TicketsCINCINNATI – Following more than a week off from competition, University of Cincinnati women's basketball will welcome the Wichita State Shockers to Fifth Third Arena on Sunday, Feb. 10 for a 2 p.m. tipoff. The matchup is the annual Wear Pink game, presented by UC Health, supporting breast cancer awareness.
// TICKETS
General admission tickets to the game are only $5, while tickets inside the Champions Club are just $7. Discounts for youth (ages 4-12) and seniors (ages 65+) include $3 general admission tickets and $5 Champions Club tickets. Tickets can be purchased by either calling 1-877-CATS-TIX, logging onto GoBEARCATS.com/Tickets, or by visiting the Fifth Third Arena ticket office on gameday.
// PARKING
Cash parking will be available at Corry Garage on campus for $5.
// GOING LIVE
The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU. A live audio stream will be available on Bearcats TV, while live stats can be accessed here.
// GAME PROMOTIONS
Partnering with UC Health, the matchup will be the annual Wear Pink game in support of breast cancer awareness. In conjunction, the Bearcats will be wearing custom-made, pink Under Armour uniforms. Attending fans are also encouraged to wear pink. Pink t-shirts will be given away to fans upon entry to the arena (while supplies last). Concessions specials include $1 popcorn. In addition, the usual postgame autograph session will also take place.
// THE SERIES
The Bearcats have come away victorious in both meetings with the Shockers including, most recently, a 75-69 win in Wichita, Kansas last season. In the triumph, guard Nikira Going (Marietta, Ga./Osborne) poured in a career-best 26 points -- including five makes from behind the 3-point arc -- while forward IImar'I Thomas (Oakland, Calif./Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep) added 14 points and five rebounds. Sunday's matchup will be the first-ever between UC and WSU in Cincinnati.
// LAST TIME OUT
UC (14-8, 6-3 AAC) gave the second-ranked UConn Huskies all it could handle on Feb. 2 in a 65-55 loss at Fifth Third Arena. Following a 38-23 halftime deficit, the Bearcats outplayed the Huskies in the second half, outscoring them, 32-27. For the game, the Red & Black held the American Athletic Conference's highest-scoring team 17 points below its season-scoring average. The 10-point scoring margin is the closest UC has played the Huskies since 2007. Goings continued her stellar play with 14 points off the bench, including four made 3-pointers. Junior guard Antoinette Miller (Detroit, Mich./Southfield-Lathrup) recorded 13 points, a game-high-tying five assists, and five rebounds. In addition, junior forward Angel Rizor (Zebulon, N.C./East Wake) neared her first double-double of the season with a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points.
// SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Goings has shown a steady progression throughout her Bearcats career and is stepping up in her senior season. After averaging 2.7 points per game as a freshman, 6.1 as a sophomore, and a team-best 11.2 as a junior, the guard is averaging 9.1 points each contest in 2018-19. After suffering a sprained ankle at UConn on Jan. 9, the senior scored 11 points at UCF the following game with three made 3-pointers. Goings' streak of 18-straight games with a made 3-pointer was snapped against SMU on Jan. 6. The Georgia native earned her first AAC Weekly Honor Roll on Monday after averaging 16.0 points, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 rebounds as the Bearcats split a pair of games last week.
Miller is being leaned on to step up this year after the graduation of point guard Ana Owens who scored 1,469 points and dished out 404 assists in her UC career. She has responded by impacting the game in a variety of ways with 11.7 points, 5.5 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game so far in 2018-19. Her assists per game mark (5.5) ranks second in the AAC and 24th in the country, while her steals total (45) ranks runner-up in the league. Additionally, her assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2) is 49th-best in NCAA Division I. Miller earned her first-career AAC Weekly Honor Roll distinction on Jan. 28 after averaging 16.0 points, 8.0 assists, and 5.5 rebounds as the Bearcats tallied two victories the week prior.
