One week ago when Liberty was going through its practice the day before facing Presbyterian at the Templeton Center, there was a familiar yet different feel during the session.
The players were ferociously competing on each possession. The energy level was where it hasn’t been since early January when the flu bug forced the Flames to scale back the intense nature of practices.
With the sickness behind them, the Flames have begun to look more like the team that at one point was near the top of the Big South Conference standings. LU has won its past two games, including Thursday night’s 16-point triumph that knocked Winthrop out of a three-way tie for first, and eyes a third-straight victory today at 2 p.m. against Longwood at Willett Hall.
“We’re kind of returning to form and it’s made our practices different,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said Thursday. “I had a feeling that we were trending the right direction — I want to say a week ago Friday — because we started practicing really hard. That’s good for us. Obviously if we can keep improving, hopefully we can see ourselves continuing to compete and have a chance to win the game down the stretch.”
The Flames (14-10, 5-6 Big South) lost five straight games to fall to a tie for seventh in the conference standings. The first three losses in that stretch were due to letdowns in the second half to Longwood, Radford and High Point.
The final two setbacks to UNC Asheville and Campbell were marred by slow starts. Asheville led 21-4 after less than 7 minutes and Campbell scored the first 14 points in a little more than 3 minutes.
With the Flames feeling better and settling on a lineup without Lovell Cabbil (right-knee injury) and Isaiah Williams (indefinite suspension), LU has gotten off to strong starts in the past two victories.
The Flames raced out to a 15-2 lead against Presbyterian one week ago and led Winthrop 27-11 after 11 minutes of play.
“After being humbled and losing five in a row, I think we decided to get back to who we are and that’s to rely on one another in the way we play,” McKay said. “ … We’re going to start from scratch every day and we’re going to give our very best effort and see where it goes. This is a group that has high character. I feel like there’s still a lot of basketball left, so we’re going to keep trying to improve.”
Central to the turnaround is Scottie James’ re-emergence as a go-to scorer in the post.
The 6-foot-7 forward scored 19 points in four games while dealing with and recovering from flu-like symptoms, and he’s averaging 16 points and shooting 66.7 percent from the floor in the past four games.
James scored 15 first-half points and made his first six shots against the Eagles.
He had eight points on 4-of-9 shooting when the Flames faced the Lancers (6-18, 3-8) on Jan. 12.
“We’re definitely going to come out and try to bring the same intensity that we brought [Thursday] and try to do that for 40 minutes,” James said.
The Lancers followed up the victory over the Flames by knocking off Campbell on Jan. 15, but have lost five straight to fall into the cellar of the Big South standings. The past two losses have been painful to digest for Longwood after seeing a late lead slip away against Gardner-Webb and then failing to capitalize on opportunities versus Presbyterian.
McKay said the Lancers’ intensity allowed Longwood to end the Jan. 12 meeting on a 14-0 run and claim the victory, and the Flames need to dictate the tempo and intensity level to post their third straight victory in Willett Hall.
“Our character is really high on our team and I think it starts in practice,” redshirt-sophomore forward Caleb Homesley said. “I think that the last couple of practices that we’ve had were really energized and I thought that everybody was really detailed about what we were doing.
“We just have to bring it like we did [Thursday against Winthrop].”
