Liberty women seeking upset of top-seeded Irish today

Libertys womens basketball players are well aware that history is stacked against them. The Flames, who are the No. 16 seed in the Raleigh Region of the NCAA Tournament, travel to top-seeded Notre Dame for a first-round game today. The only time the severe underdog has come out on top was in 1998, when Harvard stunned an injury-depleted Stanford team on the Cardinals home floor.

Notre Dame (30-3) has the resume (two wins over Connecticut) and the star power (point guard Skylar Diggins is a Wooden Award finalist). Liberty center Avery Warley said the key to the Flames staying in todays game is to, in her words, "tone down the hype."

"I dont think its so much the players," Warley said. "Theres just a lot of hype with it. I think if I can get my team to realize that its just hype, and that they put on their pants just the way we put on our pants, then I think well be OK.

"Were both [Division] I. Weve both been through battles."

The Flames (24-8) havent played anyone remotely close to the Irishs stature this season. Libertys top non-conference opponent was Oklahoma, which is a No. 6 seed in the tournament. The Sooners beat Liberty by 31 points in Nashville in November.

"We need to have a calm mind and an understanding that we need to play our very best A-game for 40 minutes," Flames coach Carey Green said. "There will be times that well play like that. But can we maintain that? We respect our opponent. Their balance even into their bench is outstanding.

"Theyre basically playing four guards with a very athletic center [Devereaux Peters]. That athletic center was the defensive player of the year in the Big East. Their leading scorer, and everybody knows Skylar Diggins, was the player of the year in the Big East. In between is all 5-foot-10, strong shooters.

"The encouraging thing is that we can play them 10 times. And they could beat us nine out of 10 times. We only need to win one."

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Liberty women seeking upset of top-seeded Irish today