Thomas has been a fixture on The American's weekly honor list with recognition four times this season. On Jan. 21, the sophomore was named Player of the Week for the second time in 2018-19 after averaging 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals as the Bearcats picked up a pair of wins. On Dec. 24, the sophomore landed on the Honor Roll after totaling 23 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and three steals against Howard on Dec. 21. The week prior, she was named AAC Player of the Week and earned a spot on the NCAA's prestigious Weekly Starting Five following scoring 20 points and grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds in the annual Crosstown Shootout vs. Xavier on Dec. 16. Previously, the forward was picked for the Honor Roll on Dec. 10 after averaging 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in a pair of contests for the week ending Dec. 9. On the year, she is sixth in the country in field-goal percentage at 64.6 percent from the field.
Junior guard Sam Rodgers (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East) picked up her first AAC Weekly Honor Roll distinction on Jan.7 after recording a career performance on Jan. 6 in UC's AAC-opening, 69-57 home victory over SMU. The Cincinnati native scored a career-best 20 points – 17 of which came in the first half – including a career-high five 3-pointers. The guard was a catalyst in a game-changing, late-second-quarter, 15-0 Bearcats run with three triples. In addition, she tallied another career mark with two blocks. She is 28-of-35 from the free-throw line this season. Her seven misses this year are her only career misses after going 4-for-4 as a freshman and 24-of-24 as a sophomore.
Sophomore post Andeija Puckett (Griffin, Ga./Griffin) has emerged as a legitimate post presence off the bench for the Bearcats. She was a force against Temple on Jan. 16 with a career-best 15 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks. Against Memphis, she again came off the pine strong to add 12 points and four rebounds. In conference play, the Georgia native is averaging 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in just 12 minutes per game.
Junior guard Florence Sifa (Bujumbura, Burundi/Jacksonville College) had a long, winding journey to NCAA Division I basketball, but is thriving at UC. Having experienced civil war and political unrest in her east African home country of Burundi, Sifa followed her basketball dream to junior college in Jacksonville, Texas and now to Cincinnati. An athletic guard, she has already proven to be a great, late addition to the Bearcats roster with 6.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game through 20 contests.
The Bearcats have created a formidable home-court advantage inside newly-renovated Fifth Third Arena this season with an 11-2 record in 2018-19. UC reeled off nine-consecutive victories at home before dropping a close one to No. 2 UConn on Feb. 2. In total, the Red & Black boasts a 71-percent (35-14) winning percentage on their home court over the last three years.
UC signed a talented, six-member recruiting class for the 2019-20 season on Nov. 11. Stretching from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast and all the way to Africa, head coach Michelle Clark-Heard's inaugural Bearcats signing class features players who are tenacious, versatile, and true winners. Signees include: 6-foot-2 forward Jana Abdullah (Alexandria, Egypt/King Integrated American School), 5-foot-6 point guard Aleah Nelson (Nottingham, Md./McDonogh High School), 6-foot-1 wing Jada Scott (Townsend, Ga./Frederica Academy), 6-foot-1 forward Jadyn Scott (Townsend, Ga./Frederica Academy), 5-foot-8 guard Jordan Tuff (Kernersville, N.C./Connections Academy), and 5-foot-8 guard Chellia Watson (Winder, Ga./Window-Barrow High School). Nelson and Tuff were both recently nominated for selection for the 2019 McDonald's All American Game. The Scott twins' brother, Trevon, is a redshirt junior forward on the UC men's basketball team.
UC returns three starters in 2018-19 from a team that won 19 games last year -- its best season in 15 years – and advanced to the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Championship. With 68 percent of their scoring and 66 percent of their rebounding back, the Bearcats also boast the league's reigning Freshman of the Year in Thomas. UC's leading returning scorer from a year ago, Goings, is also back after averaging 11.2 points per game in 2017-18.
