Keydets overcome by Liberty in second half; fall 77-69 in basketball

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Keydets overcome by Liberty in second half; fall 77-69 in basketball

LYNCHBURG, Va. - In a tale of two halves, Liberty used a 17-4 run late in the second period to take a lead that it would never relinquish as the Flames downed the visiting Keydets, 77-69, Tuesday evening, in the VinesCenter.

VMI (3-3) had the hot shooting hands in the opening period as theKeydets shot 59.4 percent from the field (19-for-32), while holding the Flames to just 38.5 percent (10-for-26) in the opening period to take a six-point lead into halftime, 42-36. Both teams held slight leads in the first 16 minutes of the game, until VMI used an 11-4 run over the final four minutes of the period to take its six-point lead.

The Keydets continued to control the pace of play in the first part of the second half as Radee Skipworth (Jr., F, Hershey, Pa.) gave the Keydets a seven-point lead, 58-51, with 11:58 left to play as he converted on one of two free throws.

However, the Flames would start to make their move over the next five minutes as a 9-2 run, capped by a free throws by Ryan Mantlo (Jr., G, Grand Junction, Colo.) tied the game at 60-60 with 6:57 left to play.

Liberty (4-2) continued its push over the next two minutes of action as Vincent Okotie (Sr., F, El Cajon, Calif.) scored seven of the game's next nine points to give the Flames a six-point lead with 4:37 left to play. The Flames continued to extend their lead over the next several possessions and led by as much as 10 points before Jason Conley (So., F, Chevy Chase, Md.) put back an offensive rebound with just seconds left on the clock to cut the lead to its final margin of eight points.

The Flames outscored the Keydets by 14 points in the decisive second period as they shot 59.1 percent (13-for-22) from the field in the period, while holding VMI to just 30.0 percent (9-for-30) shooting in the second. Another deciding factor was found in the rebounding column as Liberty outrebounded VMI by nine boards, 42-33, and converted its 14 offensive boards into 21 second-chance points.

The Flames were paced by a pair of 20-point performances as Okotie and Mantlo both reached the mark with Okotie shooting 6-for-10 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range, while Mantlo netted a career-high on a 7-for-12 outing from the field and added five steals and four assists.

Conley, who scored a game-high 28 points on 12-of-27 shooting from the field, led VMI; however, the Flames' defensive efforts outside the arc held the sophomore to an 0-for-8 outing from three-point range. Conley also recorded a game-high 11 rebounds, while Skipworth added 17 points and nine rebounds. (story courtesy LU sports information)

Head Coach Bart Bellairs - "Hopefully, we learned a great lesson tonight. This is a great environment and this is going to be huge rivalry, so we're going to have to come here ready to play 40 minutes. We played about 30 good minutes and 10 terrible minutes. I think Liberty did a good job defensively, but we settled. We just never got into an offensive rhythm in the last little bit. We were really struggling, and then again, I think we tried too hard in some ways. We tried to duck our head and go and we didn't see the rest of the floor. A huge play was win we were down by five and we got stripped and they got an "and one" down the other end. We had our chances, but we didn't have enough killer instinct down the end to finish it off."
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