Despite quick exit, Liberty had ‘great’ year

By Chris Lang

Published: March 24, 2008

NORFOLK — Liberty’s women’s basketball team might have been able to survive one season-ending knee injury late in the year. But two such injuries were too many to overcome.
As Old Dominion pounded away on the inside in an 82-62 first-round NCAA tournament victory over the Flames on Sunday night at the Constant Center, Liberty forwards Moriah Frazee and Rebecca Lightfoot sat on the bench in street clothes, wondering what could have been. Liberty’s coaching staff felt the same way.
The team that started the year with impressive wins at Xavier and East Tennessee State wasn’t the same one that took the floor Sunday night. Without the extra muscle up front, Liberty became a one-dimensional team. And with Megan Frazee hounded by ODU’s sizeable front line all night, Liberty’s only hope was to get hot from the perimeter.
It didn’t, and the Flames predictably lost.
Undoubtedly, the NCAA tournament selection committee took the two injuries into consideration when seeding the Flames 12th despite an RPI ranking in the low 20s. Moriah was Liberty’s second leading scorer and Lightfoot was a rebounding factor in the post. Without them, Liberty dressed just three healthy forwards — Molly Frazee, Kittery Maine (a freshman) and Egle Smigelskaite (a senior who missed 26 games with a foot injury).
“Closing out with some adversity, and some injuries, and still being able to finish strong, this has been a special team,” Liberty coach Carey Green said. “I’ve been very pleased with the leadership the three seniors have given us.”
Despite the quick exit from the NCAAs, the Flames accomplished plenty in 2007-08.
Picked to finish second behind Radford in the Big South, Liberty won the league’s regular-season title by three games and returned to the conference tournament championship game after a one-year absence. Megan Frazee’s last second prayer in the lane lifted the Flames past Radford in the championship game, giving Liberty its 11th NCAA tournament bid in 12 seasons.
The Flames tied a school record with 28 victories, matching the mark set by the undefeated 1997-98 team. Liberty’s only losses came at ACC schools Virginia Tech and North Carolina, at Winthrop and at Old Dominion, which entered the game ranked 11th in the country.
Megan Frazee earned conference player of the year honors and was listed as one of five unheralded players to watch in the tournament by ESPN.com. Liberty saw a major uptick in production from senior guard Courtney Watkins, who more than doubled her scoring average from a year ago and earned second-team all-conference honors. Despite her injury, Moriah Frazee was named first-team all-Big South.
Liberty earned its highest ever NCAA tournament seed and flirted with a top 25 ranking all season long. And despite the loss of three seniors — Smigelskaite, Watkins and Allyson Fasnacht — the Flames should be positioned for another strong run in 2008-09.
The Frazee triplets return for their senior seasons, and Green can only hope all three can make it to the postseason healthy. Megan missed the NCAAs her freshman year after tearing her ACL; Moriah missed this year.
Freshman Rachel McLeod had a career night in the loss to ODU, scoring 11 points and showing that despite the loss of Fasnacht, the Flames won’t have a void at point guard.
Lightfoot and Rachel Hammond return, and Maine showed some flashes of being a consistent player in the post. The Flames will also look for production out of 6-foot-4 forward Avery Warley, who red-shirted this season.
Green also expects contributions from a five-member incoming freshman class that includes Brookville’s Brittany Campbell and Waynesboro’s Devon Brown.
“Next year, we have an outstanding group that is returning to be seniors,” Green said. “We have a great freshman class coming in. It’s been a great year to get to this point, and unfortunately adversity gave us a much larger challenge that we weren’t able to overcome.”