ST. THOMAS, US Virgin Islands – Liberty's Colin Porter scored 16 points, all off of four three-pointers, and the Flames held off a late McNeese rally to defeat the Cowboys 62-58 here Monday night to claim the championship at the US Virgin Island Paradise Jam.
The loss dropped the Cowboys to 4-3 on the season while Liberty improved to 7-1. McNeese entered the game on a three-game winning streak and ranked No. 13 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll while Liberty is ranked at No. 9.
Five Cowboy scored in double-figures, led by
Christian Shumate's 13 points behind 6 of 8 shooting.
Sincere Parker added 12 points,
Quadir Copeland 11 and
Javohn Garcia and
Brandon Murray 10 each.
Liberty's Jayvon Maughmer added 12 points as the team's only other double-figure scorer.
The teams played to a 29-29 tie at the half and McNeese led 33-31 after a couple of Garcia free throws with 18:45 remaining. Liberty followed with a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 40-33 lead with 14:45 left on the clock.
A Garcia jumper trimmed the lead to 40-35 but Liberty got back-to-back 3s from Isaiah Ihnen and Taelon Peter to go up 46-35 with 12:07 to play.
Four minutes later, Porter hit his third 3 on the night to give his team a 51-41 lead but that's when the Cowboys began to chip away.
Four straight free throws, two by Murray and two by Copeland, cut the gap to six at 51-45, then after Kaden Metheny hit a three to up the lead to nine points, the Cowboys scored six straight to cut the lead to 54-51 after two more Copeland free throws with 3:22 on the clock.
Porter struck again for his fourth and final three at the 2:32 mark to put Liberty up 57-51 but McNeese answered with a Murray layup followed by a freebie from Copeland and another Murray basket to cut the lead to 57-56 with 1:05 to play.
After a couple of Porter free throws for Liberty made it 59-56, Parker drove the lane for an emphatic dunk with 51 second to pull McNeese back to within one.
The Cowboys had a chance to tie or go on top with 15 seconds left, but Murray missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Liberty got the ball and was quickly sent to the free throw line where Ihnen made one of two to give Liberty a 60-58 lead with 11 seconds to play.
Joe Charles came down with the rebound on the missed free throw and found Garcia where he drove the lane but his layup was blocked from behind and Liberty was able to get the rebound, draw a foul and make two free throws to close out the game.
McNeese hit 45 percent from the field for the game (21-47) and was 1 of 12 from three-point range while sinking 15 of 18 for 83 percent at the line.
Liberty made 42 percent of its shots (20-48), went 11 of 31 for 36 percent from long range and 11 of 14 at the line for 79 percent.
The Cowboys held a 31-26 rebounding advantage.
Both Sincere and Shumate were named to the all-tournament team.
McNeese will return to action on December 3 when it hosts Santa Clara at 6 p.m. in the Legacy Center.
