Here’s the wrapup of Liberty’s 68-57 win over Gardner-Webb from today’s News & Advance.

As always, there was plenty of quoteable stuff that didn’t make the paper, so let’s get to it:

Gardner-Webb coach Rick Scruggs
On Liberty’s defense
“I thought they did a great job defensively. They did a great job against our shooters and against everything we tried to do, actually. We really didn’t have an answer for anything they did. We tried to make some adjustments at halftime and come out and do some different things, and they were the ones that came out and went on the run in the second half, and not us. They just out-played us today. That’s the bottom line. They out-played us, out-executed us and they wanted to win the game more.“

“We took a lot of ill-advised shots, I thought. We were wanting to penetrate a little bit more and get a few more openings in the middle, and that sort of thing, instead of just depending on the 3. But we just kept firing up the 3. You live and die by them, and that’s what we did today. We died by it.“

On preseason all-Big South guard Grayson Flittner playing 18 minutes after missing two games
“Yeah, that was pretty good considering he hadn’t played in a couple of games. We didn’t know what to expect. Now the big thing for us is how will he respond tomorrow. If he can play Saturday, maybe we can settle into it a little more and start working him back in the rotation, because we need him in there. Tomorrow and Saturday will be the big days to see how he comes out and responds to the exercise today. I was real pleased he got that many minutes to be honest. When the game got blown open a little bit I didn’t want to play him and risk anything happening to him, either.“

On how Jesse Sanders can control a game. Scruggs coached Sanders’ brother Thomas at Gardner-Webb
“Jesse’s just the heart and soul of the team, I think. You take him off and they’re still a good team, but they’re a whole different team. He just can control the game on both ends of the floor. You know, he knows what he can do. He knows his limitations. He knows where he can shoot it from, where he can’t shoot it from, where the players are supposed to be on the floor so he always makes the right pass. That’s why he very seldom has a turnover. He knows the game so well. In that way, he’s probably better than his brother.

“He’s a little bit different from his brother. His brother played the game different. His brother played 110 mph and played tough just like Jesse. That’s a tough family. I know that. I’d take the younger brother too and I’d take any other siblings they’ve got coming along. That’s just such a great family. He just does his role so well. He’s gotten bigger and stronger, so that helps him. He just knows how to play. He’s a difference maker. He’s what I’d call a glue guy. I don’t know a better way to describe him.“

On C.J. Hailey’s development
“It’s sort of been a necessity. With Grayson not on the floor, somebody’s got to take the shots and he’s a senior, and he’s done it before, and he did it in junior college. He’s sort of the natural one to work into that role. ... C.J. has really put himself in position to be the leading scorer if something like this happened to Grayson. I think the opportunity has risen and he’s made the best of his opportunity.“

Liberty coach Dale Layer
On the Flames’ defense
“Well they’ve got a really good perimeter team. It’s a shame that they’ve played, I think, the eighth best schedule in the country. It’s shaken their confidence. They’ve got a way better team than their record indicates, and probably a way better team than they even think they have. If you allow them to get going, it’ll be scary. Hailey, (Anton) Silver and Flittner—they have some weapons out there. We knew we had to get after them. We knew we had to take away a little of what they did and not let them get comfortable. There were times they did get comfortable and you could see what they were capable of doing. I thought our defensive effort was superb. I thought we rebounded in spurts. And when we got great rebounding effort, we were in business. I think our free throw shooting needs some attention. I think we played like this was more of a road game than a home game because we hadn’t been here in a month, and I think we were kind of adjusting back to what the Vines Center is. I think that hurt us a little bit.

“I thought Jesse and Kyle made good decisions with the ball, probably as good as those guys have had in the same game on the same night. We had some good things happen, and we’ve got to continue to get better.“

What’s going on with David Minaya? He was expected to be a major contributor but has been struggling to get any playing time of late.
“I don’t want to comment on David. He’s not in any trouble, that’s for sure. I don’t want to compare guys right now.“

“He’s working hard. He’s getting better. We’ve got some guys who are playing well. You don’t typically play as many guys the second half of the year as you do early. I’m not disappointed in any of them. They’re all working and giving great effort.“

On Jesse Sanders
“I told him at halftime that it was the best half he’s had, all-around. Making decisions to score, to kick it out, snapping passes. I thought his floor game was the best it’s been.“

