Liberty Loses Third Home Game of the Season to James Madison

Photo Credit: Nathan Spencer

LYNCHBURG, Va.- It was a tough one for Liberty, as the Lady Flames 74-53 on Thursday evening. The Duke dominated the first quarter with an 8-0 run to take the 14-5 lead. The defensive effort by James Madison caused

Liberty to struggle in making shots. The Lady Flames were able to hit just 3-of-13 shots and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line and trailed 16-10 after one quarter. James Madison took a 15-point lead at halftime, 38-23, after scoring 22 points in the second quarter. In the third quarter, Liberty made an effort to cut into James Madison’s lead. The Lady Flames went on a 6-0 run to the deficit to 12 after KK Barbour scored a pair of free throws with 1:33 left in the game. Liberty scored 12 out of 17 points in the paint but finished the third quarter two points behind but still trailed JMU 57-40 after being outscored 19-17 in the third. Liberty fell to James Madison 74-53. KK Barbour led the team with nine points and 12 rebounds. Tatyana Crowder (8), Emily Lytle (8) and Ria Gulley (8) combined for 24 points.

James Madison improves to 5-1 on the season. Kamiah Smalls led the way with 30 points. Kayla Cooper-Williams grabbed 15 boards and blocked two shots.

Liberty begins its December road trip at ETSU on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Game Stat Leaders

Liberty

Points: KK Barbour (9)

Rebounds: KK Barbour (12)

Assists: Bridgette Rettstatt (3)

Steals: Ashtyn Baker (3)

Blocks: KK Barbour (1), Tatyana Crowder (1)

James Madison

Points: Kamiah Smalls (30)

Rebounds: Kayla Cooper-Williams (15)

Assists: Kamiah Smalls (4)

Steals: Logan Reynolds (4)

Blocks: Kayla Cooper-Williams (2)

Player Achievements

Liberty

·        Tatyana Crowder recorded a season high of eight points.

James Madison

·        Kamiah Smalls is now tied for 43rd place for scoring in program history. She also became the fourth player in the CAA to score 30 points in a game this season.

·        This is the eighth time that Smalls has scored 10 or more points. The streak began last season in James Madison’s win against Radford in the 2018 WNIT.

·        Jackie Benitez has scored over 10 points in each her first five games with James Madison.

·        Kayla Cooper-Williams tallied her 156th career block and is tied for fourth place in the program’s blocks category.

Quotes

Liberty Head Coach Carey Green

“Yes, it’s a young team but, you have got to quit making those excuses. Young players and young teams can play very hard as well. There are just so many areas there that in this particular game that we weren’t very successful in. So, consequently, we lost to a pretty good team. JMU is pretty good.”

KK Barbour

“I think we have a lot of potential as a team. We lost a couple of people from last year on our championship team. But we still have our core of the team that was here last year. So we just need to work out the kinks and figure out what we need to change in order to start winning.”

Tatyana Crowder

“I think it’s just our effort and our defense. They hit a lot of big shots, a lot of uncontested 3-pointers, which is never how we practice. We don’t want that. So, I think once they got the momentum, we’re a young team. As you guys know, we’re still learning and still l trying to grow through the growing pains and not drop our head. And I think they got the momentum and they ran with it. They did a great job, but we just couldn’t get back in it, unfortunately.”