By CHRIS LANG
Media General News Service

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Liberty’s best player — Big South preseason player of the year Megan Frazee — never left the bench Sunday.

The Flames’ starting point guard, Rachel McLeod, dressed but didn’t play.

Four other players were in street clothes, nursing ACL injuries.

Still, Flames coach Carey Green wasn’t going to allow his players to sulk, to believe that beating No. 14 Auburn was an impossible task.

The Liberty program doesn’t really subscribe to the idea of moral victories, nor should it, considering the Flames have made 11 trips to the NCAA tournament in the last 12 seasons.

But Sunday’s 64-53 loss to the Tigers at the Vines Center proved that Liberty could be competitive against some of the nation’s best competition, even without the Flames’ best player on the floor.

Liberty led by 10 in the first half, the first time all season Auburn (10-0) has trailed by double digits. The Flames (1-6) led, 41-39, with 14:11 to play, but the Tigers finally got their transition game going, and an 11-0 run over the next nine minutes sealed a difficult victory.

“Let me tell you what, this is a good program here,” Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. “Carey does a great job and has done so for 10 years. This is a tough place to play, but when you go on the road and play an experienced team, it’s going to be a tough game. We’re tired. It was a real challenge for us to be able to rise to the level we needed to win this game.”

Sunday’s game was the first of a home-and-home series between the teams and marked just the second time an SEC opponent had visited Liberty. Fortner said she thought playing a tournament-level team from a smaller conference on the road would be beneficial for her club.

“We’ve got a veteran team this year, and we’re trying to do everything we can to get ready for the SEC season, to make a strong run and do as well as we can do,” Fortner said. “I wanted to put them in some tough environments, and this is one.”

The hosts proved inhospitable early.

Liberty slowed the pace of the game not only to keep its rotation of seven players fresh, but to keep Auburn from turning the game into a track meet. The Flames utilized their size in the first half, using penetration from guard Amber Mays and inside baskets from forward Moriah Frazee to build a lead.

When the Tigers did get going in transition, that lead quickly evaporated. Auburn used a 15-0 surge in the first half to turn a 23-13 deficit into a 28-23 lead. Liberty recovered and took a 33-32 lead into the break, and the Flames led 41-39 after a Rachel Hammond basket with 14:11 left before the offense went cold.

Auburn had plenty to do with that, switching from man-to-man defense to zone to keep the ball out of Frazee’s hands. Liberty kept trying to get the ball inside, mostly with bad results. Turnovers turned into transition points, and Auburn took control of the game.

“We started packing it in,” said Auburn’s DeWanna Bonner, who had 17 points and six rebounds. “They were killing us in the first half on the inside, but they weren’t really hitting outside shots. So we started to pack it in and go from there.”

After the 9-0 run, Liberty pulled within 6 on a Hammond basket. But Auburn’s Sherell Hobbs, who scored a game-high 20 points, banked in a 3-pointer with 2:38 left, pushing the lead back to 55-46.

“Our girls really competed, and they were determined to win,” Green said. “I know they were disappointed to lose. They gave a tremendous effort, and I want to salute them for their effort, and with the intensity with which they played.”

The Flames outrebounded Auburn 44-29 and got another solid effort from Mays, who scored 13 points and had four steals. The junior from Pasadena, Calif., played all 40 minutes for the shorthanded Flames. Frazee, who led Liberty with 15 points, and Hammond, who scored 10, each played 39 minutes.

“We knew we only had seven players, but we just had to fight hard,” Mays said. “Everybody came out with the passion and energy that we needed.”