[Sly Fox]

Now that we have the regular season in our rearview mirrors, its time now to ratchet up the intensity a notch. Obviously we should overwhlem CSU. But we're taking nothing for granted Tuesday night.

CSU Official Site


#20 Keena Wicker
6' 0" Junior Forward
Averages 13.6 Points & 7.3 Rebounds


#33 Erica McCoy
6' 0" Senior Forward
Averages 10.4 Points & 5.6 Rebounds

Regular Season Results:
1/14 - LU won 78-41 @ Vines
2/13 - LU won 63-49 in Charleston

[jcmanson]

I plan to be there Tuesday night. I hope to see many other flamefans there as well! Let's continue our run, and make it 10 straight!

[Stevev]

Should be an easy win. The other 2 we will have to work for.

[Chris Lang]

I don't think Wicker has played a minute in the Big South season ... not sure if she was injured or kicked off the team. CSU is one of the two teams that played LU pre- and post- Megan injury. I can't see any scenario in which LU loses at home this week. Those kids know how to win close games and they defend hard. I'll be heading out to practice tomorrow and look for a tourney preview in the Tuesday fishwrap.

[BJWilliams]

Honestly we jave dominated them before and we'll do it again

LU 75
CSU 48

[Chris Lang]

RE: Keena Wicker. Yelton told me today that she was out because of a university imposed suspension. Some sort of disciplinary action, but she wouldn't elaborate further. Wicker's played the last three games and has averaged 12 ppg in each.

[BJWilliams]

call me a stat monkey for this but here is a little something I dug up:

Liberty has been the no. 1 seed in the Big South Women's tournament every year Carey Green has been the coach. Here are the margins of victory in the first round in the seasons prior to this year

1999-2000: 18 (vs High Point 67-49)
2000-2001: 8 (vs. UNC Asheville 57-49)
2001-2002: 24 (vs. UNC Asheville 76-52)
2002-2003 *my first year on the mountain*: 31 (vs. UNC Asheville 70-39)
2003-2004: 34 (vs. Winthrop 81-47)
2004-2005: 47 (vs. Winthrop 83-36)

As you can see, the margin of victory since the 2000-2001 season has increased almost 600% from 8 to 47. If that is any indication, and the progression continues, we may actually beat CSU by 50

[PAmedic]

stop it stop it stop it.

think CCU-football.

[Stevev]

Some pretty serious domination there. I don't think we will win by 50 tomorrow. I think 25 is what we will win by. Save some of it for the next round.

[BJWilliams]

stop it stop it stop it.

think CCU-football.

Do explain what you mean by that PA

[PAmedic]

overconfidence. looking past your opponent.

[BJWilliams]

overconfidence. looking past your opponent.

Oh I got your drift now bud.

Im pretty sure that LU is taking the Bucs just as seriously as ever. Coach Green would not allow the girls to do that. All the more reason I think we will probably crush them anyway

[TIMSCAR20]

This Liberty women's team is not like its's predecessors and will have to play well to win this week. The other teams were (especially the past 3) were so much better than their opponents that it wouldn't matter how we played. That said, we will not beat anyone in this league by 50 points. We struggle to get to 50 points ourselves. Remember, no player on our team is averaging more than 8 points! An amazing stat for a team that has won so much. Megan Frazee averages about 19 but she won't be playing of course. This team wins with defense and a Tazmanian Devil type of rebounding mentality. They are second in the nation in rebounding and are a plus 12 over their opponents on the year. Also they hold opponents to 34% shooting. If some team gets hot and can shoot it in for more than small stretches, we can be beat. I think we will win the tournament but don't be surprised if we get challenged. There will not be a 50 point game though.

[jcmanson]

Is there anyone that lives on campus that knows if they are giving out free tickets like they have done in the past? Since I live off campus I am kind of out of the loop about any info like that.

[ATrain]

I don't think there are free tickets being given out this year, but I am getting one...life is great when you get connections.

[jcmanson]

Alright, thanks atrain

[PAmedic]

http://newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellit ... 3909&path=

Liberty stingiest team in Big South

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 7, 2006

It seems like Roli-Ann Nikagbatse would be just as comfortable in the batter's box, taking a blazing fastball to the shoulder.
You know how that goes. No matter how much it stings, you just dust yourself off and trot to first base. And don't dare rub the spot where you got hit, or your teammates will never let you live it down.

That was kind of where Nikagbatse was Saturday after diving for a loose ball at the Vines Center against Radford. The game was meaningless for Liberty. The Flames would be hosting the Big South women's basketball tournament regardless of the result. Don't tell that to Nikagbatse, who careened across the hardwood and banged her hip straight into the scorer's table trying to regain possession.

Most players would have struggled to get up after absorbing such a fierce blow. Not Nikagbatse, who just popped right back up and got back down into lockdown mode.

It was plays like Saturday's that earned Nikagbatse the Big South's defensive player of the year award.

"Nobody likes to play defense because it's the hardest job," said Nikagbatse, whose team hosts eighth-seeded Charleston Southern in a tournament quarterfinal tonight. "It just hurts sometimes. You get bumped around and you have to stay low all the time, and your legs start burning. But I like to lock down people, show them my defense and tell them they're not going to score tonight."

Nikagbatse's spunk, as it turns out, is contagious. It's spread to the rest of the Flames and helped Liberty (22-5) become the Big South's stingiest defensive team.

