WBB Game Day: James Madison

Game Day Coverage

Liberty Storylines

Liberty (2-0) will take to the road for the first time under Alexis Sherard, heading across the Commonwealth for a Wednesday visit to James Madison (2-1).
The Lady Flames are 2-0 to start the season. Most recently, they used hot shooting (53.3 percent FG%) and a 17-0 third quarter run to defeat East Carolina 69-53, Friday afternoon, despite committing 25 turnovers.
Liberty is 4-14 all-time against JMU, including a 1-9 mark in Harrisonburg. However, the Lady Flames have won two of the last three meetings.
Preseason All-CUSA guard Avery Mills paced the Lady Flames in points (career-high 21) and rebounds (career-high 10) against ECU for her first career double-double. She also matched her career high of five triples.
Junior point guard Claudia Acin hit five triples of her own against ECU (on only five attempts) to set a career high. She scored a career-best 17 points against the Pirates while dishing out a career-high seven assists (and committing only one turnover). After totaling 12 three-pointers made during her first two years at Liberty, Acin has already hit eight this year (at a 66.7 percent clip).

Notes and Anecdotes

Liberty will head to James Madison for the first road contest of the Alexis Sherard era. The Lady Flames were 8-5 on the road last season, winning their last four road games of 2024-25.
Liberty is predicted for a runner-up finish in CUSA, while JMU was tabbed the Sun Belt preseason favorite for the third year in a row.
JMU went 30-6 last season, making the Dukes one of 10 opponents on Liberty's 11-team non-conference schedule which posted a winning record in 2024-25.
Liberty and JMU will square off for the 17th time in the last 20 seasons and the 19th time overall. The home team has won the last four head-to-head meetings, and the Lady Flames have lost the last four times they have visited Harrisonburg.
JMU's Peyton McDaniel has racked up 1,727 career points (17 in two meetings with Liberty). Liberty's entire 12-player roster has totaled 1,126 collegiate points.
Both Liberty's Alexis Sherard and JMU's Sean O'Regan started out as assistant coaches with their respective teams in 2007-08 after previously coaching men's basketball. O'Regan was promoted to head coach in 2016-17, while Sherard took over for the retired Carey Green this season.

Lady Flames vs. Sun Belt

Liberty is 10-11 all-time against Sun Belt Conference opponents (at time of meeting).
The Lady Flames are 1-1 versus James Madison since the Duke joined the Sun Belt. The first 16 Liberty-JMU matchups came while the Dukes were members of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).
Wednesday's game marks Liberty's first matchup with a Sun Belt foe since the Lady Flames' last meeting with JMU (Dec. 1, 2023).
The Lady Flames' most recent road win against a Sun Belt opponent came in the 2015-16 season opener, 74-68 at Appalachian State (Nov. 13, 2015).

Competing vs. the Commonwealth

JMU is the first of four in-state opponents on Liberty's 2025-26 schedule. The Lady Flames will also face UVA Wise (Nov. 26), George Mason (Dec. 7) and Richmond (Dec. 13).
Last season, Liberty went 2-0 versus in-state opponents. The Lady Flames are now 11-4 in their last 15 meetings with Commonwealth foes.

Facts from Friday

Liberty's 69-53 home win over East Carolina Friday afternoon marked the Lady Flames' second all-time victory over an American Conference foe (both home wins over ECU).
After recording a 21-0 run during the second quarter of the season opener against Frostburg State three days earlier, Liberty broke the game open with a 17-0 third quarter surge.
Claudia Acin (5-of-5 from three-point range) and Avery Mills (5-of-7) were the first Liberty duo to hit five or more triples in the same contest since Dec. 7, 1992 against Navy (Cynthia Thomson and Dawn Coleman).
Acin set career highs for points (17), assists (7) and three-pointers made (5), while becoming the first Lady Flame to go 5-of-5 or better from beyond the arc since 2019.
Mills' first career double-double consisted of a career-high 21 points and a career-best 10 rebounds.

Schedule