TicketsUC Faces Must-Win on Friday
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
2/16/2005
Anne Stephens has averaged 15.8 points over the last six games. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Fri., Feb. 18, 2005
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Site: Fifth Third Arena (13,176)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Records: Cincinnati, 7-17 (2-9 C-USA)
Tulane, 10-14 (2-9 C-USA)
Radio: www.bearcast.uc.edu
TV: None
Live Stats: www.UCBearcats.com
Tickets: $5/$3, (513) 556-CATS
Series: UC leads, 14-11
Last Meeting: Feb. 15, 2004 at TUL
TUL 61, UC 50
SETTING THE SCENE: UC's bid to qualify for the Conference USA Tournament will be on the line in this weekend's final two home games of the season. The Bearcats, 7-17 overall, enter the weekend in a three-way tie for the 12th and final spot with Saint Louis and Tulane, their opponent for Friday's 7 p.m. ET contest. UC closes the home season on Sunday vs. 11th place Southern Miss.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 1.9 2.0 0.1 .514
C 23 Edwina Williams, 6-3 Sr., Maple Heights, Ohio 2.0 3.4 0.6 .429
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 5.8 1.8 4.5 .295
G 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 10.0 6.0 1.7 .336
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.7 2.7 1.2 .344
TULANE PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 32 Lakethia Hampton, 6-0 Sr., New Orleans, La. 16.3 7.2 0.8 .498
C 55 Alendra Brown, 6-3 Fr., New Orleans, La. 4.2 4.0 0.4 .394
G 11 Jami Montagnino, 5-8 So., Baton Rouge, La. 7.9 2.9 2.4 .345
G 23 D'Aundra Henry, 5-8 Jr., Houma, La. 13.6 4.8 4.0 .393
G 25 Courtney Simmons, 5-10 Fr., Baton Rouge, La. 6.8 2.9 2.7 .419
CINCINNATI REC COMMISSION DAY: The Cincinnati Recreation Commission is sponsoring Friday night's game. It will be holding contests during the game and have various activities, such as face painting, set up throughout Fifth Third Arena. Coupons good for entry to the game can be picked up at any Cincinnati Rec Commission Center. Also on Friday, UC, in conjunction with C-USA, will be celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
STORYLINES:
? The Bearcats are currently tied with Saint Louis and Tulane for the final spot in the C-USA Tournament. UC has never failed to reach the tourney in the nine years of the league.
? UC closes the regular season at second-place Louisville on Feb. 25. The 2005 Pepsi Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament opens on March 3 in Charlotte.
? The Bearcats and Tulane have faced 10 common opponents: Houston, TCU, Memphis, Saint Louis, DePaul, Marquette, Charlotte, East Carolina, UAB and USF. Both teams are 2-8.
? UC has won 14 of the 25 meetings between the schools, but Tulane has won five of the last seven.
? The last time these two teams met in Fifth Third Arena, the Green Wave ended UC's school-record 21-game home winning streak.
? UC stands six wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history.
LAST TIME VS. TULANE: UC saw its modest two-game winning streak snapped by Tulane, 61-50, on Feb. 15, 2004. The Green Wave's 15 offensive rebounds led to 23 second-chance points. UC shot only .323 for the game and earned only five free throw attempts to Tulane?s 19. After UC took a three-point lead at the 12:35 mark, Tulane took the lead for good with a 17-2 run over the next seven minutes. Debbie Merrill led UC with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Kelly Nadeau had 19 for Tulane.
LAST TIME IN CINCINNATI: UC shot just .333 on its way to a season-low point total as Tulane ended the Bearcats' 21-game home winning streak, 62-53, on Feb. 2, 2003. The Bearcats led for a total of only 2:39 as the Green Wave defense blocked eight shots and held leading scorer Valerie King to nine points. Tulane extended a one-point halftime lead to as many as 12 in the second half. UC cut the lead to six with a minute left, but Tulane hit 7-of-12 foul shots down the stretch. Gwen Slaughter had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Tulane and UC's Debbie Merrill (18 points, 13 rebounds) had her fourth double-double in five games.
