TicketsUC Goes For Two Straight When It Hosts Marquette
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
2/2/2005
Bellva May earned her first start at Memphis. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Sat., Feb. 5, 2005
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
Site: Fifth Third Arena (13,167)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Records: Cincinnati, 6-14 (1-6 C-USA)
Marquette 14-6 (5-2 C-USA)
Radio: www.bearcast.uc.edu
TV: None
Live Stats: www.UCBearcats.com
Tickets: $5/$3, 513-556-CATS
Series: MU leads, 16-8
Last Meeting: Jan. 9, 2004 at MU
MU 62, UC 54
SETTING THE SCENE: Cincinnati looks to stay on the winning track when the Bearcats host Marquette on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena. UC snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 58-56 win at Memphis last Sunday, improving to 6-14 on the year and 1-6 in league play. Marquette has won seven of its last nine and owns a 14-6 record, 6-1 in C-USA.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 9.4 6.1 1.8 .328
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 2.1 2.2 0.1 .500
G 3 Bellva May, 5-9 Jr., Orange, N.J. 5.5 2.5 1.3 .333
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 5.3 1.8 3.9 .288
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.6 2.5 1.0 .335
MARQUETTE PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 24 Danielle Kamm, 6-2 So., Saginaw, Mich. 9.5 5.6 1.9 .391
F 45 Jasmine McCullough, 6-1 So., St. Louis, Mo. 8.5 5.1 2.2 .428
C 34 Christina Quaye, 6-2 So., Chicago, Ill. 15.7 6.9 1.4 .507
G 2 Carolyn Kieger, 5-6 Jr., Roseville, Minn. 11.7 3.6 6.7 .420
G 33 Lesley Juedes, 6-1 Sr., Ripon, Wis. 8.0 2.8 1.0 .445
GIRL POWER: Saturday's game has been designated Girl Power Day with all female organizations receiving discounted tickets. The Girl Scouts will be on hand for activities and giveaways and the first 200 girls will get a UC pin.
STORYLINES:
? UC stands seven wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
? After playing in just three of the first 17 games, Edwina Williams has averaged nine minutes and 3.7 rebounds over the last three games.
? After snapping the nine-game losing streak last weekend, the Bearcats are now out to break a five-game home slide, the longest since a five-gamer in 1995-96.
? Marquette has won 16 of the 24 meetings between the schools, but UC has won seven of the last 11.
? UC and Marquette have faced three common opponents: Toledo, UAB and USF. The Golden Eagles are 3-0, while UC is 0-3.
? Marquette features junior guard Carolyn Kieger, who is eighth in the country in assists (6.7/g). As a team, the Golden Eagles rank 24th in blocked shots (4.9/g) and 29th in assists (16.7/g).
LAST TIME VS. MARQUETTE: UC shot just .276 in the first half and could not recover in a 62-54 loss on Jan. 9, 2004 in the Al McGuire Center. The Bearcats trailed, 31-22, at halftime, but tied the game twice in the second half. Debbie Merrill scored 25 for the Bearcats, who were 2-for-21 behind the arc. Kelly Schwerman led MU with 18 points.
LAST TIME IN CINCINNATI: UC shot 58 percent in the second half to come away with a 69-62 win on Senior Day in the former Shoemaker Center. The game featured 12 lead-changes and five ties. Debbie Merrill and K.B. Sharp each scored 18 as the Bearcats put four players in double-figures. Katie Alsdurf scored 20 points for Marquette, which made 8-of-15 three-pointers. The game was tied with three minutes left when UC scored the next 10 points to put it away.
NOTING THE MEMPHIS GAME:
? Anne Stephens scored a career-high 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting.
? The win was UC's first in nine games, since Dec.21. It also snapped an eight-game road losing streak.
? It was the fifth game of UC's last six decided by eight points or fewer.
? Karen Twehues made two three-pointers to move into a tie for fifth in UC history with 70 for her career.
? Micah Harvey moved into eighth in school history with 273 career assists.
HELP OFF THE BENCH: In the last eight games UC has averaged 56.4 points per game and nearly half, 28.1, have come from the bench. Bellva May and Anne Stephens have combined for eight double-digit scoring games in that span, all as reserves.
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 2-5 in such games this season, including five of the last six games. The Bearcats lost 16 games last year by an average of just 8.6 points.
ART OF THE STEAL: Junior reserve Bellva May leads UC in steals with 31 and has recorded 14 in the last six games. She has had three games with at least four steals. Micah Harvey is second on the team with 28, already surpassing her career best of 22.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: UC currently has played the 56th-toughest schedule as ranked by the WBCA/Summerville RPI, and it only gets tougher as weekend opponents Marquette and DePaul are ranked 58th and 34th, respectively, in the current RPI rankings.. 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 78-62 (.553) 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 23 road games and eight of the last nine. The Bearcats have averaged 9.1 fewer points scored on the road this year than at home.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: Now in its 34th season of play, UC has won 493 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. Louisville (494) and East Carolina (493) 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.
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 3.3 blocks per game this year, on pace for 89, 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 273 assists in her career, which is eighth all-time by a Bearcat. Harvey's 135 assists last season was the eighth-best single-season total in UC history. Twehues has made 70 three-pointers in just 39 career games to move into fifth 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.
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 3.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.9 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.
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.
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 49 double-digit scoring games. The Louisville game on Jan. 16 was the fourth this season in which four Bearcats reached double-figures.
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 their second ranked opponent of the season when they host No. 17 DePaul on Monday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena.