After loudly cheering their fortune in the visitors’ dressing quarters, the Liberty players – who just 10 days earlier had been beaten by 40 points on the road at N.C. State and before that had lost twice at the ESPN Events tournament in Kissimmee, Florida where the Flyers had played as well — had headed to their bus for the victorious trip back to Virginia.
Meanwhile, just beyond the mouth of the players’ tunnel, De’Shayne Montgomery, the Flyers’ most dynamic player through the team’s non-conference play, stood talking intently to someone who had come to see him play.
He still wore his uniform and similarly wasn’t able to shed the loss either.
“Man, we was all flat,” he finally said in quiet reflection. “We didn’t have any energy.”
In a private conversation outside the pressroom, Bennett had referenced the Grinch, the Dr. Seuss and later Jim Carrey character who stole Christmas.
In that tale the grouchy, green recluse with the heart “two sizes too small” attempts to ruin Christmas for the joyful people of Whoville. The first house he ransacks, he steals the decorations, the gifts, the food, even the Christmas tree.
Down on the court, Montgomery knew how those victimized folks felt. He’d just been “grinched” by Liberty.
He came into the game averaging 16.4 ppg, tied with Bennett for best among the Flyers. He was also a defensive playmaker for the Flyers. He led the team in steals and was second in the Atlantic 10.
The Flames held him scoreless and he had no steals, just one rebound and turned the ball over twice.
He said Liberty hadn’t done anything special to him:
“No, not for real. I just couldn’t hit shots (0-for-4) and that was in my head. Then I tried to impact the game defensively, but I couldn’t do that either.”
That frustration that failure was encapsulated in one final defensive effort.
Liberty had a one-point lead, 62-61, and the ball when UD called time out with 13 seconds left.
If the Flyers could make a quick defensive play, they had a chance to win with a basket or two free throws.
Montgomery was on Liberty’s 5-foot-11 senior guard Kaden Metheny, who got the ball and instantly broke for the basket. With the taller, more athletic Flyer on him — and the fact that Metheny already had had two shots blocked in this game — there was a chance the Flames would be thwarted here.
But the next thing you know, there was Montgomery, sprawled face first on the court and Metheny went in for an old-school lay-up that gave Liberty the three-point advantage and put UD in desperation mode.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
“I got caught up in the dude’s feet and I tripped and fell and he made the lay-up,” Montgomery said. “I knew we were in trouble then.
“Laying there I was thinking, “Ain’t no way this is happening!”
‘Right now, this hurts’
UD was outplayed by Liberty and both Bennett and Montgomery made note that the Flames coach — veteran Ritchie McKay — had them prepared for everything UD did.
They kept Montgomery from his usual drives to the hoop — there were no chances for alley-oop passes and his rock-the-rim dunks — so he shot from the outside.
It was the same for many of the Flyers, and afterwards Grant said his team often settled for shots from long range. Over half of the Flyers’ 53 field goal attempts (27) were hoisted from beyond the arc.
L’Etang scored 19 points, but the smaller Flames challenged him inside. Although Liberty’s post player Zach Cleveland gave up 6 inches to UD’s 7-foot-1 big man, he was superb. He finished with 12 points, 16 rebounds, three blocked shots, two steals and seven assists.
Malcolm Thomas, who shares the UD pivot position with L’Etang and had scored 24 points in the last two games, also was held scoreless. He played just 4 minutes, 29 seconds in the first half and then never played again.
Asked what happened, Grant gave a brief and terse explanation:
“Ankle … he wasn’t able to go.”
Asked about Thomas’s status going forward, Grant said: “I have no idea.”
Even though it was the Flyers worst outing of the season, they led by 10 at the 8-minute mark of the first half and after trailing by as many as seven in the second half, had reclaimed the lead, 61-58, on three point play by Keonte Jones with 2:28 left.
Liberty then scored the last six points of the game.
With 12.4 seconds left, UD called a timeout and Grant drew up plans for a final three-point attempt to tie the game.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
The ball went to Bennett — he’s the team’s veteran playmaker and already had 17 points thanks in part to three three-pointers — but Liberty put Cleveland — who’s nine inches taller — on him.
“The plan was for me to make a play, but they put their five man on me. I saw Jacob (Conner) and felt like he was open, so I passed it,” Bennett said. Conner got the ball for a deep three, but he was rushed and didn’t have a chance to square up and the shot was off the mark.
Even with big victories over Marquette, Georgetown and Florida State, this loss — to a Quadrant IV team — may well hurt the Flyers with the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
The good news, Montgomery said, was that Grant reminded them that they can script their future in the upcoming 18-game A-10 schedule.
“Right now, this hurts,” he said. “I’m hard on myself and so is my family. I definitely know I didn’t play to my standard.
“But I’ll probably feel better on Christmas Eve back home.”
‘Joy and compassion’
Montgomery planned to fly back to South Florida on Sunday.
“My mom is German,” he said. “They celebrate on Christmas Eve, so I’ll be with her and she makes all kinds of sweets and we play board games.
“Then I’ll go to my dad’s and wake up the next morning with my little brother and sister and we’ll have Christmas.”
L’Etang said his mother was visiting from France and they planned to drive to Nashville, where his sister lives.
Bennet was headed to Florida, too — Orlando — and he said: “We all go to my grandparents place 30 minutes away in Winter Garden. We’ll have mac’n cheese, turkey, ham, green beans, yams, everything you can think of.”
As for Grant, he and his family live in Bellbrook.
When he spoke, without referencing it, he hit on the theme of that Seuss tale and how the Grinch eventually understood what Christmas really was about.
“I feel like we have a good team, but you don’t want to head into the holidays with this feeling, especially when there’s such a long time (11 days) until we play again,” Grant said.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
“But hopefully our guys will go home and spend some time with their loved ones, and they’ll open some gifts and eat some good food and see their friends and be normal like everybody else and enjoy the holidays.
“And hopefully they’ll remember what the season is about and have a level of gratitude for what we get to do and get to be a part of it.”
He said he hopes they feel the “joy and compassion” of the people in their lives who “love them unconditionally whether they win or lose.”
As for him, how would he handle all this?
He said a loss “simmers in you if you are a competitor, but I’m blessed to have a wife and children, a family that loves and cares about me and I love and care about them.
“I don’t want to miss the opportunity to let them know that.
“This time last year probably all of you had people in your lives that are no longer here. So, I’m going to try to keep it in perspective. We’re grateful for what we have and get to do; and that we have people we love in our lives.
“We lost a basketball game today, but we get to play another.”
With a moment’s pause, he said “thanks,” and rose from his chair. Before heading to the door, he said, “Merry Christmas everybody.”
When he left you noticed the overhead flat screens in the pressroom had been switched to scenes of a crackling fireplace.
It was meant to symbolize hearth and home, family and Christmas.
But on this day it could just as well have been a reminder of the Liberty Flames and how they had just turned the Dayton Flyers into kindling.
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