TicketsBearcats Face Memphis on CSTV
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
1/29/2005
Edwina Williams set career highs with four points and seven rebounds on Friday. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Sun., Jan. 30, 2005
Time: 2:00 p.m. CT
Site: Elma Roane Fieldhouse (2,565)
Memphis, Tenn.
Records: Cincinnati, 5-14 (0-6 C-USA)
Memphis 10-10 (3-4 C-USA)
Radio: www.gotigersgo.com
TV: CSTV
Don Russell and Amy Prichard
Live Stats: www.CSTV.com
Tickets: 888-867-UofM
Series: UM leads, 30-12
Last Meeting: Jan. 16, 2004 at UC
UM 64, UC 61
SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati basketball team is out to snap its nine-game losing streak when it faces Memphis on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. CT in Elma Roane Fieldhouse. The game is being broadcast live on College Sports TV. The Bearcats fell to 5-14 overall and 0-6 in Conference USA after a 49-47 loss at Saint Louis on Friday night. Memphis fell to 10-10 with a 75-68 loss to Louisville and is 3-4 in C-USA. The Lady Tigers have lost six-of-nine but are 8-2 at home.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 1 Ashley Brown, 6-0 Fr., Wilberforce, Ohio 5.1 5.4 0.9 .407
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 2.1 2.3 0.1 .500
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 5.0 1.7 3.9 .281
G 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 9.7 6.1 1.7 .341
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.5 2.6 0.9 .333
MEMPHIS PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 10 Jennifer Sullivan, 5-8 Sr., Jonesboro, Ark. 12.1 4.3 1.9 .488
F 11 Raven Rogers, 5-11 Sr., Jackson, Miss. 6.7 7.6 1.7 .342
C 20 Kaneshi Hart, 6-1 Sr., Russellville, Ky. 4.1 2.6 0.7 .522
G 3 Victoria Crawford, 5-7 Sr., Birmingham, Ala. 13.5 5.1 2.3 .448
G 34 Tamika Butler, 5-3 Jr., Marianna, Ark. 7.3 2.2 2.6 .326
STORYLINES:
? UC stands eight wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
? Sunday's game will be broadcast live on College Sports TV (CSTV), available on Adelphia and TimeWarner Cable in Cincinnati. It also on DirecTV, channel 160.
? UC's current nine-game losing streak is the longest since nine-straight losses in the 1994-95 season.
? The Bearcats also have losing streaks of seven-straight league games and eight-straight road games.
? Memphis leads the all-time series with UC, 30-12, though the Bearcats had won three straight before last year's Lady Tiger win. The 42 meetings makes it the second-most prolific series in UC history.
? UC and Memphis have faced four common opponents: Arkansas, UAB, USF and Louisville. The Lady Tigers are 1-3, while UC is 0-4.
? In Friday's match-up with Saint Louis the Bearcats found one of the few teams less experienced than them. Memphis, however, starts four seniors and a junior and boasts six players who have earned at least two letters.
LAST TIME VS. MEMPHIS: Jennifer Sullivan scored 18 points as Memphis shot 62 percent in the second half to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit to win, 64-61, in Cincinnati. Debbie Merrill led UC woth 19 points and eight rebounds as the Bearcats outrebounded UM, 34-27, but shot just 37 percent. The loss dropped UC to 0-3 in C-USA for the first time.
LAST TIME IN MEMPHIS: Debbie Merrill recorded 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead four Bearcats in double-figures in a 74-53 win. The victory pulled the Bearcats within a game of the C-USA title. UC jumped out to a 31-15 lead in the first half and went on a 17-1 run late in the second half. The Bearcats held a 48-27 rebounding edge. Victoria Crawford led Memphis with 16 points off the bench.
NOTING SAINT LOUIS:
? Edwina Williams notched career highs of four points and seven rebounds.
? UC failed to make a three-pointer for the first time in 111 games, since Nov. 16, 2001 vs. Dayton.
? The Bearcats set season-lows for free throws made (three) and attempted (six).
? Toni Slaughter handed out a career-high five assists.
? It was UC's first loss of the year when allowing less than 60 points.
HELP OFF THE BENCH: In the last seven games UC has averaged 56.1 points per game and over half, 28.4, have come off the bench. Bellva May and Anne Stephens have combined for seven double-digit scoring games in that span, all as reserves.
ART OF THE STEAL: Junior reserve Bellva May leads UC in steals with 30 and has recorded 13 in the last five games. She has had three games with at least four steals. Micah Harvey is second on the team with 26, 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.
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.
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 41 losses, 26 have occurred away from Cincinnati. UC has lost 18 of its last 22 road games and the last eight. The Bearcats have averaged 10.2 fewer points scored on the road this year than at home.
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 3.5 blocks per game this year, on pace for 94, threatening the school record of 96 held by that 1983-84 squad.
TOP 10 CATS: Juniors Anne Stephens and Micah Harvey and sophomore Karen Twehues are seeing the results of their careers in the UC record books. Stephens now has 41 career blocks to rank ninth in school history. Harvey has handed out 270 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. Twehues has made 68 three-pointers in just 38 career games to move into sixth in UC annals.
RAPID RETURN: Sophomore Treasure Humphries underwent surgery for a torn ACL in late August and astounded all by making it back to the court in a little under four 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 among four other schools vying 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 (493) and Louisville (493) are just ahead of 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 3.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in the last eight 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 1-5 in such games this season, including four of the last five 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. Ten 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 46 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 return home to take on Marquette on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. ET.