ASHEVILLE — Myo Baxter-Bell came off the bench to lead five Liberty players in double figures with 14 points and the Flames defeated Campbell 73-59 Thursday night in a Big South Tournament quarterfinal at Kimmel Arena on Thursday night.
Fifth-seeded Liberty (19-13) shot 55 percent from the floor and outscored the fourth-seeded Camels (16-15) in the paint by a 38-22 edge to advance to Friday’s 8 p.m. semifinal against host and top-seeded UNC Asheville.
Baxter-Bell, a 6-foot-5 forward, made all seven of his shots and the Flames built a double-digit lead and never let the Camels get closer than eight down the stretch.
Scottie James added 14 points, Lovell Cabbil 13, Caleb Homesley 12 and Ryan Kemrite 10 for the Flames, whose depth paid off with a 31-15 edge in bench scoring.
The nation’s fourth-leading scorer, Chris Clemons (24.6) led Campbell with 23 points and six rebounds, but was hounded into 7-of-22 shooting from the field. Andrew Eudy added 10 points for the Camels, who shot just 36 percent from the floor.
In sweeping two regular season games from Liberty, Campbell made 38-of-60 (.633) 3-point shots, but on Thursday CU hit only 8-of-24 (.333).
The Flames led by as many as 16 (53-37) on Cabbil’s 3-point play with 12:19 to play. Campbell whittled the gap to 65-57 with 1:56 remaining after consecutive threes by Marcus Burk and Clemons. However, Liberty, which entered the game fourth in the country in free throw shooting (.786) made 6-of-6 from the stripe in the final 1:20 to seal the win.
Liberty shot 54 percent from the floor in the opening period and led 37-27 at the half. The Flames led by as many as 13 after Ryan Kemrite’s 4-point play with 4:03 to play. However, the Camels responded with a 9-2 run and trimmed the margin to 33-27 on Eudy’s triple with 2:14 remaining.
Second-seeded Radford will take on third seed Winthrop in Friday’s 6 p.m. semifinal.