TicketsRegular Season Ends at Louisville on Friday
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
2/23/2005
Bellva May had six points and five steals in the last meeting with Louisville. |
GAME FACTS:
Date: Fri., Feb. 25, 2005
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Site: Cardinal Arena (840)
Louisville, Ky.
Records: Cincinnati, 9-17 (4-9 C-USA)
Louisville, 19-7 (10-3 C-USA)
Radio: www.uoflsports.com
TV: None
Live Stats: www.uoflsports.com
Tickets: $5/free, (800) 633-7105
Series: UL leads, 28-25
Last Meeting: Jan. 16, 2004 at UC
UL 72, UC 71
SETTING THE SCENE: Cincinnati closes the 2004-05 regular season by traveling to face rival Louisville on Friday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in Cardinal Arena. The Bearcats have won four of their last seven games, taking two last weeked to clinch a spot in the 2005 C-USA Tourney. UC is now 4-9 in the league and 9-17 overall. Louisville is tied for second in C-USA with a 10-3 mark and is one win shy of its second-straight 20-win season.
CINCINNATI PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 1 Ashley Brown, 6-0 Fr., Wilberforce, Ohio 4.1 4.7 0.8 .400
F 14 Emy Ogide, 6-2 Fr., Rockmart, Ga. 1.8 1.8 0.1 .514
G 12 Micah Harvey, 5-7 Jr., Sardinia, Ohio 6.2 1.8 4.6 .301
G 13 Toni Slaughter, 6-0 So., Shelbyville, Ky. 9.5 6.6 1.7 .332
G 32 Karen Twehues, 6-0 So., Minusio, Switz. 9.7 2.5 1.2 .354
LOUISVILLE PROBABLE STARTERS PPG RPG APG FG%
F 5 Yuliya Tokova, 6-1 Fr., Berdichev, Ukraine. 6.3 4.7 0.7 .495
F 12 Jazz Covington, 6-3 So., Adel, Ga. 18.4 8.4 1.8 .583
G 21 Angel Bradley, 5-6 Sr., Marietta, Ga. 8.8 5.8 2.5 .434
G 22 Jessica Huggins, 5-4 Jr., New Albany, Ind. 7.8 2.6 4.5 .304
G 50 Joleen Phillips, 5-8 Sr., Louisville, Ky. 3.8 2.8 1.1 .397
LAST TIME VS. LOUISVILLE: Jazz Covington?s off-balance jumper with one second left negated a 17-point comeback by UC and gave Louisville a 72-71 win on Jan. 16 in Fifth Third Arena. UL made 17-of-23 shots in the first half to take a 42-28 lead into halftime. Covington made 11-of-13 shots for 32 points. UC shot .500 for the game, but allowed UL to shoot .643. Leslie Knoch led four Bearcats in double-figures with 16 points. Bellva May had five second-half steals to fuel the comeback and Knoch and Karen Twehues combined to go 9-of-14 from three.
LAST TIME IN LOUISVILLE: Three-pointers and foul shots led Louisville to a 65-54 win over UC at Freedom Hall on Jan. 31, 2004. The Cardinals held a 42-27 advantage on the boards and were 20-of-28 from the free throw line to the Bearcats' 3-of-4. Trailing by eight at halftime, UC saw the lead balloon out of control in a matter of minutes. Jazz Covington converted a three-point play and three Cardinals hit treys to give U of L a 38-20 lead less than four minutes into the second half. Covington recorded 13 points and 11 rebounds and Sara Nord scored 24 points. Toni Slaughter led UC with 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
STORYLINES:
? The Bearcats have clinched a berth in the C-USA Tournament and are currently tied for 10th-place, just one game out of ninth.
? The 2005 Pepsi Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament opens on March 3 in Charlotte.
? The Bearcats and Cardinals have played 53 times, the most prolific series for either team. Louisville has won 28 of the games, including the last three and 17 of 23 in Louisville.
? The Bearcats and Louisville have faced 15 common opponents: the other 12 league teams plus Detroit, Alabama State and Xavier. The Cardinals are 3-0 against the non-league common foes, while UC is 2-1.
? Cardinal center Jazz Covington is fourth in C-USA at 18.4 ppg and second with a .583 shooting percentage. She ranks 33rd and 13th in the nation, respectively, in those categories.
? UC stands four wins from reaching the 500-win mark in program history, while Louisville is two away.
NOTING THE SOUTHERN MISS GAME:
? UC clinched a berth in the 2005 C-USA Tournament. The Bearcats had never failed to qualify in the previous nine years of the tourney.
? Treasure Humphries scored a career-high 18 points to go with four steals.
? The teams combined for 53 fouls and 74 foul shots as UC set season-highs for free throws attempted (37) and made (25).
? UC recorded a season-low 45 field goal attempts.
? Bellva May set a new career high with two blocked shots.
? Anne Stephens scored in double-figures for the eighth-straight game.
HOT CAT: Anne Stephens has been carrying UC in recent weeks. Stephens has averaged 15.9 points and 7.3 rebounds in the last eight games and shot .571 (52-91) 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.
HITTING THE BOARDS: UC has only lost the rebounding battle in two of the last eight games after being outrebounded in 10 of the first 18. In those eight games the Bearcats have recorded four double-digit rebounding margins and posted all four of their league wins.
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 81-66 (.551) 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.
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 45 career blocks to rank ninth in school history. Harvey has handed out 316 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 84 three-pointers in just 45 career games to move into fifth in UC annals.
TALE OF TWO HALVES: The Bearcats have outscored their opponents in the first half of games by six total points in 26 games. In the second half, however, UC has been outscored by 112 points, a 4.3 point per game average. UC is just 7-5 in games in which it leads at halftime.
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.
JOINING AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB: Karen Twehues has made 56 three-pointers this year, five 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.
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.
SHUFFLING IT UP: In the past 15 games UC has used seven different starting lineups, due to injuries and performance. Only one of those has been used more than twice. 11 of the 13 players on the Bearcat roster have started at least one game this year.
HELP OFF THE BENCH: In the last 14 games UC has averaged 57.1 points per game and nearly half, 27.6, have come from the bench. Anne Stephens has averaged a team-best 13.1 points per game in this span and Bellva May has had three double-digit scoring games, both as reserves.
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 responded in the next 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 earned the first starts of her career against East Carolina and Charlotte.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: UC currently has played the 48th-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.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: Now in its 34th season of play, UC has won 496 games. The Bearcats 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 earlier this month. Louisville (498) and East Carolina (496) are right with of UC.
BALANCED ATTACK: UC has gotten contributions from a number of different sources offensively. Seven different players have led UC in scoring and nine different players have recorded a total of 64 double-digit scoring games. The Marquette game on Feb. 5 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 150-82 (.647) on their home court. Over the past seven years they have a home record of 103-28 (.786). 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 38 and has had five games with at least three steals. Micah Harvey is second on the team with 35, 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 10.9 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. She exploded for a career-high 18 points in UC's win over Southern Miss.
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 19 games since and started the last 14, winning 12 of 14 jump 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 ranked 13th in C-USA in three-pointers made (1.35/g) and 11th in three-point percentage (.333) when she left the lineup.
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.
UP NEXT: UC begins play at the 2005 Pepsi Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament on March 3 in Charlotte.