Liberty moves a half-game ahead of N. Florida with 82-77 win

Caleb Homesley scored 28 points and Scottie James finished with a double-double and Liberty beat North Florida 82-77 Thursday night.

Liberty (25-3, 11-2 Atlantic Sun Conference) won its sixth straight and ended North Florida's (18-11, 11-3) six-game win streak. Liberty moved a half-game ahead of the Ospreys atop the conference standings. The two teams split their regular season games.

James finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz scored 17. The Flames finished 27-of-48 (56.3%) shooting despite going just 4 of 13 from 3-point range. Homesley made two foul shots for a 77-67 lead with 1:45 left. North Florida responded with seven straight when J.T. Escobar made a layup, Carter Hendricksen made a 3-pointer and Ivan Gandia-Rosa scored a layup with 40 seconds left. After Homesley made two more from the line, Ryan Burkhardt made a 3 to reduce North Florida's deficit to 79-77. Elijah Cuffee made 1 of 2 from the line with 25 seconds left, and Homesley made two more from the foul line with 15 seconds to go to seal the win. Homesley finished 11 of 15 from the foul line.

Escobar scored 26, Gandia-Rosa 17 and Hendricksen and Wajid Aminu 10 apiece.

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