TicketsBearcats Welcome Flyers on Wednesday
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
11/30/2004
Freshman Ashley Brown leads the Bearcats in rebounding. photo by Chris Zaphiris |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Wed., Dec. 1, 2004
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Site: Fifth Third Arena (13,176)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Records: Cincinnati, 2-2
Dayton, 3-1
Radio: www.Bearcast.uc.edu
TV: None
Live Stats: www.ucbearcats.com
Tickets: $5/$3, (513) 556-CATS
Series: UD leads, 21-20
Last Meeting: Dec. 6, 2003 at Dayton
UC 62, UD 40
SETTING THE SCENE: The longest-running rivalry in Cincinnati women's basketball history gets a new chapter when the Bearcats host Dayton on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena. UC stands at 2-2 on the year after a 76-62 loss to Indiana State on Sunday. The Flyers, who have won 21 of 41 games with UC since 1971, are 3-1 this season, all three wins coming on the road.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS 2004-05 Statistics
F 1 Ashley Brown, 6-0 Fr., Wilberforce, Ohio 5.8 pts, 7.8 reb 0.5 ast
C 45 Anne Stephens, 6-4 Jr., Mineral Wells, W. Va. 14.5 pts, 7.3 reb, 0.5 ast
G 11 Leslie Knoch, 5-6 Jr., Whipple, Ohio 8.8 pts, 2.0 reb, 4.8 ast
G 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 6.3 pts, 7.0 reb, 2.8 ast
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 12.5 pts, 4.0 reb, 1.3 ast
DAYTON PROBABLE STARTERS 2004-05 Statistics
F 31 Cara Wright, 6-0 Jr., West Chester, Ohio 11.8 pts, 8.8 reb, 0.5 ast
F 34 Jennifer Strong, 6-0 So., Warrensville, Ohio 6.3 pts, 5.0 reb, 1.3 ast
C 54 Angela Cape, 6-3 Jr., Warren, Ohio 5.3 pts, 4.8 reb, 1.5 ast
G 12 Terri Ramsey, 5-5 Jr., Tacoma, Wash. 7.0 pts, 0.8 reb, 4.5 ast
G 13 Emily Williams, 5-10 Sr., Beavercreek, Ohio 18.8 pts, 6.0 reb, 3.3 ast
STORYLINES:
? UC stands 11 wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
? The Bearcats have played Dayton 41 times, the third-most of any opponent. It is the oldest rivalry for UC, as it faced the Flyers in its third game of existence in 1971. UC has won 20 of the meetings and five -of-eight in Fifth Third Arena.
? Dayton features Cincinnati natives Leslie Burns (Hughes High School) and Cara Wright (Lakota West). All five of UC's opponents this year have featured at least one Cincinnatian.
? Wright was a member of the Arkansas Lady Backs team that defeated UC in the 2003 NCAA Tournament in Fifth Third Arena.
? Dayton is 3-0 on the road this season, including a 62-50 win at Toledo, which topped UC in the season opener.
NOTING INDIANA STATE:
? Anne Stephens tied her career-highs with 20 points and 12 rebounds for her third career double-double.
? Bellva May scored a 16 points for a new career best.
? Micah Harvey became the 18th Bearcat to reach the 200-assist plateau.
? UC lost the turnover battle and shot fewer free throws than its opponent for the fourth-straight game.
? The Bearcats equalled their season best with 62 points, but allowed a season high of 76.
DEFENSIVE LOCKDOWN: The 31 points scored by Detroit in UC's 60-31 win on Nov. 21 was the 11th-fewest ever allowed by the Bearcats. It was the lowest total by a UC opponent since Robert Morris scored 29 on Nov. 20, 2001. It was also the fewest points ever scored by Detroit.
FIRING FROM DEEP: UC's .351 shooting on three-pointers this year continues the hot shooting from last year. Last season, the Bearcats ranked 19th in the country with a .366 team three-point percentage, which was a school record, as was the 177 made treys. Karen Twehues made .359 of her attempts last year and is 13-of-29 so far this year for .448 shooting.
UNQUESTIONED LEADER: Head Coach Laurie Pirtle is UC's all-time leader in coaching wins and on Feb. 21, 2002, she earned her 250th win leading the Bearcats. She joined DePaul's Doug Bruno as the only C-USA coaches with at least 250 wins at their current school. On Feb. 20 against East Carolina she became the 54th active coach to win 350 games in a career.
A DAY FOR THANKS: The day before Thanksgiving left much to be thankful for in Bearcat basketball at Fifth Third Arena. In the afternoon, the UC women came back from a 14-point deficit with fewer than nine minutes left to top Ball State, 62-58. Leslie Knoch's career-high 20 points led the comeback effort. Later that night, the men trailed Northern Iowa by 18 with 10 minutes left, but UC evened the score and eventually won, 76-70, in double overtime. The greatest comeback in Fifth Third Arena history was led by Jihad Muhammad's 23 points, nine coming in the final 2:50 of regulation.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: The Bearcats will play 14 games this year against teams that reached the postseason in 2004. As a result, UC's schedule is ranked as the 38th toughest in the nation by the WBCA/Summerville RPI. UC's 2004-05 opponents have a combined 438-326 record for a .573 winning percentage. Included in the strong home schedule are match-ups with Michigan State and Arkansas, as well as the annual Crosstown Shootout against Xavier.
