TicketsUC Takes to Road to Snap Streak
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
1/26/2005
Karen Twehues scored 21 points against the Billikens last year. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Fri., Jan. 28, 2005
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Site: Bauman-Eberhardt Center (2,200)
St. Louis, Mo.
Records: Cincinnati, 5-13 (0-5 C-USA)
Saint Louis, 2-17 (1-5 C-USA)
Radio: KSLG 1380 AM in St. Louis
TV: Charter Communications in St. Louis
Bob Ramsey and Kristin Folkl
Live Stats: www.UCBearcats.com
Tickets: 314-977-4SLU
Series: UC leads, 25-3
Last Meeting: Jan. 18, 2004 at UC
UC 66, SLU 62
SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati basketball team takes to the road for the first time in three weeks when it faces Saint Louis on Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. CT. The Bearcats will be seeking their first win in Conference USA play after an 0-5 start, and will try to snap an eight-game losing streak. UC suffered losses of 63-56 and 68-51 to league-leaders Houston and TCU last weekend. Saint Louis is just ahead of UC in the standings at 1-5 and is 2-17 overall. The Billikens snapped a 13-game losing streak on Jan. 16 before losing two contests last week.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 1 Ashley Brown, 6-0 Fr., Wilberforce, Ohio 5.2 5.4 0.9 .416
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 2.0 2.4 0.1 .467
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 5.1 1.7 3.9 .306
F 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 10.1 6.2 1.5 .346
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.8 2.4 1.0 .333
SAINT LOUIS PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 44 Marquita McFarland, 6-0 Jr., St. Louis, Mo. 9.8 7.5 0.3 .420
F 45 Krystle Hatton, 6-2 So., St. Louis, Mo. 4.9 6.3 0.1 .349
G 00 Mia Johnson, 5-9 Fr., Minneapolis, Minn. 17.9 4.5 3.4 .300
G 21 Tyler McIlwraith, 6-1 So., Cincinnati, Ohio 4.0 3.0 2.0 .333
G 22 Ava Smith, 5-1 Sr., Sherwood, Ark. 2.5 1.2 2.2 .232
STORYLINES:
? UC stands eight wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
? Friday's game will be broadcast in St. Louis by Charter Communications and Sunday's game at Memphis will be shown live on CSTV.
? UC's current eight-game losing streak is the longest since nine-straight losses in the 1994-95 season.
? The Bearcats own a 25-3 advantage in the all-time series with SLU, but nine of the last 11 meetings have been decided by six points or less. The last match-up in the Baumann Center resulted in the Billikens' first win over UC in four years and cost Cincinnati a share of the 2003 league title.
? In last year's meeting, both Karen Twehues (21) and Micah Harvey (15) set career highs for scoring.
? UC and Saint Louis have faced three common opponents: Ball State, UAB and USF. The Billikens are 0-4, while UC is 1-2.
? The Bearcats and Billikens are two of most inexperienced teams in the nation. UC features nine of 13 players in their first or second year with the team. Of SLU's 14 players, 13 have one season or less experience, and the 14th player, Rachel Diener, missed the last two years with knee injuries.
? SLU is led by freshman guard Mia Johnson, who ranks fifth in C-USA in scoring (17.9 ppg) and 18th in the nation in three-pointers made (2.7/g). She has scored in double-figures in 15-straight games.
HELP OFF THE BENCH: In the last six games UC has averaged 57.7 points per game and nearly half, 28.2, have come off the bench. Bellva May scored 13 points against North Dakota State and a career-high 18 vs. TCU and Anne Stephens has put up three double-digit scoring games in that span, all as reserves.
ART OF THE STEAL: Junior reserve Bellva May leads UC in steals with 29 and has recorded 12 in the last four games. She has had three games with at least four steals. Micah Harvey is second on the team with 25, already surpassing her career best of 22.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: UC currently has played the 28th-toughest schedule as ranked by the WBCA/Summerville RPI. The Bearcats' schedule, which features 14 games this year against teams that reached the postseason in 2004, was ranked as the 38th toughest prior to the season. UC's 2004-05 opponents had a combined 438-326 record for a .573 winning percentage last year.
CONTROLLING THE BALL: In the last five games the Bearcats have averaged just 12.6 turnovers per game after averaging 18.3 in the first 13 games. UC has a 1.10 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last five games, led by Micah Harvey's 32 assists against 13 turnovers in this span.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: The Bearcats opened the season with a combined total of 71 games of starting experience. Anne Stephens (25) and Micah Harvey (24) accounted for 49 of those. 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.
ROAD WEARY: Of UC's last 40 losses, 25 have occurred away from Cincinnati. UC has lost 17 of its last 21 road games. The Bearcats have averaged 9.5 fewer points scored on the road this year than at home.
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 77-62 (.554) 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: UC recorded 15 total blocked shots against Arkansas and UAB. The eight against the Lady Blazers was the second-highest single-game total in school history, trailing only the 12 rejections against Miami (Ohio) in Dec. 1983. Anne Stephens and Emy Ogide had 11 blocks in the two games. The Bearcats are averaging 3.4 blocks per game this year, on pace for 93, threatening 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 267 assists in her career, which is ninth all-time by a Bearcat. 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. Houston is the current leader with 499 and Southern Miss has 498. East Carolina (492) and Louisville (492) 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 12 games since and started the last six. She is averaging 3.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the last seven games. She had a career day against Arkansas, setting new bests with eight points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two assists.
CLOSE CALLS: UC was 3-8 last year in games decided by eight points or fewer, but won on two of the last three occasions. The Bearcats are 1-4 in such games this season, including three of the last four games. The Bearcats lost 16 games last year by an average of just 8.6 points.
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. Nine 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 44 double-digit scoring games. The Louisville game was the fourth this season in which four Bearcats reached double-figures.
HOME SWEET HOME: Since Fifth Third Arena became the home of UC basketball in 1989, the Bearcats have gone 147-81 (.645) on their home court. Over the past seven years they have an outstanding home record of 100-27 (.787). 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.
SIDELINED AGAIN: Leslie Knoch, who missed 39 games over her first two seasons due to injuries, has been bitten by the bug again. She is currently out indefinitely with a stress fracture. A leader on and off the court, she was having a career year before the injury. 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 12th in C-USA in three-pointers made (1.35/g) and 14th 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.
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.
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 face Memphis on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. CT before returning home to take on Marquette on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. ET.