NOTING THE CHARLOTTE GAME:
? Micah Harvey scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 form behind the arc.
? Toni Slaughter (16 points, 10 rebounds) recorded her second career double-double and Anne Stephens (10 points, 12 rebounds) had her fifth.
? The Bearcats fell to 5-5 when leading at halftime.
HOT CAT: Anne Stephens has been carrying UC in recent weeks. Stephens has averaged 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds in the last six games and shot .569 (41-72) from the field. She scored a career-high 24 points in the win over Memphis, making 10-of-14 shots from the field, and recorded her fifth career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds at Charlotte.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP: In the middle of UC's recent struggles, Laurie Pirtle turned to senior Edwina Williams, who is a favorite among her teammates but had played in only 10 games in her two and a half seasons of eligibility. Williams has responded in the last six games, averaging 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 points in 19.2 minutes per game. She tallied 10 points and six rebounds in the win over Marquette and has earned the first starts of her career in the last two games.
HOT AND COLD: In the space of three games, the Bearcats posted their best offensive game of the year and worst offensive game in 10 years. They set a season-high for points in the 79-69 win over Marquette on Feb. 5, shooting .467 from the floor, .529 from three and .875 from the line. On Feb. 11, UC managed just 31 points in the loss at East Carolina, shooting .214 from the floor, .111 from three and .556 from the line.
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 79-66 (.545) 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.
JOINING AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB: Karen Twehues has made 52 three-pointers this year, nine short of eighth-place in UC's single-season records. Once there, she will break up the monopoly of Valerie King and Jolinda Lewis on the list as that pair owns the top eight seasons in school history.
HELP OFF THE BENCH: In the last 12 games UC has averaged 56.6 points per game and nearly half, 27.3, have come from the bench. Anne Stephens has averaged a team-best 12.7 points per game in this span and Bellva May has had three double-digit scoring games, both as reserves.
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 305 assists in her career, which is seventh all-time by a Bearcat. Harvey's 135 assists last season was the eighth-best single-season total in UC history. Twehues has made 80 three-pointers in just 43 career games to move into fifth in UC annals.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: UC currently has played the 29th-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.
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 and DePaul's Doug Bruno are the only C-USA coaches with at least 275 wins at their current school. On Feb. 20, 2004 against East Carolina Pirtle became the 54th active coach to win 350 games in a career.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: Now in its 34th season of play, UC has won 494 games. The Bearcats who began the year vying to become the first women's teams in Conference USA to reach 500 all-time victories. Houston and Southern Miss accomplished the feat in the past two weeks. Louisville (496) and East Carolina (496) are just ahead of UC.
BALANCED ATTACK: UC has gotten contributions from a number of different sources offensively. Six different players have led UC in scoring and nine different players have recorded a total of 59 double-digit scoring games. The Marquette game last Saturday was the fifth 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 148-82 (.643) on their home court. Over the past seven years they have a home record of 101-28 (.783). 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.
ART OF THE STEAL: Junior reserve Bellva May leads UC in steals with 37 and has recorded 20 in the last 10 games. She has had four games with at least four steals. Micah Harvey is second on the team with 32, already surpassing her career best of 22.
ROAD WEARY: Of UC's last 44 losses, 28 have occurred away from Cincinnati. UC has lost 20 of its last 25 road games and nine of the last 10. The Bearcats have averaged 11.0 fewer points scored on the road this year than at home.
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.
RAPID RETURN: Sophomore Treasure Humphries underwent surgery for a torn ACL in late August and exceeded all expectations 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 17 games since and started the last 12, winning 10 of 12jump balls. She had a career day against Arkansas, setting new bests with eight points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two assists.
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 13th in C-USA in three-pointers made (1.35/g) and 11th in three-point percentage (.333).
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.
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.
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.
UP NEXT: UC closes its home season on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. against Southern Miss. Seniors Crystal Ashley, Leslie Knoch, Sara Piepho and Edwina Williams will be honored in a postgame ceremony.