‘Tonight Just Wasn’t Our Night:’ Men’s Basketball Falls Short Against Oklahoma State In NCAA Tournament

Dogged by turnovers and foul trouble from the beginning of the night, Liberty started its fifth March Madness appearance with a strong first half but finished it on a sour note, slumping to a 69-60 loss against Oklahoma State Friday night in the first round of the Big Dance. 

Senior Elijah Cuffee’s 16 points paced the Flames on a night where offensive rhythm for Liberty was at a premium, but his steely performance on both sides of the ball was not enough to drag the Flames out of a quagmire of turnovers and fouls that left them unable to keep pace with the Cowboys. 

“Tonight just wasn’t quite our night,” Coach Ritchie McKay said after the game. 

Before the game, the Flames already knew they had their work cut out for them – Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham is the potential No. 1 draft pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and his 15 points on the night demonstrated his talent. But Liberty locked Cunningham down in the first half, holding him to one point and taking in a 30-27 halftime lead after McGhee and Preston combined for a total of 17 points. 

But McGhee and Preston would dry up in the second half, scoring only six points between them – while Cunningham found his rhythm, first with free throws and then from the field, knocking down 14 second-half points and icing the game late with a contested 3-pointer over Cuffee. 

“He’s a great player, so I’m not sure how much you are going to control him,” McKay said. “He got in foul trouble in the first half, which made him a little less aggressive. (But) he’s a takeover-type player. … He got to the line and made it go in a little bit, made a big 3 there and led them to victory – which he’s done a multitude of times this season.”

With a player like Cunningham on the opposition, the Flames needed to play a characteristically tight defensive game and use every possession wisely. Their plays just did not come together, however, with Oklahoma State’s physicality regularly forcing sloppy passes and keeping the Flames off rhythm. 

Liberty averaged 9.7 turnovers per game this season – but Friday the team made 18, nearly doubling that average and demonstrating just how off-kilter the offensive rhythm became as the game wore on. 

“It was the difference in the game,” McKay said. 

Even with their strong first-half performance, the Flames ran into foul issues early on. McGhee and Rode both had two fouls by the end of the half, leaving them on thin ice and keeping them on the bench for much of the beginning of the second half. 

In the first half, Liberty held the edge, leading by as many as six points. McGhee showed probably his brightest moment of the game when he seized momentum all on his own, scoring a 3-pointer and a layup within 20 seconds to give Liberty its first lead of the night. But the second half was a different story, with Cunningham slowly finding his rhythm as Liberty barely kept pace. 

The lead changed hands a few times as Cuffee tried to wrestle control of the game back from the Cowboys, but once Oklahoma State took the lead with 17:23 left to go, Liberty never fully recovered. Instead, the Flames found themselves plagued by fouls, with three players finishing with four fouls and two with three – handing the Cowboys 18 points from free throws in the second half.

“They (the Cowboys) were incredibly physical,” McKay said. “It’s hard to simulate in practice what they’re doing. We hadn’t played in thirteen days and haven’t played a team like that since probably Missouri.”  

Spearheaded by Cuffee, Liberty had a late rally in the second half as it tried to find a foothold in the game, but every time Liberty cut the deficit down, a misplaced pass or a poorly-timed foul handed the Cowboys a couple points. Cunningham’s nine points down the stretch in the last three minutes, including the 3-pointer that cemented the win, were too much for the Flames in the end. 

With the first-round loss, Liberty is out of the NCAA Tournament, while Oklahoma State faced Oregon State in the second round March 21, losing 80-70 to the Beavers.

John Nekrasov is the Sports Editor. Follow him on Twitter at @John_nekrasov.