LYNCHBURG, Va. – Liberty redshirt senior John Dawson scored all nine of his points after halftime to key a second-half run that propelled the second-place Flames past Longwood 61-45 Thursday evening at the Vines Center.
 
A Marquette transfer who came to Liberty (19-11, 14-3 Big South) prior to the 2015-16 season, Dawson bounced back from a scoreless first half to hit two three-pointers and dish a pair of assists to engineer Liberty's 30-19 second-half run.
 
Liberty entered the game as the Big South's top-rated scoring defense and kept Longwood (6-22, 3-14 Big South) in check from long range, as the Lancers knocked down just one of their 12 three-point attempts. That lone trey came from Khris Lane, who scored a team-high 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
 
"We had some open shots, they just didn't go in," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee. "It's not like us to go 1-for-12. Lane went 1-for-4 from three, and we know what he's capable of doing. DJ [Allen] was 0-for-5 from three, and we know what he's capable of doing. It's a combination of an off-night – give credit to Liberty's defense, too – and I thought the key thing was we just turned the ball over too much to beat a first-place team."
 
Liberty forced Longwood into 20 turnovers, six of which came in the final four minutes of the first half. Those giveaways prompted a 10-2 Liberty rally that turned Longwood's 24-21 lead into a six-point halftime deficit.
 
The Flames led the rest of the way, bolstered by Dawson's big second half.

"We got a little fatigued there at the end of the half, and we turned the basketball over," Gee said. "When you turn the basketball over, the other team gets high percentage shots, and then it creates momentum swings. That's a huge swing when a team gets a turnover and a field goal, and I think that was really key to this game. What Liberty did the last four minutes of the first half totally turned the game around. I thought we'd controlled the tempo until then."
 
The win is the latest in a breakout season for the Flames, who set their program record for wins in Big South play. The victory keeps Liberty in the hunt for a top-two seed in the conference standings with one regular season game remaining before the start of the Big South Championship.
 
Dawson's second-half surge complemented a team-high 13 points from Liberty freshman Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz, 11 from Brock Gardner and 10 from Ryan Kemrite. The Flames hit 10-of-25 three-pointers against a Longwood squad that dressed just seven players after junior forward Obi Romeo missed the game with an illness, joining an inactive list that already includes five injured Lancers.
 
The remaining pieces of Longwood's lineup were led by Lane's game-high 14 points, and 10 each from the backcourt tandem of Darrion Allen and Isaiah Walton. Allen added three steals in his 39-plus minutes of action.
 
The Lancers conclude the regular season this Saturday at home against Charleston Southern. Prior to the 2 p.m. tipoff, the program will honor its two-man senior class of Darrion Allen and Isaac Belton for Senior Day.
 
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