Pirates Trek to Liberty Friday Afternoon

Game Two: East Carolina (1-0) at Liberty (1-0)
Date	Friday, November 7
Time	2:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Lynchburg, Va. (Liberty Arena)
Media Coverage	Live Stats: StatBroadcast Streaming: ESPN+
Game Notes	East Carolina \| Liberty
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUWBB Instagram: @ECUW BB

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina women's basketball team hits the road for the first time of the new season on Friday at 2 p.m. as they travel to Lynchburg, Va. for a date with the Liberty Flames. The game will be available for streaming on ESPN+ with Nick Pierce and Kelley Deyo on the call.

Last Time Out
The Pirates opened the 2025-26 season with a victory taking an 82-63 result over UNCW on Monday night in Minges Coliseum. The team used a strong second half to pull away, forcing 27 turnovers with 19 steals in the game. It was a total team effort with nine of the ten players who appeared in the game scoring. All told, six players scored in double figures with Kennedy Fauntleroy leading the group with 16 and Anzhané Hutton having a strong day in the post with 15 points and a team-high seven boards. Defensively, the team's 19 steals were the most in a game for ECU since Nov. 9, 2023.

Scouting Liberty
The Flames opened their season with a 78-49 blowout victory over Frostburg State on Tuesday. Emmy Stout led the team with a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double in the game as all 11 players who appeared in the game scored. The Flames went 26-7 a season ago, making the NCAA Tournament where they narrowly missed out on a major upset, falling to four seed Kentucky 79-78 in the round of 64. The 2024-25 squad was led by a trio of players scoring in double figures—Bella Smuda, Emma Hess and Asia Boone. Smuda also led the team in rebounding with just under seven per game. Dating back to their lone home loss to Duke last season, Liberty has now won 14 consecutive home contests.

Series History
Despite their relative proximity, Pirates and Flames have met only three times dating back to 2018 with a 2-1 advantage for ECU. Most recently, the teams met in a neutral site competition in Charlottesville, Va. in 2022. The Pirates won that game 72-64 in what was a bit of a strange one. Alexsia Rose led the team with 18 points, but it was Brittany Franklin who was the story, registering a double-double on 11 points and 10 boards in just 11:40 played. Franklin only scored 23 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in total that season.

ECU versus...
The Pirates are 13-16 all time against current members of CUSA and 1-3 in the Kim McNeill era (1-1 Liberty; 0-2 MTSU).

ECU is 169-163 all time against schools from the state of Virginia and 11-9 in the McNeill era.

In A Long While
Against UNCW, transfer senior guard Savannah Brooks recorded seven steals, the most in a season opener and the most in an ECU debut since Nov. 11, 2016 when Bre McDonald and Kristen Gaffney went for nine and seven steals, respectively, in what was each player's first game at ECU.

Also against the Seahawks, six players scoring in double figures was the first time that had been accomplished by ECU since Nov. 11, 2016 in a 107-40 win over Greensboro College. It is the first time the team has done so against a Division I opponent since Nov. 27, 2009 against Bethune-Cookman.

At the Helm
2025-26 will be the Pirates' seventh under the tutelage of Kim McNeill. The program has an 87-92 record under her leadership with a real shot to move over .500 this season.

Reclaim
Each season the Pirates choose an important word, meaningful to the team, to put on the back of their practice jerseys. In 2025-26, the team chose the word "Reclaim", signifying the group's goals after a turbulent 2024-25 of returning to their roots as a defensive minded team, getting back to their standards as role models in the community and striving for excellence in the classroom.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Savannah Brooks

Kennedy Fauntleroy

Anzhané Hutton

Footer