First things first, your Jesse Sanders update ...

The Liberty point guard will dress tonight and is available. He looked good in the morning shootaround leading into tonight’s Liberty-Gardner-Webb Big South tournament quarterfinal game. Lateral movement hasn’t been a problem. How much will he play? That’s up to Ritchie McKay. My guess is he won’t start, but he’ll make his way into the game at some point. I will say this, everyone but Sanders is out on the floor right now warming up, so I assume he’s in the back getting more treatment.

Before breaking down tonight’s quarterfinal, let’s take a quick look back at the two regular-season matchups:

Dec. 6—at Liberty 68, Gardner-Webb 59

GWU led by as many as nine points in the second half and held the lead for nearly 25 minutes. But Liberty used a late rally to come back and win. Seth Curry had one of his worst shooting games of the year (4 for 16 from the floor) and scored 15 points. Anthony Smith led all scorers with 27 and hit big shots at the end when the Flames needed them the most.  The Bulldogs got 15 from guard Grayson Flittner, who found out after the game he had turf toe.

Feb. 4—at Gardner-Webb 95, Liberty 90 (2OT)

Seth Curry didn’t start this game because he was late for a team breakfast. He was marginally better from the floor (6 for 18) than he was in the first meeting. So in the two games, Curry shot 10 for 34 (29.4 percent). Flittner didn’t play in this one because of a ruptured muscle behind his knee. The Bulldogs got big contributions from Takayo Siddle (18 points) and Aaron Linn (17). Kyle Ohman scored a career-high 38 points for Liberty and hit 16 of 18 free throws. Liberty nearly had the game won in overtime, but an Ohman turnover led to a Siddle prayer shot at the buzzer, sending the game into a second OT.

The keys tonight for Liberty:

1. Dictate the pace. Gardner-Webb would love to get center Auryn MacMillan involved, but he’s been a defensive liability against the Flames’ guard-oriented lineup in the two meetings. MacMillan is ineffective in a running game.

(NOTE: Sanders just came out of the tunnel to applause from the fans gathered here 44 minutes before tip-off.)

2. Box out Henley. Joshua Henley is Joseph Harris without the scoring. He averages 10.4 rebounds per game, more than any freshman in the country. He had 10 points and 17 rebounds last week against Presbyterian and has broken the 20-rebound mark on a couple of occasions this year. And he’s 6-foot-3. He’s active and smart and aggressive, so Liberty has to be prepared for that.

3. Defend. And I’m not talking Winthrop defense here. Just stringing together a few possessions at a time of solid defense will be enough to lift the Flames here tonight. I’m not sure Gardner-Webb has the scoring right now, with Flittner hurt the way he is, to match Liberty in a game in the 90s.

One more quick thought ... on the whole 3 vs. 6 thing in the Big South tournament. The three seed is 1-5 in the first round since the tournament went to home sites. The breakdown:

2002-03—#6 Radford (10-20) 63, #3 Charleston Southern (14-14) 62
2003-04—#6 UNC Asheville (9-20) 49, #3 Winthrop (16-12) 46
2004-05—#6 High Point (13-18) 98, #3 UNC Asheville (11-17) 93 (OT)
2005-06—#6 Charleston Southern (13-16) 97, #3 Birmingham-Southern (19-9) 76
2006-07—#6 VMI (14-19) 79, #3 Liberty (14-17) 78
2007-08—#3 High Point (17-14) 59, #6 Coastal Carolina (13-15) 56

I included the overall records of the teams to give people an idea of the spread between the 6 and 3 in these years. Really, the only shocking upsets were UNCA in 2003-04 and CSU in 2005-06. Birmingham-Southern was in position to grab the No. 1 seed but lost at home to Winthrop in the season finale and dropped to the No. 3. Might have been tough to get back up after that sort of loss.

HALFTIME UPDATE—Liberty 47, Gardner-Webb 32

Observations—

* Jesse Sanders entered the game about five minutes in and immediately took a tumble going for a loose ball. He’s not back to his old self yet, but the ankle seemed to hold up well after the fall. Good sign there.

* GWU’s Jonathan Moore leads all scorers with 14 points. Kyle Ohman and Seth Curry with 12 each for the Flames.

* Liberty shooting 58.1 percent at half; GWU shooting 32.3 percent. Those numbers will probably come back more toward the middle after halftime. Gardner-Webb hasn’t quit, even though it has trailed by as many as 24 points in the first half. Getting the lead back down to 15 was key. The Flames will need to withstand a surge in the early going of the second half. And they’ll need to defend Moore, who is the hot hand right now.

* That’s all for now. Check back after the game for notes and quotes.