DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Liberty's players and coaches woke up at 4:30 a.m. Monday for their charter flight. Instead of departing the airport at 7 in the morning, plane trouble kept them grounded for several hours.

Not even that could ruin coach Dale Layer's mood.

''On 2 1/2 hours of sleep, an 8-hour plane delay - hey, it's great to be in Dayton!'' Layer said with a wide smile.

After where the Flames have been this season, what's a few more hours? It's amazing they needed aircraft to fly to the NCAA tournament.

Despite losing their first eight games and having a 10-20 record late in the season, they won their final five games including the Big South title to reserve a spot opposite North Carolina A&T in the NCAA First Four on Tuesday night at the University of Dayton Arena.

The game pits two of the most unlikely of teams in any NCAA tournament. After all, A&T (18-16) was nearing a 16th consecutive losing season just two weeks ago - before it surged to take the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament title.

Yet the journey of Liberty, an evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Va., surpasses just about any other stone-casting David in the tournament's history. Only one other team has ever made the NCAA field with 20 losses - Coppin State in 2008.

''The low point was probably the beginning of the year when we were 0-8,'' guard Davon Marshall said. ''Guys started to quit. It was a lot of long days of practice. Guys were down on themselves, thinking about next year.''

Injuries, defections and some difficult games conspired to send the Flames off on that abysmal start.

''When you're 0-8, a lot of people quit,'' Layer said. ''Men quit. Grown-ups quit. But our guys just kept coming back. I told them in January, 'There's going to be a story in March about somebody - there is every year - that's a Cinderella story.' And I said, 'Why couldn't it be us?'''

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Improbably, Liberty and A&T make NCAA field