HONOLULU – The Liberty Flames found a way to outlast a short-handed UNI Panther men's basketball team in the first round of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, 76-74.
Liberty Flames have now won seven of their previous eight games, improving to 8-4. UNI slips to 4-6 overall.
Freshman Tytan Anderson got his first start as a Panther in the absence of Trae Berhow. Berhow and assistant coach Seth Tuttle stayed back in Iowa due to a non-COVID-related illness.
Liberty scored off a free throw to lead early, but Tywhon Pickford picked up two three-pointers, and Noah Carter went on a scoring spree to give the Panthers as much as an 11-point lead before Liberty responded with 12 unanswered points to take the lead with 8:49 left in the first half.