TicketsUC Hosts Lady Frogs on Sunday
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
1/22/2005
Crystal Ashley grabbed a career-high six rebounds against Houston. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Sun., Jan. 23, 2005
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Site: Fifth Third Arena (13,176)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Records: Cincinnati, 5-12 (0-4 C-USA)
TCU, 13-6 (4-1 C-USA)
Radio: www.bearcast.uc.edu
TV: C-USA TV; Don Russell and Amy Prichard
Live Stats: www.UCBearcats.com
Tickets: $5/$3, 513-556-CATS
Series: TCU leads, 3-1
Last Meeting: Jan. 25, 2004 at TCU
TCU 73, UC 57
SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati women's basketball team closes a four-game homestand when it hosts TCU on Sunday, Jan. 23 at 1 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena. The game is being syndicated nationwide on the C-USA TV Network. The Bearcats fell to 5-12 overall and 0-4 in Conference USA with a 63-56 loss to Houston on Friday. TCU suffered its first defeat in seven games, 63-57, at Louisville, dropping the Lady Frogs to 13-6 on the year, 4-1 in the league.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 10.3 6.2 1.5 .355
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 1.9 2.4 0.1 .464
G 11 Leslie Knoch, 5-6 Jr., Whipple, Ohio 7.6 2.8 2.8 .402
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 5.4 1.7 3.8 .325
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.9 2.5 1.0 .337
TCU PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 24 Niki Newton, 6-0 Sr., Crowley, Texas 7.7 4.7 1.2 .426
F 34 Ashley Davis, 6-0 So., San Antonio, Texas 9.8 4.8 0.9 .376
F 50 Sandora Irvin, 6-3 Sr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 21.2 12.9 2.3 .463
G 10 Moneka Knight, 5-7 Fr., Las Vegas, Nev. 2.3 1.3 1.7 .273
G 11 Natasha Lacy, 5-10 So., El Paso, Texas 8.4 5.9 6.1 .325
TAKE A KID TO THE GAME: Sunday's contest against TCU has been designated Take A Kid to the Game Day. Tickets for children aged 12 and under to the 1 p.m. contest are free with the purchase of an adult ticket.
STORYLINES:
? UC stands eight wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
? Eight different Bearcats have scored in double-figures this year and five players have led the team in scoring in at least one game.
? UC has used four different lineups in the last six games. Micah Harvey is the only player to start each of the last six games.
? The Bearcats have dropped their last three games by an average of just 5.3 points.
? Karen Twehues has averaged 15.5 points over the last four games, making 15 three-pointers.
? The Bearcats have scored an average of 64.7 points in the last three games after scoring just 51.4 in the previous five.
? UC's current seven-game losing streak is the longest since seven-straight losses in the 1995-96 season.
? UC and TCU have faced four common opponents: Michigan State, UAB, USF and Louisville. The Lady Frogs are 3-1, while UC fell to all four.
? TCU is led by senior forward Sandora Irvin, who ranks fourth in the country in scoring (21.2 ppg), second in rebounding (12.9 rpg) and second in blocked shots (4.6 bpg). Last week she posted the first triple double in school history with 20 points, 18 rebounds and an NCAA-record 16 blocks. She is 13 blocks from the NCAA career record.
NOTING HOUSTON:
? Micah Harvey recorded four assists to move into a tie for ninth on UC's career assists chart with Madinah Slaise at 261.
? Karen Twehues made a career-high three steals.
? Twehues scored 16 points, bringing her career average against Houston to 16.7 points per game.
? Anne Stephens made the 38th block of her career, tying her with Angel Minton for ninth on UC's career list.
? Crystal Ashley grabbed a career-high six rebounds.
OFFENSIVE OUTBURST: In the two games before Friday's loss the Bearcats scored 67 and 71 points, respectively, two of their three best scoring games of the season. This comes after averaging 51.4 points in the previous five games. In both games UC put four players in double-figures. The Bearcats' shooting percentage was 47.4 percent in those games, almost 10 percent higher than their season average.
CONTROLLING THE BALL: In the last three games the Bearcats have averaged just 11.5 turnovers per game after averaging 18.3 in the first 14 games, committing 18 or more seven times. UC has a 1.24 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last four games, led by Micah Harvey's 26 assists against eight turnovers in this span.
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. Nine of the players on the 2004-05 roster are in just their first or second year at UC.
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 77-61 (.558) in the 10-year history of the league, posting winning league marks in the five years before last year. The Bearcats were 12-4 in the 1998-99 season to claim the regular season championship.
