Sunday’s a good day to post news about Liberty. Here’s a peek into the Lady Flames.
Goings:
Kaila Ballard: sparingly used guard who played in just eight games is no longer on the roster
Stephanie Patton: the 5-8 guard had a season-ending knee injury as a freshman, playing just eight games, is no longer on the roster
Kaitlyn Stovall: the 6-3 forward played in six games last year as a freshman; she is no longer on the roster
Audrey Rettstatt: the lone senior on last year’s team graduated; 6-0 forward started 22 games; scored 155 points last season after scoring 60 points combined in her first three years
Jordan Woods: guard who averaged 1.5 ppg has graduated
Brittany Hoyt: former assistant and four-year team captain as a player at Liberty (as Brittany Campbell) is now the assistant director of the Pirate Academic Success Center at East Carolina.
Comings
Ashtyn Baker: 5-6 guard from Nesbit, Mass.,; led Northpoint Christian School to consecutive state titles her junior and seniors years; MVP of the state championship her senior year after scoring 25 points; Averaged 16.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.8 apg and 5.3 spg as a senior, finishing her career with 1,963 points, 810 assists, 676 rebounds and 753 steals; played in 162 consecutive games during her five-year high school career, helping Northpoint go 139-23
Melis Ucar: the 5-10 guard from Ankara, Turkey, spent two years at Iowa Western Community College, where she earned All-Region honors, averaging 7.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.6 apg and 1.7 spg as a sophomore
Brooke Basinger: redshirt sophomore who played her freshman year at Division III Christopher Newport; first player at Woodgrove High (Purcellville, Va.) to score 1,000 points; also set record for most points in a game (29), three-pointers in a season (57) and three-pointers in a game (6).
Apilyn Bonny: 6-5 center from the Bronx, reached Nike nationals with Exodus AAU
Ria Gulley: 5-9 guard, transfer from Indiana; will sit out 2017-18 season due to NCAA rules
Emily Lytle: 5-11 sophomore from Little Rock will sit out 2017-18 season due to NCAA rules
Bridgette Rettstatt: 6-2 guard/forward from Galina, Ohio; sister of Audrey Rettstaff, former Lady Flame; all-time leading scorer at Worthington Christian High with 1,716 career points; all state in high jump; also played varsity soccer
Erin Batth: assistant joins Carey Green’s staff; coaches post players; spent last three seasons at Georgia State; first Clemson player drafted by WNBA; during 2006-07, Batth worked as an executive assistant to the general manager and operations specialist for both the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs.
Dan Lumpkin: Liberty’s first-ever director of player development joins Carey Green’s staff, winningest coach from Cleveland State Community College
Miriam Rutzen: Harvard graduate and former co-captain of the Crimson Tide joins Green’s staff as a graduate assistant; previous director of operations at Colorado
You know that adage about how young teams are (coaches like to repeat that often despite how many underclassmen are on the roster). We give Green a pass given 10 Lady Flames are either freshmen or sophomores. Liberty finished 13-15 last year with an even younger group with a 12-6 conference mark that included just one home loss (Big South champ UNC Asheville). The Lady Flames’ lone nonconference victory of 2016 was against West Liberty.
Undersized post Keyen Green led Liberty in scoring and rebounding a year ago (12.3 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and received all-freshman honors. Her .598 FG percentage was tops on the team, and the muscle she added during the offseason will complement her game.
“Keyen establishes us early as an inside threat,” Green said.
Green has big expectations for Nene Johnson, who ranked right behind Green in scoring. She is a senior, but last season was her first in Liberty’s system after her transfer from junior college.
Starter Ola Makarut has started her season slowly after recovery from tendonitis in her heel. Iva Ilic (does she really speak five languages?) returns after a summer playing with the Croatian national team, which took bronze at the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship Division B.
Baker won two state titles at Northpoint Christian School and was named TSSAA Miss Basketball for the 2016-17 season for Division II-A. She played in 162 straight games in her five-year high school career. At 6-5, Bonny will be a big body around the basket, “who has the potential to be an impact player,” Green said. The versatile Rettstatt also has a similar upside.
Liberty also added Turkish transfer Ucar, who’s learning curve right now is acclimating to the speed of the American game.
Green misses playing with the stable of bigs that used to be a Liberty staple, but likes this team’s speed and maturity. Small and quick is good in the Big South, but he quips that big and good would be better. The Lady Flames host the conference tournament again this year, but they’ll be pressed by the defending champions and a loaded Radford group.
Liberty opens at Old Dominion; remember when these two met in the first round of the NCAA tournament?
Gonna be fun to watch these guys develop.
Photos courtesy of Liberty athletics
Catch all of our series on Comings and Goings: