Lady Flames Women’s basketball team recovering after rough start
The Liberty University Lady Flames basketball team is a historically successful program with one of the winningest coaches in women’s basketball.
But none of that mattered to start this season.
Nobody was looking at the fact that they only have had one losing season under Head Coach Carey Green. Their opponents do not care that they finished in second place or higher 18 times in 19 years in the Big South under Green.
This is the Lady Flames inaugural season in the Atlantic Sun Conference, and the team did not start anywhere close to expectations. By Jan. 12, Liberty found itself with a 4-12 record, including losing the first three games in conference play.
The low point of the season was when they opened conference play by losing to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles by 18 points.
AIM HIGH — Redshirt sophomore Ria Gulley scored a career-high 17 points against Lipscomb.
The Lady Flames are a team led by a coach who owns a 71 percent career winning percentage. To put this number in perspective, that is a higher career winning percentage than Kelly Graves, the coach of the number three overall Oregon Ducks. Despite this, Liberty did not begin to find its success until Jan. 15 when they defeated Kennesaw State.
This win gave the Lady Flames the confidence they needed to rattle off five consecutive victories. After this streak, Liberty elevated itself to fourth in the conference and was on an upward trajectory. Redshirt sophomore forward Emily Lytle believes the change is largely due to team chemistry.
“I think our chemistry has improved a lot,” Lytle said. “We’ve been getting a lot more assists and less turnovers. That comes from team chemistry.”
All winning streaks must come to an end, and Stetson would defeat the Lady Flames Feb. 5. Liberty would also drop their next game, a rematch against FGCU 65-64 Feb. 9. However, perspective is everything, and nobody understands this more than sophomore forward Bridgette Rettstatt.
“Yeah, we lost (to FGCU), but I think we gained a lot of confidence from that,” Rettstatt said. “It says they’re number one in the conference, but we’re right there with them. We can beat them.”
LAY UP — The Lady Flames had two players, Ria Gulley and Bridgette Rettstatt, break career-high point totals.
It shows growth in the Lady Flames that they have gone from being defeated by FGCU, a team that is undefeated in conference play, by 18 in their conference opener to only losing by one point in their most recent matchup. After that loss, Liberty won its next game against Lipscomb by
14 points Feb. 12.
Lytle was a crucial contributor in this most recent win, as she has been during this entire 6-2 stretch. Lytle is averaging an impressive 17.5 points per game during the stretch and has established herself as a player to watch every time Liberty takes the court. She has proven the ability to single-handedly put Liberty ahead in games, as in their most recent game against Lipscomb she began the game by scoring the first 13 points of the game.
The Lady Flames have come a long way since dropping their first three games of conference play. They are not quite back to their standard ways, but they are starting to look much more familiar.