Why not us?

Story by Brian Sullivan

Last year, before the LBC basketball team losttoHampton Instituteinthe NAIA district championship, Coach Jeff Meyer quipped; "Somebody hastogo to Kansas City,why notus?" This year that "somebody" was Liberty Baptist College The Flames went to Kansas City, site of the NAIA national championship and advanced tothequarterfinals before losing to top-ranked Chaminade of Hawaii, 63-60. This year's team wonmore games infront of more people against themost difficult schedule intheschool's history

The man primarily responsible forthis year's success wasHead Coach Jeff Mey- er.When Meyer took over twoyears ago, the Flames had justfinished a5-19 season. This year they were 23-9.Describing this year'steam,Meyer said, "First, you creep, then you crawl, then you walk, then you run.We started this year creeping. By the end ofthe year, we were running We developed tofull maturation asa basketball team this year."

For a while it looked as ifthis team would never make it tothe creeping stage. Beforethefirst game had been played, four players, including last year's star Greg McCauley, were lost for the season. McCauley,who had averaged 15pointsper game the year before, withdrew from school forpersonal reasons "Greg McCauley's decision to leave school created a situation where we hadto have somebody to step into thegap," said Meyer "Eric Gordon stepped inandbecame our second leading scorer."

Also picking upthe slack in McCauley's absence were Kenny Gunn andAll-American Steve Isaacs.Isaacs led the team with 18.2 points pergame and 252 rebounds Gunn had over 100 stealsand a record 194 assists.

With Kent Kelly and Robert Robinson rounding out the starting line-up, LBC cruised through itsfirst five games and entered theVirginia Tech game undefeated Although Tech had an obvious phys(continued on page 80)

The Flames listen intently as Coach Meyer delivers partofhis game play duringa time out againstGeneva Collegeearlyin the season. LBC won, 51-50. staff photo/Jim Weiss

Kent Kelly splits the pressure applied by two Virginia Tech defenders. Kelly had the best game of his career, going eight foreight from the field; but it was not enough as theFlames fell 53-71 totheyoung Hokies.

Why not us?

(continued from page 79) ical advantage, the Hokies,a young team starting three freshmen and two sophomores, were entering a madhouse — the LBC gymnasium

"I am nervous about this ball club and have wished for the past two weeks that we didn't have to play this game," said

The two teams traded baskets throughout the first 10 minutes,but then the Hokies exploded. Del Curry's 180-degree layup and an onslaught ofdunkscontributed to 14 unanswered points and a 41-25 halftime lead. Led by Kent Kelly's 17 points, theFlames played Tech even inthe second half but could not overcome the first-half deficit and fell,71-53

The losstoVirginia Tech and the lossto Randolph-Macon inovertime were theonly two defeats against 18 wins at home, as the Flames continued todominate infront of their own crowd

Home basketballgames became favorite events at LBC Crowd favorites included

Mike Reid,who led the team indunks,and Gary Yoder,better known as "Opie." Reid joined sophomore Cliff Webber and freshman Tony McNeal coming offthebench to add depth to the Flames'attack.

LBC continued tohave difficultyagainst itsin-state NCAA Division II opponents although its 2-4record thisyear was up from its0-5 mark of the previous year Two of this year's losses came at the hands of Randolph-Macon whose series with the Flames developed into a rivalry Randolph-Macon entered its first game against LBC asthe 10th ranked team in the NCAA Division II.On the other hand, the Flames had upset seventh ranked Florida (continued on page 82)

Kenny Gunn gets his game into perspective against Eastern College. Gunn wenton to dish out 11 assists and have eight steals LBC won 76S8 in overtime.

Sophomore Robert Robinson, from Miami, Fla., goes for two of his16 points against CoppinState in the NAIA District 29 championship. Robinsonhad his best shooting game — eight for nine from the field.

Sophomore Mike Reid from Nassau, Bahamas,goes for twoagainst SteveWestley ofAlvernia. Reidcame into thegame with 11minutes leftin thehalfand LBC down by two points. He scored five points and had three steals togive theFlames a five point lead with three minutestogo in the half. LBC won it 63-38.

Wh y not us?

(continued from page 80)

Southern earlier in the year and were playing on their home court The game was reminiscent oflastyear's Tennessee Temple game. However, this time itwasLBC who controlled most ofthegame only to be beaten inthe endbya lastsecond shotby the Yellowjackets' Jimmy Griffin in overtime

The Flames bounced back and won their next five games, including victories over Longwood andRadford,before traveling to Ashland to face Randolph-Macon once again. The intensity level was high,too high infact, asseveralaltercations erupted during thegame The Flames fell apart and lostby22points,the largestmargin ofthe year.

"The loss to Randolph-Macon at Ashland wasthelow point oftheyear," said Meyer. "However, from that point on we became a very hungry, very determined basketball team."

From thatpointon,the Flames beganto dominate. They disposed of their next threeopponents byan average of20 points per game and entered theNAIA District 29 championship contest against Coppin State, having won eight oftheir last nine games.

