MBB Game Day: Kennesaw State
3/1/2025 11:58:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game Day Coverage
- Liberty vs. Kennesaw State
- Tipoff: Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Radio: LFSN Radio
- Live Stats
- Liberty (23-5, 11-4 CUSA) will host Kennesaw State (16-13, 8-8 CUSA) on Sunday for Senior Day in what will be the Flames' final home regular season contest. Prior to the game, the program will honor Jayvon Maughmer, Taelon Peter, Gabriel McKay and Kaden Metheny. The team will also honor four managers - Tyson Gage, Thomas Bentley, Seth Hildebrand and Luke Yoder.
- The Flames are 9-1 over their last eight games and have won six straight to move into first place in CUSA. Liberty bested Jax State 59-55 on Thursday night in a battle for first place. Meanwhile, Kennesaw State fell 76-61 to FIU in its most recent and has dropped three of its last four.
- Liberty is 12-2 overall at home, including a 6-2 mark in league play. The Flames have not lost at home in nearly a month-and-a-half (Jan. 16 to UTEP). KSU is 3-8 in road games and 2-5 in CUSA road matchups.
- This will be the 13th all-time meeting between the two teams and second with both teams in Conference USA. Liberty holds a 10-2 edge in the overall series and topped Kennesaw State 76-68 in this season's first meeting back on Jan. 30 at the KSU Convocation Center. The loss was KSU's first at home on the season. Kaden Metheny led the way with 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Zach Cleveland finished with 14 points and a game-high six assists, and Colin Porter added 13 points and a career-high-matching five steals. Liberty shot 50 percent (28-of-56) on the evening and was 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from three-point territory. Meanwhile, the Liberty defense held Kennesaw State to 39.1 percent (27-of-69) from the field and 18.8 percent (6-of-32) from long distance.
Liberty topped Kennesaw State in each of the first nine all-time meetings before the Owls topped the Flames twice during the 2022-23 season in what was Liberty's final year in the Atlantic Sun Conference. - The Flames rank in the top 15 nationally and lead CUSA in: three-point field goal percentage defense (No. 1, 27.2), fewest fouls per game (No. 4, 12.6), scoring defense (No. 6, 60.9), effective field goal percentage (No. 7, 57.7), scoring margin (No. 9, 14.3), assist/turnover ratio (No. 13, 1.61) and winning percentage (No. 13, 82.1).
- Liberty is 68th in the nation in the current NCAA Men's Basketball NET Rankings and No. 68 in the KenPom rankings. Kennesaw State is No. 155 in the NET and No. 147 in KenPom.
- The Flames are one of 24 teams in the nation with 23 or more wins on the season.
- Liberty's four-player senior class has played in a combined 515 college basketball games.
- Liberty's six-game winning streak is its second longest of the year. The Flames won nine straight games from Nov. 17-Dec. 21. The Flames have won five straight games at Liberty Arena.
- Liberty (11-4 CUSA) has won 10 or more league games in eight of the last 10 seasons. The Flames have also won 20 or more games in eight of the last nine years.
- The Flames are in first place in the Conference USA standings for the first time ever.
- Colin Porter ranks 13th in the country and first in Conference USA in assist/turnover ratio (3.03). The junior guard is ninth in program history for career assists (378).
- Kaden Metheny leads the team in three-pointers made (77) and threes per game (2.85). Metheny ranks No. 3 in CUSA in threes per contest and No. 4 in the league in triples per game.
- The Flames are 21-1 this season when outshooting their opponents and 11-0 when shooting 50 percent or better.
- KSU's Adrian Wooley (18.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) has been named CUSA Freshman of the Week 10 times, tied for the most in league history.
- The Flames have only trailed at the half two times this year, with both occasions coming in the last four games. Liberty came back to win both of those games (at NM State and at UTEP).
- Liberty has held eight opponents under 60 points on the year and two straight foes to 55 points or less.
- Liberty's average margin of victory in its 23 wins is 18.4 points. The Flames' five losses this year have been by a combined 22 points.
- The Flames are No. 5 in the College Insider Men's Mid-Major Top 25®, up two spots from last week. The highest the Flames reached this season was No. 3 in back-to-back weeks earlier in the year.
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