On a night where two of Liberty’s starting five fouled out, its bench came up huge in a 74-67 win over Florida Gulf Coast.
The Flames improve to 21-5 overall and 10-1 in the ASUN Conference, while FGCU drops to 10-16 and 5-6 in the conference.
After both teams struggled on offense in the first half, both teams were exceptional in the second half. Both teams combined to shoot 50.9 percent (26-51) in the second half and every time Liberty tried to pull away, Schadrac Casimir kept FGCU in the ball game, scoring 33 points on the night.
After Flames’ starters Lovell Cabbil Jr. and Elijah Cuffee fouled out in the second half, Liberty’s bench stepped up, scoring 21 points to pull out the single-digit victory.
“I had a feeling this was going to be hard,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “Florida Gulf Coast is used to competing at the top of the league on an annual basis and they’ve been playing a lot better. I felt like coming off the Stetson game, not playing as well as we could have and FGCU playing well, I knew it was going to be tough. I thought our guys did the hard little things that lead to winning and I was really proud that we were able to come out with a team victory.”
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