JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville University men's basketball team (11-14, 4-6 ASUN) put forth a spirited comeback effort on Thursday night inside Swisher Gymnasium opposite Liberty (22-3, 8-2 ASUN) but ultimately came up just short of undercutting the ASUN favorite, 71-62.

Jacksonville trailed by as many 18 in the second half of this one but pulled to within eight with 10:49 to go. Three Dolphins led the charge, paced by Kevin Norman (Hodges Mazda Player of the Game) who re-emerged, after struggling of late, to drop 16 points off the bench on 7-10 shooting to go with four rebounds, an assist and a steal.

DeAnthony McCallum scored 13 point on 5-6 from the floor and 3-3 from the free throw line. Destin Barnes also canned 13 points to go with three rebounds and 3-8 from long range. Collectively the Dolphins shot 47.1 percent from the floor but were out-rebounded by 10 and 12-4 on the offensive glass. Bryce Workman was the only other Dolphin to register multiple field goals for JU. He was 3-5 from the floor and knocked down the first triple of his career to tally eight points.

The game was tied, 8-8 with 15:08 to play in the first half but Liberty took the lead on a free throw with 10:18 to go and never looked back. The lead grew to 12 by halftime and all the way up to 18 with 16:17 to play in the game. With 13:10 to play, McCallum sparked an eventual 9-0 run with a free throw before passing the torch to Norman who scored six of eight to complete the run and get his team within eight.

Liberty pushed its lead back to 16 by the 9:04 mark and the Dolphins were in chase mode the rest of the way. The deficit fell to 10 on multiple occasions down the stretch but the Flames had built just enough cushion to keep JU at bay.

The Dolphins won't have much time to reflect on this one as they'll head north to visit NJIT on Saturday afternoon. Tip from Newark, N.J. is set for 4 p.m.