A tale of two halves

As the first half clock wound down to 15 seconds, Evan Gordon called for the clear out in the lane. Iona’s Trinity Fields was caught by the pick as Gordon crashed into the paint. Three pairs of hands went up as Gordon tried the layup. It bounced off the rim as Mike Glover pulled it down.

The buzzer sounded, and the Flames limped into the locker room. Gordon glanced at the scoreboard like it was a gravestone. The epitaph read “Liberty 18, visitors 44.”

Saturday’s afternoon matchup was a tale of two starkly opposite halves for the Flames. Despite the player’s refusal to quit, a 26-point halftime deficit proved irreparable as the Flames fell to Iona 77-57.

“We played 20 good minutes and 20 poor minutes,” head coach Dale Layer said.

Iona controlled the first half from tipoff. Two 3-pointers from guard Jemel Jenkins and four paint points from big man Alejo Rodriguez ran the score up 10-3 within the first four and a half minutes.

The Gaels edged away consistently after that.

Over the next 10 minutes, the nation’s second-leading point guard (7.5 assists per game before Saturday) Scott Machado broke down Liberty’s defense. En route to picking up three assists, Machado found the Gael’s leading scorer, 6’7” freshman Mike Glover for an easy layup, Sean Armand for a 3-pointer and set up Rodriguez for a dunk, ballooning the Gaels’ lead to 13.

“They got what they wanted early on and picked us apart,” Liberty guard David Minaya said.

The Gaels closed out the first half with a 22-4 point extortion in the last six and a half minutes.

Machado already had six assists on the night and Rodriguez was already in double-digits.

“They had us on our heels and they were the aggressor,” Layer said.

At the half, the stat sheet was the knell that rung the grim dirge.

The Gaels tallied eight backbreaking 3-pointers in the first half to Liberty’s one.

Iona registered 25 rebounds to Liberty’s nine, allowing them to put up 17 second-chance points to Liberty’s none.

“(We) can’t give a good team that many extra possessions,” Coach Layer said. “They made us pay off each one of them.”

The second half played out much like movie “Hometown Legend.” The movie where a team set up a blackboard that read “0-0” at halftime to inspire players to play one good half of football. They won the half, but lost the game.
So was the scenario Saturday in the Vines Center.

The Flames fought hard, played distinctly improved basketball but still came up well short.

John Brown almost single-handedly turned around Liberty’s rebounding woes, snagging nine boards in the second-half — the most of any player in the half.

Smarter shots and more effective paint-work resulted in 55 percent shooting — a positive nod in light of lethargic 31 percent shooting the first half.

Gordon had a double-digit second half, and the Flames bench outscored the Gaels second-stringers 12-4.
But the gap created by the languid first half was too much.

At the final buzzer, Liberty outscored Iona 39-33 in the second half, but the scoreboard still showed the 20-point loss.

“They came out ready to play, and we were flat,” Minaya said. “They took it to us and by the time we started fighting, it was a little too late.”

The loss drops the Flames to 19-10 overall and boosts Iona to 18-10.

The Flames continue conference play Feb. 24 at Winthrop.