Thursday, January 16
El Paso, Texas
9:00 PM ET/7:00 PM MT
Liberty University
11-5,4-1CUSA
75
at
64
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UTEP
8-7,1-3CUSA
1
2
3
4
F
Liberty
21
22
15
17
75
UTEP
16
13
16
19
64
Hess Reaches 1,000, Leads Liberty Past UTEP, 75-64
1/16/2025 11:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
EL PASO, Texas – Liberty's Emma Hess scored a team-high 15 points, reaching 1,000 for her career and leading the Lady Flames to a 75-64 victory at UTEP, Thursday night inside the Don Haskins Center.
Liberty (11-5, 4-1 CUSA) takes over sole possession of second place in the CUSA standings with its third straight victory. The Lady Flames knocked down nine triples and held the Miners to 34.4 percent (22-of-64) from the field.
Hess's triple at 6:45 of the third quarter made her the 22nd 1,000-point scorer in program history for the Lady Flames.
Playing its CUSA home opener, UTEP drops to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in conference play. The Miners outrebounded Liberty and put four players in double figures in the scoring column. However, UTEP could not overcome an off shooting night and falls to 0-3 all-time against the Lady Flames.
Box Score Highlights
Liberty Individuals: Hess – 15 points, 6 rebounds; Jordan Hodges – 12 points, 2-3 3FG; Emmy Stout – 11 points, 6 rebounds, 7-10 FT; Elisabeth Aegisdottir – 8 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists; Bella Smuda – 8 points, 7 rebounds; Asia Boone – 8 points, 5 rebounds.
UTEP Individuals: Ndack Mbengue – 15 points, 7 rebounds, 7-9 FT; Ivane Tensaie – 13 points, 3-11 3FG; Delma Zita – 11 points; Luisa Vydrova – 10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists; Irene Asensio – 7 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals.
Key Team Stats: Liberty made 43.1 percent (28-of-65) of its field goals and 30 percent (9-of-30) of its three-point tries. UTEP connected at just a 26.3 percent (5-of-19) rate from beyond the arc. The Miners got to the foul line more often, shooting 15-of-22 for 68.2 percent to Liberty's 10-of-14 for 71.4 percent. UTEP became the second straight opponent to win the rebounding battle against the Lady Flames (44-40), grabbing 15 offensive boards that led to 16 second-chance points. Liberty enjoyed a 17-to-12 assist to turnover ratio and had the upper hand in points in the paint (34-24) and bench points (24-19).
Turning Point
Liberty posted a pair of 8-0 runs during the second quarter. The second of them, punctuated by back-to-back triples from Claudia Acin and Avery Mills, more than doubled the visitors' lead from 31-25 to 39-25, 2:53 before halftime.
UTEP could get no closer than seven points down the rest of the night.
Game Summary
First Quarter
Liberty will wrap up its western swing on Saturday with a CUSA Championship semifinal rematch at New Mexico State (10-7, 3-1 CUSA). Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. Eastern inside the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, N.M., and the matinee will air on ESPN+.
Liberty (11-5, 4-1 CUSA) takes over sole possession of second place in the CUSA standings with its third straight victory. The Lady Flames knocked down nine triples and held the Miners to 34.4 percent (22-of-64) from the field.
Hess's triple at 6:45 of the third quarter made her the 22nd 1,000-point scorer in program history for the Lady Flames.
Playing its CUSA home opener, UTEP drops to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in conference play. The Miners outrebounded Liberty and put four players in double figures in the scoring column. However, UTEP could not overcome an off shooting night and falls to 0-3 all-time against the Lady Flames.
Box Score Highlights
Liberty Individuals: Hess – 15 points, 6 rebounds; Jordan Hodges – 12 points, 2-3 3FG; Emmy Stout – 11 points, 6 rebounds, 7-10 FT; Elisabeth Aegisdottir – 8 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists; Bella Smuda – 8 points, 7 rebounds; Asia Boone – 8 points, 5 rebounds.
UTEP Individuals: Ndack Mbengue – 15 points, 7 rebounds, 7-9 FT; Ivane Tensaie – 13 points, 3-11 3FG; Delma Zita – 11 points; Luisa Vydrova – 10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists; Irene Asensio – 7 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals.
Key Team Stats: Liberty made 43.1 percent (28-of-65) of its field goals and 30 percent (9-of-30) of its three-point tries. UTEP connected at just a 26.3 percent (5-of-19) rate from beyond the arc. The Miners got to the foul line more often, shooting 15-of-22 for 68.2 percent to Liberty's 10-of-14 for 71.4 percent. UTEP became the second straight opponent to win the rebounding battle against the Lady Flames (44-40), grabbing 15 offensive boards that led to 16 second-chance points. Liberty enjoyed a 17-to-12 assist to turnover ratio and had the upper hand in points in the paint (34-24) and bench points (24-19).
Turning Point
Liberty posted a pair of 8-0 runs during the second quarter. The second of them, punctuated by back-to-back triples from Claudia Acin and Avery Mills, more than doubled the visitors' lead from 31-25 to 39-25, 2:53 before halftime.
UTEP could get no closer than seven points down the rest of the night.
Game Summary
First Quarter
- A back-and-forth opening quarter featured two ties and four lead changes.
- Liberty emerged with a 21-16 edge after blocking four shots and scoring seven points off UTEP's five turnovers.
- Aided by the two 8-0 runs, Liberty outscored the Miners 22-13 during the second period.
- Eight different Lady Flames tallied points in the quarter as Liberty's bench posted a 10-2 scoring advantage. As a result, the visitors claimed a 43-29 halftime advantage.
- Hess's triple which got her to 1,000 and her transition layup 10 seconds later staked Liberty to its largest lead up to that point (49-34).
- A pair of Tensaie triples helped UTEP pull within nine on three separate occasions during the stanza.
- But Liberty got the lead back to double digits (58-45) heading to the final period.
- The Miners made a late comeback attempt, using an 8-0 burst to pull within seven (67-60) with 3:26 to play.
- Liberty answered with layups from Hess and Aegisdottir on its next two possessions, effectively sealing its road triumph.
- Hess, who scored in double digits for the third time in the last five games and the 45th time in her career, became the seventh Lady Flame to join the 1,000-point club in the last six seasons.
- This is the second straight year Hess has hit a memorable three-pointer at the Don Haskins Center. She nailed her Liberty single-season record 65th triple of the season at UTEP on March 2, 2024.
- Hodges (12 points) scored in double figures for the 20th time in her career.
- Stout's 11 points off the bench were the freshman's most since she poured in 23 points during her collegiate debut, Dec. 11 vs. Randolph.
- Smuda overtook Sarah Wilkerson for ninth place on Liberty's career scoring list and leapfrogged Elena Kisseleva for seventh on the Lady Flames' rebounding chart. She ended the evening with 1,338 career points and 879 career boards.
- Aegisdottir dished out a team-high five assists to equal her career high.
- Liberty finished with the exact same score as in its previous game, a 75-64 home victory over Louisiana Tech on Saturday.
Liberty will wrap up its western swing on Saturday with a CUSA Championship semifinal rematch at New Mexico State (10-7, 3-1 CUSA). Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. Eastern inside the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, N.M., and the matinee will air on ESPN+.
Team Stats
Lib
UTEP
FG%
.431
.344
3FG%
.300
.263
FT%
.714
.682
RB
40
44
TO
12
15
STL
6
8
Game Leaders
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
7
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
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/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's BasketballC
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