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NCAA Coach Points to Christ on National TV After Huge Upset

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Moments after his 12th-seeded Liberty Flames shocked fifth-seeded Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, coach Ritchie McKay gave the glory to God.

McKay told a national TV audience his team could not have pulled off the upset “without a Christ-centered program.”

“We want to give God all the glory, obviously,” he said.

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Ohio State all-time great Clark Kellogg followed up from the network set by calling McKay a friend and singing his praises.


The Flames never gave up hope in the first-round game in San Jose, California, not even when Mississippi State took a double-digit lead and surrounded Liberty’s leading scorer, Scottie James.

The junior forward, ranked as the 97th best player of 4,000 at ValueAddBasketball.com, was named MVP of Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament after scoring 17 points on 7 of 10 shots and grabbing eight rebounds as the Flames beat Lipscomb in the title game to earn the trip to March Madness.

Liberty had an answer to Mississippi State’s strategy, as Caleb Homesley scored 30 points and Lovell Cabbil added 18, including four clutch free throws, to wrap up the 80-76 win.

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The Flames joined Baylor, another Christian team that scored a first-round upset, in advancing to the round of 32.

Liberty is one of only 17 teams in the nation with four upperclassmen (juniors or seniors) in the top 15 percent of all players (top 600) at Value Add:

• Buffalo
• Central Florida
• Central Michigan
• Cincinnati
• Kansas State
• Liberty
• Louisville
• Michigan State
• Mississippi State
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• Northeastern
• Tennessee
• Toledo
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• Yale

While Abilene Christian’s Cinderella story of making the tournament in only their second year of eligibility ended at the hands of Kentucky, Gardner-Webb shocked No. 1 seed Virginia with a lead for much of the first half Friday before finally falling. Baylor scored a very impressive 78-69 win over a Syracuse team that rarely loses its first game in the tournament.

With many of the traditional Catholic powers in the Atlantic 10 and Big East struggling this year, Gonzaga advanced and Villanova won a tournament game between Catholic schools with a win over Saint Mary’s.

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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