Liberty defeats Jacksonville, wins fourth in a row to improve to 18-1

Liberty won its fourth straight game with another impressive defensive effort, defeating Jacksonville, 54-37, Saturday night at the Vines Center.

This is the second game where Liberty (1-1. 4-0 ASUN) has held an ASUN opponent to under 40 points as the Dolphins (8-10. 1-2 ASUN) scored a season-low 38 points.

Liberty jumped out to an early lead thanks to Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz scoring eight points in the first nine minutes of the game. Midway through the first half Liberty went on a 13-0 run to take a 16-4 lead as the Dolphins struggled to score, shooting 19 percent (5-26) for the half. Liberty would outscore Jacksonville 12-6 inside the paint in the first half to take a 27-12 lead at the break.

Darius McGhee got hot at the beginning of the second half, scoring eight points in the first seven minutes of the second half to spark Liberty’s offense.

Liberty would go on a 10-0 run to extend its lead to as large as 20 points (39-19) midway through the second half. Liberty’s defense would continue to frustrate Jacksonville all night, limiting the Dolphins to shoot 36 percent in the second half.

“I felt like Thursday night (against North Alabama) our EQ was down a little but you have that in the duration of a season,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “I felt like our guys responded tremendously well today. Tony (Jasick) does a great job and I thought our defense in the first shot was good but I felt like we can improve on the defensive glass because Jacksonville is such a great rebounding team.”