Leading UC this year will be head coach Michelle Clark-Heard who was an assistant at UC from 2002-05 and spent the previous six seasons as the head coach at Western Kentucky. In six seasons at WKU, Clark-Heard reached four NCAA Tournaments, won four conference tournament championships and two regular season conference titles while posting 154 wins, becoming the second-fastest Lady Topper coach to reach 100 victories with the program. She amassed a 154-48 (.762) record at WKU and a 178-80 (.690) career mark. Clark-Heard has led her teams to six-consecutive 20-win seasons and six-straight appearances in the postseason (four NCAA, two WNIT).
At American Athletic Conference Basketball Media Day on Oct. 15, UC was selected to finish fifth in the 12-team league. Chosen by the league's head coaches, the pick is the highest the Bearcats have ever been selected in their six years in the AAC. Five-time The American champion and 2018 NCAA Final Four participant UConn was, again, picked to win the conference title. USF earned one first-place vote and was chosen second. Houston followed in third ahead of UCF, Cincinnati, Temple, SMU, ECU, Tulane, Wichita State, Memphis, and Tulsa to round out the poll.
// SCOUTING THE SHOCKERS
WSU (10-12, 3-6 AAC) has won three of its last four games including, most recently, a 57-48 victory at Memphis on Wednesday. In the triumph, Carla Bremaud collected her team-leading 11th game in double-figures with a game-high 13 points. Trajata Colbert just missed her season high with 11 points, while Seraphine Bastin chipped in 12 points, five boards and four assists. On the season, the Shockers are led by Bremaud's 9.8 points per game, while Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage adds 8.5 points and a team-best 5.8 rebounds each outing. The Shockers score 58.4 points per, but give up 60.4. WSU is fifth in the AAC in 3-point field goal percentage defense at 29.3 percent. In the preseason, the Shockers were picked to finish 10th in the 12-team American.
// FIFTH THIRD ARENA REOPENS
After a 20-month, privately funded, $87-million renovation, Fifth Third Arena reopens in 2018-19. With the arena under renovation, the Bearcats played the 2017-18 season off campus at both Saint Ursula Academy (16 games) and Cincinnati State (two games). UC posted a 12-6 home mark last year.
// TICKETS
General admission tickets to the game are only $5, while tickets inside the Champions Club are just $7. Discounts for youth (ages 4-12) and seniors (ages 65+) include $3 general admission tickets and $5 Champions Club tickets. Tickets can be purchased by either calling 1-877-CATS-TIX, logging onto GoBEARCATS.com/Tickets, or by visiting the Fifth Third Arena ticket office on gameday.
// PARKING
Cash parking will be available at Corry Garage on campus for $5.
// GOING LIVE
The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU. A live audio stream will be available on Bearcats TV, while live stats can be accessed here.
// GAME PROMOTIONS
Partnering with UC Health, the matchup will be the annual Wear Pink game in support of breast cancer awareness. In conjunction, the Bearcats will be wearing custom-made, pink Under Armour uniforms. Attending fans are also encouraged to wear pink. Pink t-shirts will be given away to fans upon entry to the arena (while supplies last). Concessions specials include $1 popcorn. In addition, the usual postgame autograph session will also take place.
// THE SERIES
The Bearcats have come away victorious in both meetings with the Shockers including, most recently, a 75-69 win in Wichita, Kansas last season. In the triumph, guard Nikira Going (Marietta, Ga./Osborne) poured in a career-best 26 points -- including five makes from behind the 3-point arc -- while forward IImar'I Thomas (Oakland, Calif./Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep) added 14 points and five rebounds. Sunday's matchup will be the first-ever between UC and WSU in Cincinnati.
