WBB Game Day: New Mexico State

Game Day Coverage

Liberty Storylines

Liberty (8-13, 3-3 CUSA) will play host to New Mexico State (9-10, 3-3 CUSA) on Thursday for the inaugural meeting between a pair of first-year CUSA members.
Both teams have won three of their last four contests, moving into a tie with one another (and UTEP) for fourth place in the CUSA standings.
Liberty begins a new month having won nine straight February contests and owning a 158-24 record in the month under Carey Green.
Bella Smuda has recorded double-doubles in four of six CUSA games, giving her a conference-high 10 for the season. She enters the week 75 points away from becoming Liberty's 21st 1,000-point scorer.
Headlined by a career-high 30-point outing at Sam Houston on Jan. 20, Emma Hess is averaging 17.8 ppg over her last four games. She has knocked down 12 triples at a 41.4 percent clip over that stretch.
Asia Boone earned her sixth CUSA Freshman of the Week honor on Jan. 22, the most Freshman of the Week awards by a Lady Flame since 2016-17, when Keyen Green won a program-best eight Big South Conference honors.

Notes and Anecdotes

The first-ever meeting between Liberty and New Mexico State matches up the top two teams among this year's quartet of CUSA newcomers. Both the Lady Flames and Aggies have won three of their last four contests to move into a fourth-place tie (along with UTEP) at 3-3.
Both teams feature considerable international flavor, as five of Liberty's 13 players and seven of New Mexico State's 15 players hail from outside the United States. Both squads feature players from the Netherlands and Spain.
Both squads advanced to postseason tournaments a year ago. Liberty made its second consecutive WNIT appearance, while New Mexico State was the WBI runner-up.
Prior to this season, New Mexico State spent 18 years as a WAC member (2005-06 through 2022-23). Liberty is 2-0 versus WAC foes this season (Grand Canyon and Stephen F. Austin) and also topped Sam Houston, which moved from the WAC to CUSA along with the Aggies this year.
New Mexico State's leading scorer this season (Molly Kaiser) scored her 1,000th point during a Jan. 20 matchup with Middle Tennessee. Liberty's top scorer (Bella Smuda) enters the week just 75 points shy of 1,000 for her career.
Liberty has never faced an opponent from New Mexico in its 49 seasons of women's basketball.

First-Time Foes

The Lady Flames are 3-3 vs. first-time opponents this season, including wins over Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin and losses to FIU, Gonzaga and Texas.
Beginning with Thursday, each of Liberty's next three games will pit the Lady Flames against opponents they are facing for the first time in program history.
Prior to this season, Liberty had only met two of the other eight Conference USA members (Jacksonville State and WKU) in program history.

Home Sweet Home

The Lady Flames are 48-7 at Liberty Arena, which opened in time for the 2020-21 season, including 6-4 in 2023-24 and 26-2 all-time in conference play (including ASUN and CUSA contests).
The Lady Flames closed out a facility-record 16-game home winning streak with their season-opening 68-46 triumph over Frostburg State on Nov. 6.
Since then, Liberty's key home wins have included victories over preseason Sun Belt favorite James Madison and preseason WAC favorite Grand Canyon.
A record 2,105 fans attended a Dec. 31 matchup with Tennessee. It marked the largest women's basketball crowd ever at Liberty Arena by nearly 500 spectators.

Schedule