WBB Game Day: No. 24 FGCU
3/2/2021 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game Day Links:
Friday Live Video (ESPN+)
Saturday Live Video (ESPN3)
Live Audio (LFSN Radio)
Friday Live Stats
Saturday Live Stats
Liberty Game Notes
Liberty Women's Basketball Instagram
Liberty Women's Basketball Twitter
Liberty Women's Basketball Facebook
FGCU Women's Basketball Webpage
ASUN Women's Basketball Webpage
Game Times:
Friday - 7 p.m.
Saturday - 5 p.m.
TV Coverage:
ESPN+ (Friday)/ESPN3 (Saturday)
Radio Coverage:
Liberty Flames Sports Network - Radio
WQLU 90.9 FM The Light
Play-By-Play Broadcaster: Jamie Hall
The Starting 5 - Liberty's Top Storylines
• Liberty (17-5, 12-2 ASUN) will visit ASUN Conference-leading and No. 24 FGCU (21-2, 14-0 ASUN) for a pair of contests to wrap up the 2020-21 season, Friday and Saturday.
• Liberty can claim a share of its first ASUN regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for the ASUN Women's Basketball Championship with a sweep of this weekend's series.
• The Lady Flames are seeking their first-ever win over FGCU and their first win over a Top 25 opponent since March 22, 2005. To do so, they will need to snap
FGCU's 20-game winning streak.
• The Liberty-FGCU matchup has been a long time in the making. The teams' scheduled contest in the 2020 ASUN Women's Basketball Championship title game on March 15, 2020 was cancelled, and their scheduled meetings on Jan. 9 & 10 were postponed.
• Liberty's leading scorer Emily Lytle (14.4 ppg) made a career-high six triples on Senior Day, Sunday versus Stetson. As a team, the Lady Flames are 10 made three-pointers away from setting a program single-season record.
Notes and Anecdotes - Liberty vs. FGCU
• Plenty will be riding on this weekend's series. If Liberty wins both games, it would claim a share of its first-ever ASUN regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for the ASUN Women's Basketball Championship. If FGCU wins at least once this weekend, the Eagles will earn the outright regular-season title and No. 1 seed, while Liberty would finish No. 2.
• When Friday's game tips off, it will have been 355 days since Liberty and FGCU were supposed to meet at Alico Arena in the 2020 ASUN Women's Basketball Championship title game. The contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Liberty and FGCU were declared co-champions.
• FGCU is the only ASUN opponent Liberty has not defeated, and Alico Arena is one of two conference venues (also UNF Arena) where the Lady Flames have not won a game. Visiting ASUN teams are 3-112 all-time at Alico Arena.
• Since Liberty's last matchup with FGCU (Feb. 1, 2020), the Lady Flames have played 24 games against eight different ASUN opponents, including five against Kennesaw State.
• Carey Green has been coaching at Liberty for longer than FGCU has sponsored women's basketball, as his first season was 1999-2000. Karl Smesko has been the Eagles' only head coach since the program began in 2002-03. Green (493 wins) and Smesko (514 wins) have combined for more than 1,000 wins with their current programs.
Bombs Away!
• Liberty has hit 166 three-pointers this season and is rapidly approaching the program single-season record of 175, set in 2013-14. That year, the Lady Flames played 31 games. This season, Liberty has played 22 contests so far.
• The Lady Flames set a program single-game record with 14 three-pointers during a win over Carson-Newman, Dec. 13, 2020 at Liberty Arena. Three of the top five single-game three-point totals in program history have been achieved this season, also including a pair of contests with 12 triples.
• Individually, Ashtyn Baker is shooting 41.1 percent from three-point range while Emily Lytle is at 40 percent. The program single-season record is 38.8 percent, set by Sharon Wilkerson in 1997-98.
• Lytle knocked down six three-pointers during the Lady Flames' Feb. 28 home win over Stetson, the most triples by a Liberty player since Wilkerson made a program single-game-record eight, Jan. 18, 1999 versus Charleston Southern.