// LAST TIME OUT
UC (14-8, 6-3 AAC) gave the second-ranked UConn Huskies all it could handle on Feb. 2 in a 65-55 loss at Fifth Third Arena. Following a 38-23 halftime deficit, the Bearcats outplayed the Huskies in the second half, outscoring them, 32-27. For the game, the Red & Black held the American Athletic Conference's highest-scoring team 17 points below its season-scoring average. The 10-point scoring margin is the closest UC has played the Huskies since 2007. Goings continued her stellar play with 14 points off the bench, including four made 3-pointers. Junior guard Antoinette Miller (Detroit, Mich./Southfield-Lathrup) recorded 13 points, a game-high-tying five assists, and five rebounds. In addition, junior forward Angel Rizor (Zebulon, N.C./East Wake) neared her first double-double of the season with a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points.
// SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Goings has shown a steady progression throughout her Bearcats career and is stepping up in her senior season. After averaging 2.7 points per game as a freshman, 6.1 as a sophomore, and a team-best 11.2 as a junior, the guard is averaging 9.1 points each contest in 2018-19. After suffering a sprained ankle at UConn on Jan. 9, the senior scored 11 points at UCF the following game with three made 3-pointers. Goings' streak of 18-straight games with a made 3-pointer was snapped against SMU on Jan. 6. The Georgia native earned her first AAC Weekly Honor Roll on Monday after averaging 16.0 points, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 rebounds as the Bearcats split a pair of games last week.
Miller is being leaned on to step up this year after the graduation of point guard Ana Owens who scored 1,469 points and dished out 404 assists in her UC career. She has responded by impacting the game in a variety of ways with 11.7 points, 5.5 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game so far in 2018-19. Her assists per game mark (5.5) ranks second in the AAC and 24th in the country, while her steals total (45) ranks runner-up in the league. Additionally, her assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2) is 49th-best in NCAA Division I. Miller earned her first-career AAC Weekly Honor Roll distinction on Jan. 28 after averaging 16.0 points, 8.0 assists, and 5.5 rebounds as the Bearcats tallied two victories the week prior.
Thomas has been a fixture on The American's weekly honor list with recognition four times this season. On Jan. 21, the sophomore was named Player of the Week for the second time in 2018-19 after averaging 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals as the Bearcats picked up a pair of wins. On Dec. 24, the sophomore landed on the Honor Roll after totaling 23 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and three steals against Howard on Dec. 21. The week prior, she was named AAC Player of the Week and earned a spot on the NCAA's prestigious Weekly Starting Five following scoring 20 points and grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds in the annual Crosstown Shootout vs. Xavier on Dec. 16. Previously, the forward was picked for the Honor Roll on Dec. 10 after averaging 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in a pair of contests for the week ending Dec. 9. On the year, she is sixth in the country in field-goal percentage at 64.6 percent from the field.
Junior guard Sam Rodgers (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East) picked up her first AAC Weekly Honor Roll distinction on Jan.7 after recording a career performance on Jan. 6 in UC's AAC-opening, 69-57 home victory over SMU. The Cincinnati native scored a career-best 20 points – 17 of which came in the first half – including a career-high five 3-pointers. The guard was a catalyst in a game-changing, late-second-quarter, 15-0 Bearcats run with three triples. In addition, she tallied another career mark with two blocks. She is 28-of-35 from the free-throw line this season. Her seven misses this year are her only career misses after going 4-for-4 as a freshman and 24-of-24 as a sophomore.
Sophomore post Andeija Puckett (Griffin, Ga./Griffin) has emerged as a legitimate post presence off the bench for the Bearcats. She was a force against Temple on Jan. 16 with a career-best 15 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks. Against Memphis, she again came off the pine strong to add 12 points and four rebounds. In conference play, the Georgia native is averaging 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in just 12 minutes per game.
Junior guard Florence Sifa (Bujumbura, Burundi/Jacksonville College) had a long, winding journey to NCAA Division I basketball, but is thriving at UC. Having experienced civil war and political unrest in her east African home country of Burundi, Sifa followed her basketball dream to junior college in Jacksonville, Texas and now to Cincinnati. An athletic guard, she has already proven to be a great, late addition to the Bearcats roster with 6.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game through 20 contests.
