Liberty’s Darius McGhee put on a historic performance Saturday night at FGCU, scoring a program record 48 points as the Flames defeated FGCU, 78-75, at Alico Arena.
Liberty improves to 12-6 overall and 3-0 in the ASUN while FGCU drops to 11-7 and 1-3 in conference.
The Flames completed the comeback as FGCU’s largest lead was 11 points in the first half.
McGhee and Shiloh Robinson kickstarted Liberty’s offense to start the game, scoring the team’s first 17 points as McGhee scored nine points in the first seven minutes of the contest. It was a tight ball game throughout most of the first half, but FGCU would end the half on a 16-5 run over the last four minutes to take a 40-31 lead at halftime.
McGhee led all scorers in the first half with 11 points. FGCU dominated the paint in the first 20 minutes, outscoring Liberty 28-8 inside the paint.
Liberty quickly erased FGCU’s lead as the Flames started the half on a 13-0 run to retake the lead with all 13 points coming from McGhee. All throughout the second half McGhee was special, scoring 37 of Liberty’s 48 points in the second half.
Throughout the final half there were five lead changes, and the game was tied three times and with 2:30 left in the game FGCU would take the lead (65-64) of a Caleb Catto three-pointer.
From that point on, Liberty would regain the lead off a McGhee jumper and a Kyle Rode steal at the 1:54 mark to make it 68-65 and the Flames were able to hold on for the victory. Liberty shot 60 percent in the second half and 55 percent from three-point range to come away with the victory.
“Treasure it (watching Darius McGhee play), that guy is a special player, and I was really proud of our group,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “We came out at the beginning of the second half, and it was very instrumental of the outcome of the game.”
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