Massacre in the morning: Clemson defeats Liberty, 79-39

Jesse Sanders didn’t try to hide his disappointment Tuesday afternoon. He didn’t sugarcoat what had just happened on the Vines Center floor. Minutes earlier, 22nd-ranked Clemson finished a 79-39 obliteration of the Flames, leaving Liberty to deal with the second worst home loss in LU’s Division I era.

A downcast Sanders had the look of a humiliated man.

“I don’t want to hear that we’re young and inexperienced,” Sanders said. “It’s no excuse. We’re college athletes. They’re college athletes. They came ready. They executed. We didn’t.”

That doesn’t even begin to describe the ugliness of Tuesday’s game. From the opening tip, Clemson not only dictated the pace of the game, it dominated. The Tigers were up 17-1 before Liberty hit its first field goal. The Flames turned it over 28 times, but rarely against Clemson’s full-court pressure. The Tigers forced many of those miscues as Liberty futilely tried to run its half-court offense.

And Liberty played with absolutely no confidence. Even when shots were open, the Flames missed, including several layups.

“I don’t know if it was guys psyching themselves out, or what the deal was,” Sanders said.

Sanders was as hard on himself as anyone. He committed nine turnovers, and the other appointed team leader — Kyle Ohman — was held to four points on 1 of 9 shooting. The result: Liberty was held below 40 points in a game for just the third time in school history.

All of this came in front of the ninth largest crowd in Vines Center history and a national television audience. Liberty students were allowed to skip classes Tuesday morning to attend the game, and 8,143 fans filled the building, including more than 5,000 students.

“It is disappointing,” Ohman said. “A lot of people, this is their first view of us. We don’t want them to feel like this is Liberty basketball.”

The Flames have some experience in this department. They were part of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon last season as well, traveled to UNC Asheville and got trounced.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 31 points and won 84-56. That team rebounded well, beating Virginia in Charlottesville in its next game.

Liberty won’t have a week off to fix all of the problems that were exposed Tuesday. The Flames host Old Dominion on Thursday night, the same ODU team that whipped the Flames by 24 in last year’s ESPNU BracketBusters game in Norfolk.

(Perhaps Liberty should politely decline the next time ESPN offers to show one of its games, considering what’s happened the last three times the Flames have been on the network.)

What disturbed Sanders the most Tuesday was the lack of on-court leadership, and he took much of the blame for that. Once Liberty fell behind early against a team that was clearly much more talented, the Flames stopped trying to play team basketball.

It turned into a series of one-on-one battles, ones that Liberty had little chance of winning against an ACC team.

“I want to meet with Kyle some,” Sanders said. “I think a lot of that was me and Kyle.

“I don’t know the stats. But I know I had a horrible, poor game. I don’t think we were leading our team this morning. That’s got to change.”

Ohman got into foul trouble and was clearly flustered by Clemson’s defense. Tigers coach Oliver Purnell said he noticed Ohman’s tendency to “pick and pop,” to set a screen and then roll to an open spot on the floor and shoot from long range. The Tigers made Ohman a priority and took him completely out of the game. It’s something he’ll have to get used to.

Last season, he was the Flames’ third scoring option behind Seth Curry and Anthony Smith, and he benefited from the open looks he got thanks to the defensive attention those two received.

“It’s a little different,” Ohman said.

So was the game itself. Liberty’s game with ODU last year featured an 11 a.m. start time, so the 10 a.m. tip time wasn’t so foreign to the players. It was nothing like the 6 a.m. start for the St. Peter’s-Monmouth game in New Jersey. Ohman said he woke up around 5:45 Tuesday morning to begin getting ready.

David Potter, who led the Tigers with 17 points, said Clemson has had some practices start before 9 a.m. this season to prepare for this game. Purnell made sure players were in bed by 10:30 p.m. Monday so the players could be well rested and ready for a 6:45 a.m. pregame meal.

Liberty coach Dale Layer admitted that he knew his team wasn’t ready to face a team of Clemson’s caliber, not with so many new faces on the roster.

He can only hope that the Flames use Tuesday’s game as motivation to get better. As Sanders noted, the team was at “the bottom of the barrel” after the game.

Said Sanders: “It’s back to the drawing board, and we’ll see what we’re made of now. … The only way to go from here is up.”

CLEMSON (2-0)

Potter 6-7 0-0 17, T.Booker 5-8 1-2 12, Grant 0-1 0-0 0, Stitt 4-6 0-0 9, Smith 4-9 0-0 9, Johnson 2-7 0-0 4, Anderson 1-1 0-0 2, Baciu 0-0 1-2 1, Young 3-10 1-2 9, Narcisse 1-5 0-0 2, Jennings 1-3 0-0 2, D.Booker 1-4 1-2 3, Hill 3-4 0-1 6, Petrukonis 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 32-66 5-11 79.

LIBERTY (1-2)

Baker 2-6 1-2 6, Ohman 1-9 2-2 4, Perez 2-6 0-0 5, Minaya 1-8 0-0 2, Sanders 3-5 1-2 7, Stephene 2-3 2-3 6, Spencer 0-0 0-0 0, Gordon 0-1 1-4 1, Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, Konan 1-3 2-3 4, Burrus 0-0 0-0 0, Weaver 1-1 0-0 2, McMasters 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 14-46 9-16 39.

Halftime—Clemson 42-19. 3-Point Goals—Clemson 10-24 (Potter 5-6, Young 2-4, T.Booker 1-2, Stitt 1-2, Smith 1-3, Narcisse 0-2, Jennings 0-2, Johnson 0-3), Liberty 2-12 (Baker 1-1, Perez 1-1, McMasters 0-1, Gordon 0-1, Ohman 0-2, Anderson 0-2, Minaya 0-4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Clemson 48 (T.Booker 12), Liberty 29 (Gordon 6). Assists—Clemson 20 (Stitt 6), Liberty 5 (Sanders 3). Total Fouls—Clemson 16, Liberty 14. A—8,143.