Liberty leads the conference in scoring defense (56.3 points per game), field-goal percentage defense (34.7), 3-point field-goal percentage defense (27.5) and rebounding margin (plus-12.1).

UNC Asheville is one of two other teams in the league with a positive rebounding margin, and the Bulldogs, who are plus-1.8 on the boards, trail Liberty in that statistic by a wide margin.

"Defense wins games," Nikagbatse said. "And offense sells tickets."

When Liberty lost leading scorer Megan Frazee two games into the conference season, Liberty coach Carey Green figured the best way for the Flames to compete at a high level would be to hammer home the importance of defense.

Defense can lead to transition points and help jumpstart a team's offense. And with a solid defense, a team is never too far out of a game to compete.

Liberty has the athletes to play suffocating team defense. The Flames have size in the post in Moriah Frazee and Karolina Piotrkiewicz and dogged, long-armed perimeter defenders like Courtney Watkins and Nikagbatse.

"While they might not be as athletic as we are or as some other teams are, they defend very fundamentally," Radford coach Jeri Porter said after Liberty held the Highlanders to 58 points Saturday. The Flames allowed 60 or more points just three times in 14 Big South games. "You can tell they have been very well taught. They play very hard.

"And I think it comes back to rebounding. Typically, they're going to limit you to one shot and out. So if you're not lighting it up and doing a real good job hitting that first shot, it stands to reason you may not be getting a second or a third shot because they do such a job blocking you out and pushing the ball up the floor the other way."

One sure sign that Liberty values fundamental team defense over playing flashy one-on-one defense comes from looking at the one statistical category the Flames are dead last in: steals.

The Flames average a Big South-worst 7.56 steals per game. Liberty doesn't gamble for steals that would leave a teammate exposed to a defensive mismatch.

Charleston Southern coach Stephanie Yelton knows all about the Flames' stout defense. Her Buccaneers scored an average of 45 points in two losses to LU this season, and the task of scoring on the Flames won't get any easier tonight.

"They've really turned up the defensive pressure and the defensive intensity," Yelton said. "It's been interesting to see their development after that huge injury. I think their players have handled it very well and they've been able to turn a negative into a positive for their team."

[thesportscritic]

This Liberty women's team is not like its's predecessors and will have to play well to win this week. The other teams were (especially the past 3) were so much better than their opponents that it wouldn't matter how we played. That said, we will not beat anyone in this league by 50 points. We struggle to get to 50 points ourselves. Remember, no player on our team is averaging more than 8 points! An amazing stat for a team that has won so much. Megan Frazee averages about 19 but she won't be playing of course. This team wins with defense and a Tazmanian Devil type of rebounding mentality. They are second in the nation in rebounding and are a plus 12 over their opponents on the year. Also they hold opponents to 34% shooting. If some team gets hot and can shoot it in for more than small stretches, we can be beat. I think we will win the tournament but don't be surprised if we get challenged. There will not be a 50 point game though.

SCAR teams have to beat our defense plain and simple if they want to beat us. Eventhough it would be nice to win by 50 points, I don't see that happening

[Chris Lang]

That's the thing critic. Even when Liberty is struggling on offense (and it's happened a lot this season), teams haven't been able to crack the Flames' defense. It seems like every possession Liberty forces its opponent under 10 seconds on the shot clock and makes them take a difficult shot. That's what good defenses do. Someone would have to come in and shoot 50-plus percent and go on sustained runs to beat LU. High Point is the only one that has shown that capability this year, and that's exactly what they did when they beat LU in N.C.

My guess tonight is that all the home teams win. HPU wins another tight one with Asheville (though they are the strangest team in the league. They've played LU tough twice and beating HPU at HPU, but lost to Chuck South at home). Winthrop will take out RU by 5-10 and Coastal will run BSC. The Panthers just don't match up well with the Beach Hens.

[MDIVIVVY]

No, tickets are $3 for faculty student or staff (I wonder since I fit into two of the categories, if I can get in for 1.50)

I've been meaning to ask this for awhile SCAR

What has been up with the (fill in negative adjective) tv signal. It looks like a camcorder is bringing us the action. It was MUCH better last year

[TIMSCAR20]

MDIVVYY,

where are you watching the game? It might be where you are? I have not heard anything about that. The only thing I heard about was the webcast going down from time to time. My father in law had a hard time up in Michigan a lot. It went out completely for most during the Longwood game. I have not seen any of the games on TV this year but I did see it on the Internet and I thought it looked good.

[MDIVIVVY]

Here in forest on the Local telly. It's just. YUCK. Very poor picture compared to last year and the year before (when I had Rabbit ears instead of cable.)

[TIMSCAR20]

Not sure what the problem is then. Maybe it is your cable operator's signal on that channel. Or maybe Ray and I are more "washed out" than in the past. I have been looking pale lately.

[Flamesfanva]

Too bad I can't get the Liberty Channel on Directv. I miss catching some games on there.

[TIMSCAR20]

I would like to see us broker a deal with CSTV or PAX network. I have said this on many occasions but I don't know what it would take to make it happen. I do know that CSTV would show more games if we reached out to them. PAX is interested in building up its sports programing as they started showing WNBA games a couple of years ago. If we got on either one of those channels, the DirecTV folks like you and me and millions more would be able to watch (more add revenue would be generated if we actually sold the commercial time).