On Antwan Burrus
“His defensive play is the thing that most people don’t understand, or know what he does in defending the best post player on the other team. We were worried about MacMillan tonight and he’s a guy who can certainly get 16, 18 points and I thought Antwan did a really stellar job on him.“

Liberty point guard Jesse Sanders
On being close to another triple-double—12 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists
“A lot of times, people on the bench will tell me stuff. James (Spencer) is really aware of that stuff. He’s kind of in my corner, saying, ‘hey buddy, you need a couple more assists, a couple of rebounds.‘ He gave me a heads up with about seven minutes left in the game. It would be cool if I got it, but where we were in the game, we needed to slow it down. For my stat line, it’s not the best. But for the team, it’s what needed to happen.“

On Antwan Burrus
“There’s nothing to dislike about a player like Antwan. He’s got an incredibly positive attitude. Coach can get on him as much as he wants and he’s ‘yes, sir; yes, sir; yes, sir.‘ He’s accepted his role. He doesn’t try to do too much. He rebounds. He creates space when I’m penetrating and when Kyle’s penetrating. Hands up. He’s just a worker. He’s strong. That’s probably something that’s great about him is his body is so much stronger than anyone else on the team. It gives our team something we don’t have.“

Layer said his work ethic early in the season was an issue.
“You’ve got to feel that stuff out. You know, he would have spurts here and there where he would have great stuff. Then he slowly started earning it, earning it, earning it. Coach gave him an opportunity while we were on the road. First game out, he got a double-double. Since then, he hasn’t looked back. He’s a really hard worker, got an opportunity and capitalized on it.“

Happy with where the team is, at 4-2 in conference?
“Obviously we’d like to have that Winthrop game back. We very easily could be 5-1. But that’s basketball for you. But from where we were at the beginning of the year, 4-2 is a lot better than getting blown out by 40 against Clemson and Old Dominion. Coach has been preaching it all year. We’ve been getting better day by day and that’s why we’re on the upward slope. That’s where we need to be. We have a lot of room to improve. We’ll probably watch tape and see 30 things we did wrong and things we can get better at. But we can see that steady improvement and that’s encouraging.“

On UNC Asheville
“Both (J.P.) Primm and (Matt) Dickey are really solid guards. They’re the same class as I am, and Primm went off on us last year. They’ve got a big athlete in John Williams. They’re a solid team. They’re having a rough start so far but they’re a team that’s capable of really doing some big things. ... They’re loaded with talent. It’s a big-time opponent. We’ve got to come ready to play.“

On UNCA’s Sean Smith, who hit eight 3-pointers at the Vines Center last year
“Oh my goodness. Man, he can fill it up. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t look like a ball player. You disrespect him and give him a foot and it’s nothing but net. He can really stroke it.“

Liberty wing Kyle Ohman

Did you sense GWU losing confidence early in the second half?
“Yeah, it felt like they were in the game. It was going back and forth. But once we were able to put that distance between us, they lost a little bit of fight and they lost a little bit of belief that they could come back and win. That’s what we talked about at halftime, coming right out and setting the tone.“

On LU’s defense
“We knew they were high scoring. They started four guards and all of them could shoot 3s. We really wanted to take away what they did best and that was their transition, getting out and running and shooting 3s. ... Overall we had really good defense, closing out hard. In the second half, we really started rebounding and that just put it away. That was one of the big things that let us go on that run.“

On going 6-for-13 from the free-throw line. Ohman entered the game shooting 85.7 percent from the stripe.
“Every time I shot it, I thought it was going in, but I kept missing. I was trying not to think about the past one. I don’t really think I was thinking about missing. I don’t know. It shouldn’t be a big deal for the next game.“

How much fun is it to play with Sanders when he is in complete control of the game?
“With Jeremy (Anderson) and Evan (Gordon) hitting and Jesse dishing the ball to both of them. ... Jesse’s really good at finding you in an area where you’re best at. Coach always talks about playing your aces. And Jesse does a really good job, whether it’s finding Jeremy and open 3 in transition or a little drop-off to me or a pass to Evan. He’s even real good at finding the bigs. He’s got that court vision where he’s able to see everything and give people the ball where they need it.“