CONWAY, S.C. (AP) -- Liberty coach Dale Layer doesn't care how many losses it took to get his players to the NCAA tournament. <\/p>\n
The Flames became just the second 20-loss team to reach college basketball's marquee event, beating Charleston Southern 87-76 Sunday to win the Big South Conference title. Liberty opened the season with eight straight losses and had never won more than three in a row until this week. Yet, it joined Coppin State in 2008 as the only schools with 20 or more defeats in the field of 68. <\/p>\n
The Flames' .429 winning percentage (15-20) is the lowest for an NCAA tournament team since Oakland (Michigan) had a 12-18 record (.400) in 2005. <\/p>\n
''That's awesome,'' the fourth-year coach said of his team. ''We've got the hats, right?'' <\/p>\n
Yes, you do, Coach. <\/p>\n
The Flames finished their best stretch of basketball this year, winning their fifth in a row - and their fourth game since Tuesday - to take their first Big South tournament crown since 2004. John Caleb Sanders led the way with 27 points and tournament MVP Davon Marshall had 20 off six 3-pointers. <\/p>\n
Marshall and Sanders got things going in a hurry over top-seeded Charleston Southern (19-12) with 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds - and the Flames barely lost their outside touch. Marshall was 6 of 7 from beyond the arc and Liberty finished 9 of 18 on long-range baskets. <\/p>\n
The performance ended a hard-to-imagine run through the field where Liberty defeated home-standing Coastal Carolina and both Big South divisional winners in High Point and Charleston Southern. Sanders said the team began to believe when they topped the Chanticleers 78-61. ''When you can beat Coastal by 20 on their home floor, we knew we could beat anybody in this tournament,'' he said. <\/p>\n
That played out over the week at the HTC Center with the improbable run. <\/p>\n
''We've played four of our best games in these four games of the tournament,'' Sanders said. ''Talk about peaking at the exact right time.'' <\/p>\n
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Liberty , with 15-20 record, earns NCAA berth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CONWAY, S.C. (AP) -- Liberty coach Dale Layer doesn't care how many losses it took to get his players to the NCAA tournament. Continue reading