GWU Drops 88-77 Decision In First Round Of Big South Tourney
March 04, 2009 | Men's Basketball
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Gardner-Webb trimmed a 24-point deficit as
close as three points in the final two minutes, but fell short,
88-77, at Liberty in the first round of the Advance Auto Parts Big
South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.
GWU (13-17) fell behind 22-4 to start the game, and trailed by as
many as 24 points, 37-14, with less than six minutes to play before
halftime in the Vines Center.
The slow start proved devastating for Gardner-Webb by game's end,
but not before a gritty comeback. The ‘Dogs pulled within 15
points by halftime and, after falling behind by 20 points again
early in the final stanza, Coach Rick Scruggs' squad made a mad
dash to pull within 73-70 on a Jonathan Moore three-pointer and a
pair of Aaron Linn free throws with 1:31 to play.
A foul put Liberty at the free throw line on its next trip,
however, and the Flames made 10 consecutive shots at the charity
stripe to keep Gardner-Webb's comeback hopes from settling in.
"Give Liberty credit. They jumped out on top early. We dug
ourselves a hole and couldn't quite climb out of it," said Scruggs.
"We had our chances to come back in the second half, but could not
get over the hump. I'm proud of the way we came back, but Liberty
played extremely well. I think they'll give teams a lot of trouble
in this tournament."
Moore finished with 20 points to pace Gardner-Webb, which got 13
points from Joshua Henley (seven rebounds) and 12 points from
Grayson Flittner. Auryn MacMillan added 10 rebounds in the post for
the ‘Dogs.
Liberty freshman Seth Curry paced the Flames (22-10) with 30 points
(18 in the second half), Kyle Ohman had 18, Anthony Smith scored 16
and Tyler Baker came off the bench to net 14 for the No. 3
seed.
Liberty will play No. 2 seed VMI in the league semifinals on
Thursday night at Radford. All four higher seeds won their games on
Tuesday night. Radford, the tourney's top seed, will host No. 4 UNC
Asheville on Thursday night in the other semifinal.
