Bella Smuda Leads Lady Flames Basketball to their First CUSA Championship Win

No. 1 seed Liberty University upset two-time defending champion No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee State University at the 2024 Conference USA (CUSA) Women’s Basketball Championship title game March 15.  

The Lady Flames defeated MTSU 53-48 on Saturday evening in front of an energetic crowd at Propst Arena, claiming their first CUSA title. Liberty has now won 11 games in a row and will enter into its 18th NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament in the team’s first appearance since 2018.  

“I have to begin to give God the glory for this opportunity and for this accomplishment,” Liberty Head Coach Carey Green said. “I’ve been really blessed working with a great group of young ladies and a great culture they have built. … I really appreciate what they’ve been able to do as we’ve gone into a tough game. We had to defeat the defending champions, and that’s what Middle Tennessee was.” 

The Lady Flames trailed this game for just 2:23 on Saturday evening, but a 5-2 run to end the game was executed by senior guard Emma Hess.  With 1:10 left in the game, Hess nailed an NBA-range 3-pointer that electrified the building and put the Lady Flames up by six points.  

“Absolutely, when she made it, I knew (we would win),” sophomore guard Asia Boone said. “Because not only do I have a lot of faith in my senior that I’ve played with for two years now, but she is a great player, a great teammate and a great leader.” 

The Lady Flames began this contest by going 5 for 13 from the field and 2 for 4 from behind the arc. Liberty took a 20-16 lead into the quarter break, but the Lady Flames struggled during the start of the second quarter. 

Liberty entered a cold stretch to open the second quarter, scoring its first two free throws 5:15 into the game and going 0 for 8 from the field including 0 for 4 from behind the arc over the first 7:42. From that point on, the Lady Flames scored eight points to end the quarter and took a 30-25 lead into the locker room.  

One of the bright spots in the first half for MTSU was junior guard Ta’Mia Scott, who scored 11 of the team’s 25 points. She ended the game with 23 points, keeping the Lady Blue Raiders in the game.  

The Lady Flames had three of their five starters end the evening with double digits in the point column. Boone, Hess and redshirt senior Bella Smuda ended with 11, 14 and 10 points respectively, for a total of 35 points. CUSA Tournament MVP, Smuda, who decided to return to Liberty to finish her fifth and final year, was particularly emotional at the end of the game because this was her fourth opportunity at a conference championship win, and this time the team finished the job. 

“This has been all I have been thinking about for the last year,” Smuda said. “Me and Asia were talking about it — we were in this press conference room last year with different results.” 

Smuda credited the team’s defeat last season with giving them the momentum to take the championship title this season. 

“That’s when I think it kind of began,” Smuda said. “I wanted to come back with Liberty and win a championship. … I lost three different times in a championship, and it’s a hard, sad, terrible feeling. … I wanted to get one with these girls because everyone was so bought in and they work so hard. I’m so glad we were able to do it, and I feel like we really just did it as a team.”  

The Lady Flames allowed their loss last season to propel them to the NCAA Championship Tournament this year. 

“A setback is a good set up for a good comeback,” Boone said.  

After defeating the Lady Blue Raiders, Liberty ended the season with a 16-2 regular season conference record and a 26-6 overall record. The team’s next contest will be held in Lexington, Kentucky against the No. 4 University of Kentucky Lady Wildcats in the first round of March Madness as a part of Region 4-Spokane. This game will be the second time in program history that these two teams will meet, with their first meeting being in a first-round loss for the Lady Flames in 2010, according to Liberty Athletics. 

Tipoff is set for 12 p.m. EST. Stream on ESPN.  

Clingman is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.