MISSING PIECES: With the loss of three starters from last year's squad the Bearcats have a lot to make up for. UC returns just 50.5 percent of its scoring and rebounding. Anne Stephens is the leading returner in both categories, as she averaged 7.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last year.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: The Bearcats opened the season with a combined total of 71 games of starting experience. 49 of those games came from Anne Stephens (25) and Micah Harvey (24). For comparison, last year?s team brought 229 games of starting experience into the 2003-04 campaign. Ashley Brown and Leslie Knoch earned their first starts at Toledo.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: Now in its 34th season of play, UC has won 489 games. The Bearcats are vying with four other schools to become the first women's team in Conference USA to reach 500 all-time victories. Southern Miss is the current leader with 494, while Houston (489), East Carolina (487), and Louisville (481) are right with UC.
CLOSE CALLS: UC was 3-8 last year in games decided by six points or fewer, but won on two of the last three occasions. The season opener at Toledo, where UC lost a 12-point halftime lead and was defeated by five, and the 62-58 comeback win over Ball State continued the trend of close games. The Bearcats lost 16 games last year by an average of just 8.6 points.
HOME SWEET SHOE: Since Fifth Third Arena became the home of UC basketball in 1989, the Bearcats have gone 142-74 (.657) on their home court. Over the past seven years they have been nearly unbeatable at home, posting a 97-20 mark (.829). UC went 15-1 at home in 2001-02, the best-ever mark. The Bearcats put together a school-record 21-game home win streak from Jan. 1, 2002 until a loss to Tulane on Feb. 2, 2003.
POWER CONFERENCE: Last year Conference USA produced an all-time high of 17 postseason basketball teams (6 NCAA Men, 4 NCAA Women, 2 NIT, 5 WNIT). Only the Big East with 19 (6 NCAA Men, 8 NCAA women, 4 NIT and 1 WNIT) and the Big 12 with 18 (4 NCAA Men, 7 NCAA Women, 5 NIT and 2 WNIT) produced more postseason basketball teams last March.
POSTSEASON TRADITION: The Bearcats have reached postseason tourney play seven straight times, with this era accounting for all but two of the postseason appearances in school history. Four of the seven have been to the WNIT, including last year. The seven-season streak is the longest active streak in Conference USA.
CONFERENCE USA SUCCESS: The Bearcats are one of seven teams to have a conference record over .500 throughout the history of Conference USA. UC is 77-57 (.575) in the nine-year history of the league, posting winning league marks in the five years before this one. The Bearcats were 12-4 in the 1998-99 season to claim the regular season championship.
ROAD WEARY: The Bearcats have won 55 of their last 84 games, with 21 of those 29 losses occurring away from Cincinnati. UC has lost 13 of its last 17 road games. The Bearcats averaged 11.3 fewer points scored on the road last year than at home.
AMAZING ACCURACY: Twice last season the Bearcats tied UC and C-USA records by being perfect from the free throw line as a team. On Dec. 13 they made 11-of-11 at Indiana State and against Loyola Marymount on Dec. 21 UC had a 14-of-14 performance as a team. For the year the Bearcats led C-USA with a .746 percentage, the best in school history and second in C-USA annals. Seven of 11 players shot over .700. This year UC is shooting just .590 from the line and has taken 38 fewer attempts than its opponents.
COMING OUT FIRING: Sophomore guard Karen Twehues had an immediate impact on the Bearcats once she joined the team last January. In her first two games she scored 27 points and made 6-of-13 three-pointers. She finished second on the team in three-pointers and three-point percentage. This year she has made 12-of-29 from behind the arc (.448).
BEARCATS SIGN TOP 10 RECRUITING CLASS: During the early signing period this fall, UC received letters of intent from five high school seniors. The Bearcats' class was ranked as the 10th best in the nation by Dan Olson of All-Star Girls Report:
? Shelly Bellman from Ottawa-Glendorf High School in Ottawa, Ohio is a 5-10 guard/forward who has twice been named an honorable mention All-American by Street and Smith?s and is ranked No. 121 nationally and one of the top 20 guards by ASGR. She averaged 13 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 4.5 assists per game last year.
? Michele Jones is a 6-1 forward from Mt. Notre Dame in Cincinnati. She is ranked No. 93 in the nation by the All-Star Girls Report. She was named second team all-state last year after scoring 15.7 points per game.
? Angel Morgan is a 5-8 guard from Springfield North High School in Springfield, Ohio. She is ranked No. 95 in the nation by ASGRt and earned all-county and all-conference for three years.
? Kahla Roudebush is a 5-8 guard from Noblesville, Ind. and Hamilton Southeastern High School. She earned honorable mention all-state from the Louisville Courier-Journal last year and was named to the Indiana Basketball Tremendous 26 Team. She is ranked as No. 115 nationally by ASGR.
? Jill Stephens is the headliner of the class. A 6-3 center from Mineral Wells, W. Va. and Parkersburg South High School, she is ranked as the 44th best senior in the nation by Blue Star Basketball and is a two-time first team all-state honoree and honorable mention All-American. Stephens averaged 22.4 points and 13 rebounds per game last year and was one of 48 players invited to the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival last summer. She is the younger sister of current Bearcat Anne Stephens.
UP NEXT: UC continues its homestand when it hosts No. 13 Michigan State on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m.