WBB Game Day: No. 11 Duke

Game Day Coverage

Liberty Storylines

Liberty (2-1) will welcome No. 11 Duke (2-2) to Liberty Arena for the second consecutive season. The Lady Flames will recognize recently retired Head Coach Carey Green during Sunday afternoon's matchup.
The Lady Flames' first road game of 2025-26 resulted in their first setback, Wednesday at James Madison. Liberty led by 12 points during the third quarter before the Dukes roared back for a 74-61 decision.
Liberty is 0-7 all-time against Duke and is looking to snap a 43-game losing streak to Top 25 foes. The Lady Flames have won 15 straight home games since last season's 83-67 loss to the Blue Devils, one game shy of matching their longest win streak at Liberty Arena.
Preseason All-CUSA selections and high school teammates Avery Mills and Emmy Stout pace the Lady Flames' scoring attack, averaging 15.7 ppg apiece to begin their respective sophomore campaigns.
Liberty has outrebounded all three opponents by an average of 15.7 boards per game. Redshirt freshman forward Ify Nwaobi has been a big reason why, pulling down a team-leading 9.7 rpg during the first three outings of her collegiate career. She set career highs for points (8) and rebounds (13) at JMU on Wednesday.

Notes and Anecdotes

No. 11 Duke will visit Liberty Arena for the second year in a row, marking the first Top 25 foe of the Alexis Sherard era.
Liberty is 0-7 versus the Blue Devils all-time, with last season's 83-67 setback marking the narrowest margin of defeat in series history. Duke is the second most commonly played opponent Liberty has never defeated, trailing only Mount St. Mary's. The Lady Flames are 0-11 versus the Mountaineers, with all of those meetings coming in the 1980s.
Liberty is predicted for a runner-up finish in CUSA, while Duke was voted the ACC preseason favorite.
Duke went 29-8 and reached the NCAA Elite Eight last season, making the Blue Devils one of 10 opponents on Liberty's 11-team non-conference schedule which posted a winning record in 2024-25. Duke is the first of four 2025 NCAA Tournament qualifiers Liberty will face this season.
Both teams are 2-0 at home but winless in road/neutral contests during the first two weeks of the 2025-26 season. Both squads lost their most recent outing after taking a lead into halftime.
Carey Green, who served as Liberty's head coach for all seven previous meetings with Duke during his 26-year tenure, will be recognized at halftime of Sunday's contest.

Lady Flames vs. Top 25

Duke enters Sunday's game ranked No. 11 nationally in the coaches poll and No. 15 in the AP poll.
Liberty has lost 43 consecutive matchups with Top 25 opponents since an 88-79 victory over No. 17/16 DePaul on March 22, 2005 sent the Lady Flames into the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. That also marked the highest-ranked team Liberty has defeated in program history.
Liberty has defeated four Top 25 foes all-time, with three of those victories coming during the 2004-05 season, the senior year of current assistant Katie (Feenstra) Mattera.
The Lady Flames own one Top 25 win over an ACC opponent. Liberty's first-ever Top 25 victory was a 77-69 home triumph over No. 23 Virginia in overtime on Nov. 26, 2002.

Lady Flames vs. ACC

Liberty is 5-34 all-time versus ACC opponents, with two of its victories coming against Virginia, two more versus Virginia Tech and one against Wake Forest. All five wins have come under recently retired Head Coach Carey Green, and all five victories have taken place in Virginia (three at Liberty, one at Virginia and one at Virginia Tech).
This is the 12th time in the last 13 seasons Liberty has faced at least one ACC opponent.
The Lady Flames are 1-1 versus ACC opponents at Liberty Arena, defeating Virginia Tech 59-40 on Dec. 7, 2021 and losing to Duke 83-67 last season (Nov. 7, 2024).

Home Sweet Home

The Lady Flames are 2-0 at Liberty Arena this season, improving to 67-9 (88.2 win%) all-time at their home facility.
Liberty has recorded 15 consecutive home victories, just one shy of the Lady Flames' longest winning streak at Liberty Arena (16 games from Nov. 10, 2022 through Dec. 1, 2023).
No. 11 Duke was the most recent visiting team to win at Liberty Arena, topping the Lady Flames 83-67 on Nov. 7, 2024. The Lady Flames are 0-2 when facing Top 25 foes at Liberty Arena, also including a 69-61 setback to No. 23 FGCU on Feb. 24, 2022.

Schedule