The Bearcats have created a formidable home-court advantage inside newly-renovated Fifth Third Arena this season with an 11-2 record in 2018-19. UC reeled off nine-consecutive victories at home before dropping a close one to No. 2 UConn on Feb. 2. In total, the Red & Black boasts a 71-percent (35-14) winning percentage on their home court over the last three years.
UC signed a talented, six-member recruiting class for the 2019-20 season on Nov. 11. Stretching from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast and all the way to Africa, head coach Michelle Clark-Heard's inaugural Bearcats signing class features players who are tenacious, versatile, and true winners. Signees include: 6-foot-2 forward Jana Abdullah (Alexandria, Egypt/King Integrated American School), 5-foot-6 point guard Aleah Nelson (Nottingham, Md./McDonogh High School), 6-foot-1 wing Jada Scott (Townsend, Ga./Frederica Academy), 6-foot-1 forward Jadyn Scott (Townsend, Ga./Frederica Academy), 5-foot-8 guard Jordan Tuff (Kernersville, N.C./Connections Academy), and 5-foot-8 guard Chellia Watson (Winder, Ga./Window-Barrow High School). Nelson and Tuff were both recently nominated for selection for the 2019 McDonald's All American Game. The Scott twins' brother, Trevon, is a redshirt junior forward on the UC men's basketball team.
UC returns three starters in 2018-19 from a team that won 19 games last year -- its best season in 15 years – and advanced to the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Championship. With 68 percent of their scoring and 66 percent of their rebounding back, the Bearcats also boast the league's reigning Freshman of the Year in Thomas. UC's leading returning scorer from a year ago, Goings, is also back after averaging 11.2 points per game in 2017-18.
Leading UC this year will be head coach Michelle Clark-Heard who was an assistant at UC from 2002-05 and spent the previous six seasons as the head coach at Western Kentucky. In six seasons at WKU, Clark-Heard reached four NCAA Tournaments, won four conference tournament championships and two regular season conference titles while posting 154 wins, becoming the second-fastest Lady Topper coach to reach 100 victories with the program. She amassed a 154-48 (.762) record at WKU and a 178-80 (.690) career mark. Clark-Heard has led her teams to six-consecutive 20-win seasons and six-straight appearances in the postseason (four NCAA, two WNIT).
At American Athletic Conference Basketball Media Day on Oct. 15, UC was selected to finish fifth in the 12-team league. Chosen by the league's head coaches, the pick is the highest the Bearcats have ever been selected in their six years in the AAC. Five-time The American champion and 2018 NCAA Final Four participant UConn was, again, picked to win the conference title. USF earned one first-place vote and was chosen second. Houston followed in third ahead of UCF, Cincinnati, Temple, SMU, ECU, Tulane, Wichita State, Memphis, and Tulsa to round out the poll.
// SCOUTING THE SHOCKERS
WSU (10-12, 3-6 AAC) has won three of its last four games including, most recently, a 57-48 victory at Memphis on Wednesday. In the triumph, Carla Bremaud collected her team-leading 11th game in double-figures with a game-high 13 points. Trajata Colbert just missed her season high with 11 points, while Seraphine Bastin chipped in 12 points, five boards and four assists. On the season, the Shockers are led by Bremaud's 9.8 points per game, while Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage adds 8.5 points and a team-best 5.8 rebounds each outing. The Shockers score 58.4 points per, but give up 60.4. WSU is fifth in the AAC in 3-point field goal percentage defense at 29.3 percent. In the preseason, the Shockers were picked to finish 10th in the 12-team American.
// FIFTH THIRD ARENA REOPENS
After a 20-month, privately funded, $87-million renovation, Fifth Third Arena reopens in 2018-19. With the arena under renovation, the Bearcats played the 2017-18 season off campus at both Saint Ursula Academy (16 games) and Cincinnati State (two games). UC posted a 12-6 home mark last year.