Liberty has been picked to finish second in the ASUN in 2020-2021, and the Lady Flames’ duo of senior point guard Ashtyn Baker and redshirt senior forward Emily Lytle has been named to the preseason all-conference team.
The Lady Flames went 20-11 overall and 11-5 in ASUN play last season. For the second straight year, Liberty was set to face FGCU in the ASUN Women’s Basketball Championship title game, before the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic response.
FGCU topped both the preseason coaches and media polls, garnering 28 of a possible 37 first-place votes. The Lady Flames earned five total first-place votes, with third-place North Florida collecting the four remaining first-place nods.
UNF senior Jazz Bond was voted both the ASUN Preseason Player of the Year and Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Liberty was the only team to put a pair of players on the preseason all-conference squad, beginning with Baker. The native of Nesbit, Miss., scored a career-high 11.2 ppg in 2019-20, the most by a Lady Flames point guard in 21 years. She also ranked fourth in the ASUN for assists (3.8 apg) and fifth for steals (1.7 spg).
A member of the preseason all-conference roster for the second straight season, Lytle is the Lady Flames’ top returning scorer at 11.6 ppg. She averaged a tournament-high 25.5 ppg to make her second consecutive ASUN All-Tournament Team appearance, capped off by the game-winning three-point play against North Alabama in the semifinal round.
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