Bella Smuda will play in her fourth conference tournament championship game on Saturday.
WBB Game Day: No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee
3/15/2025 2:41:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game Day Coverage
- No. 1 seed Liberty vs. No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee (CUSA Final - Propst Arena in Huntsville, Ala.)
- Tipoff: Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern/4:30 p.m. Central
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Radio:Â LFSN Radio
- Live Stats
- Championship Central
- Championship Ticket Information
- No. 1 seed Liberty (25-6, 16-2 CUSA) will battle No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee (26-7, 16-2 CUSA) on Saturday in a rematch of the 2024 CUSA title game.
- Riding a 10-game winning streak, Liberty will seek its first conference tournament title since 2018 (Big South). The Lady Flames are 17-6 all-time in conference finals, but have lost four in a row.Â
- Liberty is 1-4 all-time against Middle Tennessee, including a 67-51 loss in last year's final. However, the Lady Flames picked up their first-ever win over the Blue Raiders by a 61-42 count on March 6 in Lynchburg in the most recent meeting.
- All-CUSA first team center Bella Smuda has recorded three double-doubles in five meetings with Middle Tennessee, including a 21-point, 10-rebound effort during Liberty's March 6 triumph. Saturday will mark her fourth career championship game appearance.
- CUSA All-Freshman team guard Avery Mills scored a game-high 17 points during Friday's 80-53 semifinal win over Louisiana Tech and paces the Lady Flames with 13.5 ppg through two games in Huntsville. She has helped Liberty's bench outscore its opponents' reserves, 78-21.
- Saturday will mark the third time the CUSA title game has been a rematch from the previous championship. On both previous occasions (2001 and 2002 with Tulane and Cincinnati and 2019 and 2021 with Rice and Middle Tennessee), the losing team from the first contest won the next meeting. Â
- Liberty and Middle Tennessee have combined for 51 wins this season. This is the most combined victories for the two CUSA finalists since 2015, when WKU and Southern Miss also entered the title game with 51 victories between them.
- Liberty has won 25 games for the 11th time in program history. Nine of the Lady Flames' 10 previous 25-win teams made the NCAA Tournament (exception 2022).
- The Lady Flames are 1-4 versus the Blue Raiders and 29-4 against all other CUSA opponents over the last two seasons.
- Liberty brings back four starters from its 67-51 loss to Middle Tennessee in last year's CUSA title game (Hodges, Boone, Hess and Smuda), while the Blue Raiders return three (Gregory, Scott and Boldyreva).Â
- Liberty has won its first two games in Huntsville by a combined 54 points. That is the widest combined margin of victory by a CUSA finalist in its quarterfinal and semifinal wins since 1998. Louisville won its first two games by a total of 59 points but then lost to Memphis in the final.
- The Lady Flames have advanced to the championship game of their conference tournament for the third straight year and the 25th time in the last 29 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.
- The Lady Flames are 17-6 all-time in conference tournament finals but have lost four in a row (3 ASUN, 1 CUSA).Â
- Liberty is the No. 1 seed for the first time in CUSA and the 17th time in program history. All previous occasions came in the Big South Conference, and the Lady Flames have won 15 titles in 16 appearances as the No. 1 seed (exception 2011).Â
- Liberty is 46-1 in conference tournaments as the No. 1 seed and 65-3 (4-0 in CUSA) when favored according to seed.Â
- Carey Green is 60-10 (4-1 in CUSA) coaching in conference tournament games, including a 14-6 mark in title contests.
- Liberty is 9-3 when playing in a title game on a neutral court.Â
- This is only the eighth time in CUSA Tournament history that the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are meeting in the championship game. The No. 1 seed is 5-2 in those matchups, including Middle Tennessee's wins the last two seasons.Â
- Liberty brought a season-best eight-game winning streak to Huntsville. This is the 11th time the Lady Flames have won eight or more consecutive games to close the regular season. They have gone on to win their conference tournament on nine of the previous 10 occasions (exception 2023).
- The Liberty men's basketball team is also playing for a CUSA title on Saturday. The last time both teams cut down the nets in the same season was 2013 (Big South).Â
All-CUSA First Team – Bella Smuda
All-CUSA Second Team – Asia Boone and Emma Hess
All-Defensive Team – Bella Smuda
All-Freshman Team – Avery Mills and Emmy Stout
All-Academic Team -Â Emma Hess
- Liberty had the most total players recognized (five) of any CUSA squad.
- The Lady Flames put two players on the All-Freshman Team for the second year in a row, following Elisabeth Aegisdottir and Asia Boone's selections in 2024.
- Liberty is 3-0 all-time when playing on March 15, including 1-0 in conference finals.
- Liberty held off Gardner-Webb on this date in 2009 to capture the Big South Championship title. The Lady Flames were scheduled to play the ASUN Championship final at FGCU on this date in 2020 before it was cancelled due to COVID-19.
- Liberty is 98-59 all-time in March, including 90-34 under Carey Green and 5-0 this season.
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