The Liberty Lady Flames held their first Division I matchup of this season, facing the East Carolina Pirates and winning by a large margin. Liberty ended the game with a win by a final score of 69-53.
Liberty has a 2-2 overall record against ECU, with their last game being in 2022, losing 64-72. This is a big out-of-conference win for Liberty as they have started their season 2-0. The Lady Flames are back in action against JMU on the 12th of November, which will be Liberty’s first game so far this season.
Coach Sherard spoke to press after the game and gave an opening statement stating, “I am very proud of our team, East Carolina is a good basketball team, very proud of the way our team executed, we handled runs very well, but overall I believe our team is maturing and this is a big win for us against a veteran team in East Carolina.”
“Obviously we did a pretty great job of shooting the basketball, shooting 10-18 from three, obviously that’s going to open up the floor make the gaps a little bigger and that makes the defense extend even more,” Sherard said of his team’s 55.6% night from three. “We have some pretty good post players inside and that isolates them on the block that allows them to be one-on-one and I’ll put our post players one-on-one against anyone in the country. So, obviously, making shots makes our job a lot easier”.
LU came out quickly, which is different from the last game, where the Flames started slow. LU surged ahead early, leading 10-3 with a big and-1 by Emmy Stout with 6:38 left in the first. Liberty continues to be aggressive on defense, holding the lead, which has been a big part of their game plan so far this season, but a couple of turnovers and mistakes let ECU crawl back to within three. Yet, despite the early mistakes by LU, they still managed to stay ahead on offense with a run, leading 19-11 to end the first.
Liberty kept the game close in the 2nd with an early lead led by Claudia Acin and Avery Mills that separated the score to 25-13, but ECU was still hanging on with some big threes of their own, only down by 1 to end the half. This is where the close scores end with Liberty putting their foot on the throttle. Emmy Stout put the lead up with her second and-1 chance of the game, and Acin contributed heavily as well with two threes early in the 2nd half.
The Flames were very efficient from three, something ECU was not able to replicate, with the Pirates only shooting 14.8% from three for the game. Then Liberty started to run away with the lead, owning a 55-37 lead with 32 seconds to go in the third quarter. The fourth quarter proved no different, with Liberty firm in the driver’s seat. The tandem of Mills and Acin led the way, proving to be too much for the Pirates to handle, cruising to a twenty-point lead at one point and later securing the win.
Liberty’s biggest threat in this game was their effectiveness from three. This game, Liberty shot 66.7% from three in the 1st, then 60% in the 2nd, and 60% in the 3rd, and finished with 40% in the 4th. Claudia Acin was very accurate from three in this game, shooting 5-5 and hitting some big shots to keep the Flames in the lead. Another huge performance and arguably player of the game was Avery Mills, who also had 5 threes of her own, shooting 5-7 on the night. Acin and Mills both ended the game in double digits, with Acin having 17 and Mills 21. The only other double-digit scorer on the team was Emmy Stout with 15.
Liberty played a decently clean game, but the biggest takeaway would be the turnovers the Flames had this game. Liberty had 25 turnovers on the game to ECU’s 14. ECU also scored 24 points off these turnovers, while Liberty only scored 12 points off turnovers. Aside from this, Liberty led in almost every other major category and had an impressive 37:49-minute time with the lead.
As mentioned before, Liberty will have a big matchup against the JMU Dukes, who are currently 2-1 on the season with wins over Kent State and Queens and a loss to George Mason. The Flames have a noticeable record against JMU, standing at just 4 wins to 15 losses. Liberty will hope to turn the tide in the upcoming game on November 12, at 6:00 at Atlantic Union Bank Center in Harrisonburg.