BLOCK PARTY: Against Arkansas and UAB UC recorded 15 total blocked shots, including eight at UAB for the second-highest single-game total in school history. It trails only the 12 rejections against Miami (Ohio) in Dec. 1983. Anne Stephens and Emy Ogide had 11 of the 15 and rank seventh and 12th, respectively, in C-USA. The Bearcats are averaging 3.6 blocks per game this year, on pace for 97, which would break the school record of 96 held by that 1983-84 squad.
TOP 10 CATS: Juniors Anne Stephens and Micah Harvey are seeing the results of their careers in the UC record books. Stephens now has 38 career blocks to rank ninth in school history with Angel Minton. Harvey has handed out 261 assists in her career, which is ninth all-time by a Bearcat, tied with Madinah Slaise. Harvey's 135 assists last season was the eighth-best single-season total in UC history.
RAPID RETURN: Sophomore Treasure Humphries underwent surgery for a torn ACL in September and has astounded all by making it back to the court in a little over three months. UC's steals leader and fourth-leading scorer last year, she made her debut at Middle Tennessee State on Dec. 29 and scored eight points in 11 minutes with two steals. Humphries averaged 7.8 points in her first four games with a high of 11 points at USF.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: Now in its 34th season of play, UC has won 492 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 and Houston are the current leaders with 498. East Carolina (492) and Louisville (491) are right with UC.
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, 2004 against East Carolina she became the 54th active coach to win 350 games in a career.
EMERGING EMY: Freshman Emy Ogide (pronounced A-mee O-giday) played in just three of the first six games, recording one point and one rebound. Pressed into extended action against Xavier because of injuries, she responded with two points, three rebounds and two blocks. She has played in all 11 games since and started the last five, averaging 2.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in that time. She had a career day against Arkansas, setting new bests with eight points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two assists.
ALL OR NOTHING: When it comes to three-point shooting, UC is rarely average. In just four games this year have the Bearcats shot between .300 and .380 from behind the arc. Five times they have made at least 38 percent, including 11-of-27 (.407) vs. Alabama State and 10-of-19 (.526) against Louisville. Eight times UC has struggled, shooting under 30 percent. In the six games before Louisville UC was 19-of-94 (.202). 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.
BALANCED ATTACK: UC has gotten contributions from a number of different sources offensively. Five different players have led UC in scoring and eight different players have recorded a total of 43 double-digit scoring games. The Louisville game was the fourth this season in which four Bearcats reached double-figures.
COMING ON STRONG: Sophomore captain Toni Slaughter had turned on the offense in the last eight games before going scoreless at UAB, averaging 14.8 points in that span and making .400 of her three-pointers. She had failed to score in double-figures in the first four games after averaging 11.8 points in her last eight starts last year. Slaughter also leads the team in rebounding at 6.9 per game. She tied her career-high with 20 points at Evansville and recorded her first double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds vs. Loyola Marymount.
HOME SWEET HOME: Since Fifth Third Arena became the home of UC basketball in 1989, the Bearcats have gone 147-80 (.648) on their home court. Over the past seven years they have been nearly unbeatable at home, posting a 100-26 mark (.794). 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.
TAKING ADVANTAGE: Fully healthy for the first time in her career, redshirt junior Leslie Knoch has become a leader for the Bearcats on and off the court. She is one of four team captains and has started 16 games this year, the first starts of her career. She has scored in double-figures five times this season, with a career high 20 points in the comeback win over Ball State. She ranks 13th in C-USA in assists (2.9/g), 11th in three-pointers made (1.35/g) and 15th in three-point percentage (.333).
C-USA OPENERS: The Jan. 7 loss at UAB continued UC's struggles in C-USA opening games. Until 2002-03 the Bearcats had never won their conference opener. The Bearcats' 67-48 win over Louisville was UC's first win after losing its first seven Conference USA-opening games. UC is now 1-9 in these games.
GETTING TO THE LINE: After taking just 39 free throw attempts (9.8 per game) in their first four games, the Bearcats have gotten more aggressive. They took 218 in the next 12 games for an 18.2 average per game. Last game was a step back, attempting only eight to Houston's 30. For the year the Bearcats have taken 96 fewer than their opponents. UC is 3-0 when taking more free throws than its opponents.
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 was ranked as the 38th toughest in the nation by the WBCA/Summerville RPI. UC's 2004-05 opponents had a combined 438-326 record for a .573 winning percentage last year.
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. The seven blocked shots by the Bearcats equalled the second-best UC single-game total at the time.
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.
UP NEXT: The Bearcats head back on the road, playing at Saint Louis on Friday, Jan. 28 and at Memphis on Sunday, Jan. 30.