#2 Taelon Peter
MBB Game Day: New Mexico State
2/11/2025 6:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Game Day Coverage
- Liberty at New Mexico State (Pan American Center | Las Cruces, N.M.)Â
- Tipoff: Thursday at 9 p.m. EST/7 p.m. MST
- TV:Â ESPN+
- Radio:Â LFSN Radio
- Live Stats
- Liberty (19-5, 7-4 CUSA) will face New Mexico State (12-11, 5-5 CUSA) in a CUSA road contest, Thursday night at the Pan American Center.Â
- The Flames have won five of their last seven games and went 2-0 last weekend at home. Liberty bested LA Tech 77-53, followed by a 64-61 triumph over Sam Houston. Meanwhile, NM State has dropped five of its last six games. The Aggies' most recent action was a 66-63 home loss to UTEP this past Saturday.
- Liberty is 5-2 overall on the road this year, including a 3-2 mark in league play. NM State is 7-4 at home overall but only 2-3 at home in CUSA games.
- This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams. Each of the first three matchups have come in the last two seasons, with Liberty holding a 2-1 edge in the series. The home team has won each of the three meetings. On Jan. 18, the Flames topped the Aggies 68-60 at Liberty Arena for their first league loss.. NM State entered the game in first place in the league standings at 4-0. Colin Porter led four Flames in double figures with 14 points, followed by a trio of Liberty players with 11 points in Owen Aquino, Zach Cleveland and Taelon Peter. A stout Flames defense held NM State to 36.1 percent shooting on the night.
- Last season, Liberty bested NM State 83-58 on Feb. 29, 2024 at home. The Aggies won the first-ever meeting between the two squads, edging the Flames 79-73 in overtime (Feb. 1, 2024) at the Pan American Center.
- Liberty ranks in the top 20 nationally and leads CUSA in three-point percentage defense (No. 3, 27.6), effective field goal percentage (No. 3, 58.2), assist/turnover ratio (No. 6, 1.68), scoring defense (No. 8, 61.8), scoring margin (No. 10, 15.3), threes per game (No. 15, 10.4), field goal percentage (No. 17, 49.1) and winning percentage (No. 19, 79.2)
- A win on Thursday would give the Flames (19-5) their eighth 20-win season in the last nine years.
- Liberty is 75th in the nation in the current NCAA Men's Basketball NET Rankings and  No. 74 in the KenPom rankings. NM State sits at No. 178 in the NET and No. 168 in KenPom.
- Taelon Peter is the Flames' leading scorer (15.3 ppg) in conference play so far through 11 league games. The guard from Arkansas is averaging 16.8 ppg over his last nine games.
- Colin Porter ranks 20th in the country and first in Conference USA in assist/turnover ratio (3.06). The junior point guard has connected on 21 of his last 40 three-pointers (52.5 percent) over the last nine games and has scored in double figures in six straight, the longest streak of his career.Â
- Zach Cleveland (717 career points) needs 13 points to move into the top 50 on the program's all-time scoring list. Porter (755 points) and Kaden Metheny (736 points) both recently joined the list.Â
- Liberty has not trailed at halftime in any game this season. The Flames are 16-4 when leading at the break and hold a 3-1 record in games in which they were tied at intermission.
- The Flames are 17-1 this season when outshooting their opponents and 11-0 when shooting 50 percent or better.
- Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay (263 wins at Liberty) is the winningest coach in program history and achieved his milestone 260th win with the Flames on Jan. 25 at FIU. McKay and Lady Flames women's head coach Carey Green (581 wins) are both No. 1 in school history for their respective programs. Liberty is one of five Division I schools in the country (other: Creighton, Northern Iowa, Boise State and St. Bonaventure) where both men's and women's teams' active head coaches are their program record holder for career wins.
- This will be Liberty's 16th all-time game on Feb. 13. The Flames sport an 11-4 record on this date and have won seven straight matchups dating back to 1999. Liberty last played on this date four years ago in 2021, an 80-60 ASUN home victory over North Florida. Darius McGhee led all scorers with 22 points, and Liberty shot 54.9 percent for the game. The win was the second half of a back-to-back with the Ospreys. The night before, the Flames topped the Ospreys 73-61.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballJJ Harper: It's Bigger Than Me
Tuesday, February 24
Coach McKay Talks About The WKU Game
Sunday, February 22
Colin Porter Talks About The WKU Game
Sunday, February 22
Coach McKay Talks About The Win Over FIU
Friday, February 20