
Liberty Sets Record with Win Over High Point
2/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Liberty men's basketball team continued its impressive showing in conference play, Saturday night, defeating High Point in the Vines Center, 65-54. Liberty's 13th conference win sets a program record for most Big South victories in a single season.
Sitting comfortably in second place in the Big South standings, the Flames improve to 19-8 overall and 13-2 in conference play. High Point falls to 10-15 on the season and 6-9 in the Big South. Liberty extends its Vines Center win streak over the Panthers to nine games. The Flames also improve to 12-2 in the facility this season.
Jesse Sanders put the Flames on the board first in the contest with an acrobatic layup and a free throw after the play. Du'Vaughn Maxwell answered on the other end with a tip-in to cut the Liberty lead to one. Liberty responded with two more layups from Sanders and Brown to take a 7-2 advantage at 18:04.
Following an Earnest Bridges bucket, Sanders continued to find room inside, regaining the five-point lead for Liberty with a third layup of the early-going. Shay Shine sliced the home team's advantage to a pair with a three-pointer. The Flames then answered with four straight points off free throws from Joel Vander Pol and a Daivd Minaya jumper to make it 13-7 at 13:17.
High Point cut the Flames' advantage back to two with baskets from Panthers leading scorer Nick Barbour and Tehran Cox. Gordon pushed the lead back to four with a finger roll to give the home team a 15-11 edge at 10:40.
A scoring drought ensued, with neither team finding the basket over the next 3:17. Gordon broke up the dry spell, hitting a long two-point jumper from the far side to put Liberty up by six points at 7:23.
Jesse Sanders helped his younger brother John Caleb light up the scoreboard nearly two minutes later. The older Sanders found his sibling behind the three-point arc and passed off the rock, which the freshman converted into a trey to put the Flames up by nine, 20-11, at 5:28.
High Point climbed within four points thanks to a layup and a free throw by Cox and a Justin Cheek fast break dunk. Gordon then thickened the Flames' cushion with 3:50 remaining in the period, knocking down a trey to make it 23-16.
After a tip-in by Cheek and Minaya jumper, Barbour posted four unanswered points, cutting the Flames' lead to three. As a result of the quartet of tallies, the Flames carried a 25-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Liberty shot 35.7 percent (10-of-28) from the field in the period, while High Point concluded the half with 38.5 percent shooting (10-of-26). The difference came at the three-point arc, with the Flames making two shots from downtown compared to one for the Panthers.
Gordon and Jesse Sanders led all scorers at the half with seven points apiece. Barbour paced the Panthers with six markers.
High Point came out swinging in the early minutes of the second half, receiving layups from Elliott and Maxwell to take its first lead of the contest, 26-25, at 19:08. Barbour tacked on a free throw to give the Panthers a two-point lead, but Joel Vander Pol responded with two points of his own at the other end to knot the contest at 27.
After a Barbour trey put the Panthers up three, Liberty recaptured the lead, 31-30, courtesy of a basket by Brown and two foul shots from Jesse Sanders. The Flames added to their lead over the next 2:35, adding six more points to produce a 10-0 run. John Caleb Sanders capped off the burst with a three-pointer to make it 37-30 at 12:40.
High Point made it a two-point game with five straight points, but Jesse Sanders followed in his younger brother's footsteps by nailing a trey to put Liberty ahead by five. Not to be outdone, John Caleb fired off another three-point basket 34 ticks later to put the Flames ahead, 43-35 at 10:17.
The Panthers continued the roller-coaster trend, reeling off seven points to put the visitors within one. Gordon then countered with four tallies off a free throw and a three-pointer to increase the advantage to five, 47-42, with 6:49 left on the clock.
Liberty continued to distance itself in the closing minutes. Minaya upped the Flames' margin to 10 with a jumper at 3:20. Thirty-one seconds later, the redshirt junior threw down a dunk off a fast break to make it a 12-point game, 59-47. Liberty hung on in the remaining three minutes to earn the 65-54 decision.
Barbour led all scorers with 21 tallies. Jesse Sanders and Gordon finished with 16 points, respectively, to top Liberty's scoring chart.
The Flames shot 39.3 percent from the field, hitting 22-of-56 attempts on the night. High Point finished the evening shooting 43.1 percent, knocking down 22-of-51 shots. Despite being outscored 32-22 in the paint, Liberty won the battle from three-point range, 18-9.
High Point returns to the Millis Center on Tuesday to play host to Winthrop. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.
Liberty heads to Lexington, Va., on Tuesday to take on VMI. The Flames bested the Keydets in the two teams' previous contest this season on Jan. 20, earning a 100-82 decision over the conference foe. VMI is coming off a 71-58 victory over Radford earlier this afternoon. Tipoff for Tuesday's tilt is set for 7 p.m.