Liberty Flames men’s basketball, women’s swimming and diving teams produce stunning victories over winter break
The winter break was a historic month for the Flames, with both the men’s basketball and women’s swimming and diving teams producing stunning victories.
With an eye on their upcoming conference schedule, the Flames basketball team played five non-conference games on the road, finishing 2018 with a climactic 73-58 victory over UCLA.
Liberty faced UCLA Dec. 29 in Los Angeles, triumphing in a famous result for the Flames, their first victory against a PAC-12 team in program history. Junior guard Caleb Homesley led the offense with 21 points in the historic upset.
“The way that we pass the ball, move it — the way we move on offense is different,” Homesley said. “Any time we can push in transition this year, I feel like we kind of exploit that.”
Liberty’s results against a strong list of non-conference opposition contributed to a confident start to their conference schedule, with a 7-0 record going into their next game Jan. 27. Junior forward Myo Baxter-Bell connected the team’s growth in mental strength to some of last season’s difficulties.
SPIRIT — The Liberty cheer squad traveled to Florida for a competition in January and placed 7th in their division.
“I just think we’re more mature — we’re getting mature,” Baxter-Bell said. “We remember where we were last year, and we remember we were having a good year last year and lost to some teams in our conference.”
Before any talk of postseason play, however, Coach Ritchie McKay wants his players to focus on consistency for the rest of the regular season.
“From mid-January to the end of February — the teams that are getting better during those six weeks are the teams that are playing in March, and if we want to be one of those we have to keep improving,” McKay said.
In the pool, the women’s swimming and diving team also produced some impressive performances over the break.
Earning another historic victory for Liberty athletics, the Lady Flames defeated Florida Gulf Coast University in a dual-meet Jan. 5, breaking FGCU’s undefeated record in dual-meets that had stood since 2008. Coach Jake Shellenberger emphasized the importance of the result against Liberty’s top conference rival.
“Gulf Coast and Liberty have been at the top of our conference since we started, and it’ll remain that way,” Shellenberger said. “We’re head and shoulders above the rest of the conference, and we’ve beaten them once at the conference meet — we’ve now beaten them once in a dual meet.”
On an individual level, four Liberty swimmers competed for Olympic Trials places at Winter Nationals Dec. 1, with senior Alicia Finnigan securing a spot in the 200m butterfly. Shellenberger spoke about her value to the team in her last season at Liberty.
“We know that whenever we go to a meet, we’ll be able to count on her to race well,” Shellenberger said.
In Finnigan’s last season, she has an opportunity to win a second conference title for Liberty University. The Lady Flames are now on a 13-0 win streak this season, and Shellenberger believes this could be the year Liberty reclaims the title for the first time since 2014.
“We need to finish,” Shellenberger said. “We just need to keep the pedal to the metal, as they say. We gotta show up and swim well, dive well and then we have to do what we’ve done all year.”
The Lady Flames basketball team maintained a record of 3-3 through winter break.
Liberty’s athletes continued to pursue excellence throughout break.