Bulldogs' persistence pays off against Lady Flames

If Gardner-Webb’s women’s basketball team drew anything from its near upset of Liberty in last year’s Big South tournament championship team, it was an undying sense of resolve.

In reality, the Bulldogs probably should have won that game. With the Bulldogs down a point and the seconds winding down at High Point’s Millis Center last March, Dominique Hudson drove the lane, released a shot and watched it rattle around just about every inch of the rim before falling to the floor. Borne from that game was a season mantra for 2009-10 — “Just two more points” — and a gritty intensity that was on display Monday night at the Vines Center.

The Bulldogs twice erased second-half deficits of six points or more, and Hudson drained the go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds left, helping Gardner-Webb to a 59-56 victory that was a streak buster in several ways.

For the first time since December 2006 — a span of 105 games — an opponent shot 50 percent against Liberty, as the Bulldogs hit 52.3 percent of their shots. For the first time since UNC Asheville beat the Flames in February 2007, a Big South team won on Liberty’s home floor, a span of 17 games. Gardner-Webb (19-3, 8-1 Big South) snapped Liberty’s 10-game win streak.

And for just the second time in Carey Green’s tenure as Liberty’s coach, an opponent swept a season series from the Flames. High Point pulled the trick in 2006-07.

It all happened because the Bulldogs wouldn’t wilt in the face of several second-half Liberty runs.

“Persistence. We never give up,” Hudson said. “Because the game isn’t over. We always keep pushing. You never know what’s going to happen. If we would have given up, we surely wouldn’t have won that game.”

The game featured a championship-type atmosphere and the requisite chippiness of a burgeoning rivalry. Late in the second half, Liberty’s Dymond Morgan and GWU’s Courtney Epps nearly broke into fisticuffs and had to be separated, both picking up technical fouls for the near donnybrook.

At that point, Liberty led by seven. But the fracas clearly sparked the Bulldogs. Hudson banked in a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four, and Gardner-Webb surged from there, hitting six of its final seven field-goal attempts.

Liberty made just two field goals after Kylee Beecher’s long jumper with 6:33 left put the Flames up 51-45. Gardner-Webb finally tied the game at the 1:24 mark when Dominique’s twin sister Monique scored underneath. Avery Warley, who led Liberty with 15 points and 10 rebounds, put Liberty back up with 52 seconds left with a layup.

The Flames forced Monique Hudson into the Bulldogs’ lone miss down the stretch, but the Bulldogs won a scramble on the floor for the rebound, forcing a jump ball with the possession arrow pointing GWU’s way.

“We had three people touch that ball,” Green said. “All we had to do was claim it, protect it, and hopefully the game would have been over.”

Instead, GWU set up a play for a 3-pointer out of a timeout, and Hudson knocked down the open shot. Liberty guard Amber Mays said she expected the Bulldogs, down two points, to drive and that the 3-point attempt caught the Flames off guard.

With the Flames down 57-56 with 18 seconds left, Mays drove the lane and missed a two-foot layup. GWU’s Margaret Roundtree grabbed the rebound. After a foul, she knocked down two free throws to push the lead to three. Beecher took the final shot for a Liberty, a 3-pointer from the top of the key that missed everything, and the Bulldogs had the season sweep.

“My biggest disappointment was our defense, all night long,” Green said. “I don’t feel like we got back in transition. When we got back, sometimes we didn’t match up quick enough and they got some quick easy shots. … Those are layups. The defensive effort wasn’t there. The focus wasn’t there.”

Though Liberty’s leading scorer — Devon Brown — scored 13 points, she had to work for them, going 5-for-18 from the floor. She had a game-high 13 rebounds.

Dominique Hudson led the Bulldogs with 14 points, and Gardner-Webb left Lynchburg with firm control of the Big South race.

Said Bulldogs coach Rick Reeves: “The championship still goes through Liberty. I have nothing but respect for them.”