty up 3-2 at 19:26. Winthrop regained the lead at 18:15 off a Buechert jumper, 4-3.

Gordon then netted another three-pointer 21 seconds later, making it 6-4 in favor of Liberty. Buechert capped off the one-on-one scoring affair with another jumper at 15:29, knotting the contest at six.

Liberty recaptured the lead 16 seconds later, thanks to a two-handed jam from Burrus, making it 8-6. Winthrop then proceed to go on a 7-0 burst over the next 1:28, taking a 13-8 lead at 13:45 off baskets from Reggie Middleton and Mantoris Robinson.

Following a made foul shot from Kyle Ohman, Middleton tacked on a layup to give the Eagles a six-point edge, 15-9 with 12:20 remaining in the half. The Flames responded with five unanswered points, cutting the Winthrop advantage to one, 15-14, at 11:26.

Winthrop then went on another run over the next three minutes, scoring eight-straight points to take a 23-14 lead. Gordon broke the scoring streak with 6:47 left in the half, netting a jumper to trim it 23-16.

Both teams then traded baskets over the next 3:25, allowing Winthrop to maintain its seven-point lead, 27-20 with 3:22 remaining.

Each team went scoreless for nearly a two-minute span, until Winthrop's Robbie Dreher hit two shots from the charity stripe, giving the Eagles a nine-point edge, 29-20 at 1:25. The Flames responded in the closing 85 seconds of the half, netting five unanswered points capped by a buzzer beating half court trey by Chris Perez, making it 29-25 in favor of Winthrop at halftime.

Gordon led all scorers at the half with 12 points, followed by Winthrop's Matt Morgan, who closed out the opening 20 minutes of play with seven tallies.

Liberty shot 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from the field in the opening period, while Winthrop hit 11-of-30 shots (36.7 percent).

Burrus scored the first points in the second half for the second-straight contest, throwing down another two-handed jam to trim the lead to two, 29-27 at 19:18.

Following a basket by Winthrop's Charles Corbin, Burrus hit two shots from the foul line, making it 31-29 at 18:16.

Winthrop then went on a 6-0 run in a one minute span off baskets from Corbin and Middleton, giving the home team a 37-29 advantage.

The Eagles extended their lead to double digits, 41-31, at 15:54 courtesy of two made shots at the foul line from Robbie Dreher. Liberty rallied with an 8-0 off back-to-back treys from Anderson and Ohman and a McMasters jumper, cutting the Winthrop lead to a pair, 41-39 at 12:41.

Robinson increased the Eagles' advantage to five with a trey 19 seconds later, but Anderson countered with a three-pointer, making it 44-42 with 12:05 remaining in the game. The Flames knotted the contest at 44 just 32 seconds later courtesy of an Ohman jumper. McMasters gave Liberty the lead with 10:40 left on the game clock, sinking a layup to make it 46-44. The Flames' advantage was short lived, as Robinson tied at 46 with two made fouls shots at 10:20.

Liberty outscored the Eagles 9-2 over a near four minute stretch to take a 55-48 lead at 6:27. Winthrop rallied over the next 2:30, knotting the contest at 57 off a Robinson three-pointer with 3:57 remaining.

The offensive pace slowed as neither team scored a field goal over the next 3:18. With Winthrop holding a 59-57 lead, Kyle Ohman ended the streak by scoring on an old-fashion three-point play, putting the Flames up 60-59 with 39 seconds left on the clock.

Twelve seconds later, Winthrop's Andre Jones hit a three-pointer, giving the home team a 62-60 advantage with 27 ticks left on the clock. The Flames then missed a three-point try eight seconds later, giving the Eagles the ball back.

The Eagles tacked on two more tallies at the charity stripe, making it 64-60 with eight seconds left. Jesse Sanders quickly raced down the court, laying it in to cut it to a pair, 64-62 with 2.5 seconds remaining. Spencer fouled Robinson on the in-bound play to send him to the line. Robinson hit one-of two free throws to put the Eagles up by three.

With only 1.5 seconds to work with, Ohman threw up a desperation trey, but failed to connect, giving the Eagles the 65-62 decision.

The narrow defeat drops Liberty to 8-9 on the season and 3-2 in conference play. Winthrop improves to 7-9 overall and 3-3 in the Big South.

Kyle Ohman finished as the game's leading scorer with 20 points, followed by Robinson with 16. Gordon and Burrus each netted 13 and 10 tallies respectively.

Liberty concluded the contest shooting 47.6 percent (20-of-42) from the field, while Winthrop shot 41.8 percent (23-of-55).

The Flames return to the Vines Center on Thursday, continuing conference play against Gardner-Webb. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

Winthrop heads to Clinton, S.C., next Saturday, squaring off with Presbyterian. Tipoff inside the Templeton Center is set for 7 p.m.

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Team Stats

Ohman Kyle

Gordon Evan

Burrus Antwan

Anderson Jeremy