WBB Game Day: No. 7 seed Western Kentucky

Game Day Coverage

No. 2 seed Liberty vs. No. 7 seed Western Kentucky (Propst Arena in Huntsville, Ala.)
Tipoff: Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN+
Radio: LFSN Radio
Live Stats

Liberty Storylines

No. 2 seed Liberty (16-15, 11-5 CUSA) will tip off its first CUSA Women's Basketball Championship appearance with a Wednesday quarterfinal against No. 7 seed Western Kentucky (15-16, 6-10 CUSA).
The road team won both regular-season matchups, including Liberty's 84-77 season-ending triumph at WKU on Saturday. That marked the Lady Flames' 10th victory in their last 12 contests.
Nine-time CUSA Freshman of the Week Asia Boone was named CUSA Freshman of the Year. She is the Lady Flames' first freshman of the year since 2018, the last year they made the NCAA Tournament.
First team All-CUSA center Bella Smuda has scored in double figures in 12 straight games, including her 21-point effort at WKU where she shot 10-of-11.
First team All-CUSA guard Emma Hess has hit a Liberty-record 72 triples this season. She knocked down four of them at WKU on Saturday as part of a 22-point outing.
Honorable mention All-CUSA point guard Jordan Hodges scored 16 of her 19 points after halftime and added eight assists, Saturday at WKU. She has posted 65 assists and 16 turnovers in the last 12 games.

Notes and Anecdotes

After going more than two months between their pair of regular-season meetings (Jan. 6 and March 9), Liberty and Western Kentucky will match up for the second time in five days on Wednesday.
This is just the second time at the Division I level that Liberty has opened its conference tournament against its final regular-season foe. The Lady Flames defeated Kennesaw State 76-70 in the 2019-20 regular-season finale and then beat the Owls 91-86 five days later in the ASUN quarterfinals.
The road team won both Liberty-WKU regular-season matchups after making a big comeback. WKU spoiled the Lady Flames' CUSA debut on Jan. 6 at Liberty Arena, overcoming a 15-point deficit to post a 68-66 win. Liberty then rallied after trailing by 11 to win 84-77, Saturday in Bowling Green.
Liberty and WKU were picked to tie for second place in the CUSA preseason poll. They enter the tournament heading in different directions, as the Lady Flames are 10-2 in their last 12 games while the Lady Toppers have lost six in a row.
Both teams lost in their conference's championship game last season, and both are looking to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. The Lady Flames and Lady Toppers both dropped NCAA first-round games at Tennessee that year.

Tournament Tidbits

Liberty will look to advance to the semifinal round of its conference tournament for the seventh straight year and the 27th time in the last 28 seasons.
Liberty has won 17 conference tournament championships (all in the Big South Conference) on the court, with the most recent coming in 2018. The Lady Flames were also awarded a share of the 2020 ASUN title (along with FGCU) after the final was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carey Green is 56-9 in conference tournament games.
Liberty is 61-3 in NCAA Division I conference tournament games when favored by seed.
Liberty will try to become the first No. 2 seed to win the CUSA title since WKU in 2018. The Lady Flames captured a pair of Big South titles as the No. 2 seed (1997 and 2010).
The last CUSA team to cut down the nets in its first season as a conference member was WKU in 2015.
Liberty's active players in this year's tournament have combined for three total double-digit scoring efforts in conference tournament games. Bella Smuda scored 11 points in the 2021 ASUN quarterfinals vs. Bellarmine, while both Smuda and Jordan Bailey finished with 11 in the 2023 ASUN quarterfinals vs. Kennesaw State.

Liberty's All-CUSA Honorees

Freshman of the Year – Asia Boone

All-CUSA First Team – Emma Hess and Bella Smuda

All-CUSA Second Team – Asia Boone

Honorable Mention All-CUSA – Jordan Hodges

All-Defensive Team – Bella Smuda

All-Academic Team - Emma Hess

Boone is Liberty's first conference freshman of the year since 2018 (Ashtyn Baker – Big South) and the first Lady Flames freshman to make an all-conference team since 2017 (Keyen Green – Big South second team).
This is the first time since 2017 multiple Lady Flames made the all-freshman team. That year, the trio of Keyen Green, Iva Ilic and Ola Makurat was named to the Big South All-Freshman Team.

Bombs Away!

Emma Hess set a Liberty single-season record with her 65th three-pointer, March 2 at UTEP, and has since extended the record to 72.
Asia Boone (55 triples) is within striking distance of the Liberty freshman record for three-pointers. Cynthia Thomson set the record with 64 triples in 1989-90.
A year after hitting a program-record 224 triples as a team, the Lady Flames enter the CUSA Championship having made 207 so far this season.

Schedule