Liberty Downs Asheville, 92-80 - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site

Feb. 24, 2005

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Larry Blair scored 23 points and Liberty ended the game on a 10-0 run as the Flames recorded a 92-80 Big South Conference victory over homestanding UNC Asheville Thursday night at Justice Center.

The Flames (13-14, 11-5) BSC had their entire starting five in double figures. The win clinched second place in the regular season for Liberty. The Flames are finished with the regular season and will play next in the quarterfinals of the Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Tournament Tuesday night at home starting at 7 p.m.

The Bulldogs (11-15, 8-7 BSC) had their three-game winning streak snapped. UNCA also missed out on an opportunity to clinch a first-round home game during next week's Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Tournament. The Bulldogs can still clinch the third seed and a home game for the tournament with a victory at Radford Saturday night.

Asheville was led by senior forward Bryan McCullough with 17 points. Oliver Holmes and Omar Collington finished with 12 points each.

The Flames has David Dees with 16 points. Brian Woodson contributed 15 points, while Glyn Turner finished with 13 points. Leo Lightbrourne added 13 points.

Liberty led for most of the game as it built a 15-point lead early in the second half at 59-44 on a Woodson lay-up.

The Bulldogs chipped away and finally closed to 80-78 on a Steven Rush trey with 2:53 remaining. UNCA forced a Liberty miss and came down with a chance to tie. But McCullough missed on a 15-footer and Turner put the Flames in front, 82-78 on a tap-in with 1:49 left.

Liberty finished the game with eight more points, going 5-of-6 from the free throw line and a trey from Blair to complete the season sweep of the Bulldogs.

"Liberty is a very good team that played really well on offense in the first half," stated Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "We made some pretty good runs at them in the second half but Liberty just wouldn't crack, and you have to give them all the credit for holding on when they had to.

"We hurt ourselves in the second half with some missed lay-ups and missed free throws," added Biedenbach. "In the first half, we gave them way too many open looks on defense and they hurt us with their three-point shooting."

Liberty was 6-of-11 in the opening half from beyond the arc and roared to 50-42 halftime lead. Dees had 13 points in the opening half as the Flames led 50-36 before Collington sank two treys in the final minute to get UNCA within eight at halftime.

The Flames also controlled the boards in the first half as they outrebounded the Bulldogs, 22-11. They finished with a 46-38 advantage. Blair and Lighbourne finished each with nine rebounds for Liberty. Chad Mohn led the Asheville rebounding effort with nine rebounds.

UNCA finishes the regular season at Radford Saturday night starting at 7 p.m.