However, against Coppin State the Flames were timid, according to Meyer The swarming Coppin State defense shut down Isaacs andGordon,but the hot hand of Robert Robinson salvaged the game for LBC. He capped offhis 16 point performance with thegame-winning jump shot with 12 seconds remaining,sealing the victory and a trip to Kansas City forthe Flames

Kansas City represented a whole new season fortheLBC team

"After Coppin State we had achieved everything wehad setouttoachieve," said Meyer "Weestablished twonewgoalsfor theNAIA nationals:1) representour school worthily, and 2) win thenational championship."

Any dreams ofa national championship were brought back tohard realitywhen the team arrived inKansas City Thefirst opponent,eighth-seeded Catawba,29-3, started a front line of6'8", 6'", and 6'9" and was averaging 88points per game. Behind the 5-1 point scoring ofSteve Isaacsand Eric Gordon, however, the Flames upset

Catawba, 77-67

"This team doesn't give up," said Meyer,who sounded as iftheFlames had expected to win "There's no time tocelebrate now We came here to winthistournament There arestillfour games left."

After one day's rest the Flames, who were not seeded, faced ninth-seeded University ofWisconsin — Stevens Point The game promised to bea defensive battleas Stevens Point and LBC were ranked first and fifthrespectively indefense among all NAIA schools Senior Steve Isaacs,aware that each game could behis last, kept the Flames inthegame with 26 points With time running out, Kenny Gunn took over

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"This is the best team we've beaten since I've been coaching at LBC,"said Meyer afterthegame "Weboth havesimilar strengths,patient offense and soliddefense They justdidn'thave abig manthat could stop Steve Isaacs."

The question was, could theteam that stopped Ralph Sampson and the Number One-ranked University ofVirginia earlier in the year stop Steve Isaacs?

The Flames'nextopponent,Chaminade, was nowthe top-ranked team inthe NAIA (continued on page 85) staff photo/ Jim Weiss

MEN'S BASKETBALL: (front row) Tony McNeal, Greg McCauley, Mike Minott, Kenny Gunn, Bill Boyer, Brad Smith, Eric Gordon; (back row) Mike Reid,Matt Danuser, John Sinclair, Bobby Hulsey, Steve Isaacs, Robert Robinson,Gary Yoder, Kent Kelly. NAIA named Isaacs First Team All Tournament.

Fans anxiously watch assophomore RobertRobinson and Coppin sophomore Vann Felton go for the openingjump-ball of theDistrict 29 championship game.

After 40 minutes of hard fought basketball,LBC emerged victorious over Coppin State,Dr. Falwell takes thefinal snipofthe victory net tothecheersof a packed Multi-Purpose building onLiberty Mountain.

Football teammates Mitch Lucas and Mark DeMoss brought the crowd toits feet as they displayed their slogan during a time outin thesecond halfof the championship game. A victory meant "Kansas City. "

Why not us?

(continued on page 82)

They were 31-3 and, according to "Lynchburg News" sportswriter Jim Steinmiller, "The best thing that's strode onto the Kemper Arena floor this week."

Chaminade was not worried about the Flames Four hours beforegame time, Chaminade forward Ernest Pettway quipped, "LBC, they've gota bigguy who shoots pretty well, right They might give us a good game." With 1:11 left in the game Ernest Pettway,Chaminade,andthe9,573 spectators knew whoLBC's "big guy"was Steve Isaacs Isaacs hadjust hitan 18footjump shot,his30th point of thenight, to bring theFlames within onepoint, 6160 Seconds later an errant pass by Chaminade's Mark Wells turned theball back over toLBCwhich immediately called time out.

Their game plan,prepared byMeyerand his staff before sunrise that morning,had begun topayoff. "This isa chance forus to gain national recognition. Let's make the most ofthis opportunity."

Following the time out, the Flames worked theball around, looking for,who else? Steve Isaacs With 19 seconds left Issacs gottheball at thefree throw line, turned andshot;the ball rolled aroundthe rim but would not drop. Final: Chaminade 63, LBC60

The post-game comments of Chaminade center Tony Randolph differed noticeably from histeammate's pre-game comments. "This wasa tougher game for usthanthe Virginia game because we hadtoworkfor it The Virginia game just happened."

For their efforts in Kansas City, Steve Isaacs was named First-Team All-Tournament. Theentire team waspresented with the Charles A Krigel Sportsmanship award forits sportsmanship and conduct throughout thetournament

This year's tripto Kansas City willprobably be the last for the Flames as they continue to upgrade their program Next year they will becompeting intheMasonDixon Athletic Conference as one of its six charter members. The conference willbe NCAA Division IIand include rivals Ran dolph-Macon,Longwood, andUniversityof Maryland-Baltimore County.

"We hurdled the NAIA with our success in Kansas City Our ultimate desire to be come a Division Iprogram allowed us to make thisdecision tojoin theconference," said Meyer. "We're now stepping into a stronger and more competitive arena."

When the NCAA Division IIFinalsare held,somebody willhave togo— why not Liberty Baptist? Spons _ MenS BMkelba „