Feb. 3, 2010

Game Notes in PDF Format

After having its season-high four-game winning streak snapped at East Carolina on an icy Saturday afternoon last week on the road, the University of Memphis women's basketball team (12-8, 5-2 C-USA) are hoping some home cooking will heat the team back up when travel partner UAB (10-9, 4-3 C-USA) comes to town for a Thursday night match-up at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse at 7 p.m.

The two teams each won on the other's home floors last season, with UAB connecting on 12 of 22 attempts from beyond the arc in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. Shooters Amanda Peterson and Fatiha Salaam each scored 23 points in the victory over the Tigers in Melissa McFerrin's first C-USA game, and senior guard Britney Jones added 15 points, six assists and four steals in the win. Both Salaam and Jones are graduated from the Blazer roster, but sharp-shooter Peterson is back and leads UAB with 53 triples.

But like Memphis, UAB has a newcomer making a big splash in the league picture, as freshman guard Jala Harris has powered up the Blazer squad and is the team's leading scorer at 17.2 ppg (23.0 ppg vs. C-USA competition). She is second on the team with 32 triples and leads the offense with 62 assists and the defense with 25 steals. The freshman has won the C-USA freshman of the week award four different times this season, and gives junior college forward Tamika Dukes some outside help to keep defenses from collapsing on the senior, who averages 12.4 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds per game. Peterson rounds out the double-digit scorers for UAB with 11.1 ppg, adding 23 assists and 12 steals. Freshman guard Amber Jones is also close to the double digit mark (9.1 ppg), and since league play has began, Jones is second on the team in assists (18) and steals (7).

Memphis sophomore guard Brittany Carter is the nation's fifth-leading sophomore with her 18.6 ppg average, but as Memphis found out in the ECU loss, the Tiger bench is just as important in scoring. Without Nicole Dickson's 16 points off the bench on Saturday, the Tiger bench would have been scoreless as Chatia Kelsey, Alex Winchell and Starkitsha Luellen-Higgins were all scoreless vs. ECU.

Memphis also needs the balance from its starters, as the remainder of the Tiger starters were a combined 6-for-26 (23 percent) from the field at ECU.

The Series History
This is the 41st meeting between the Tigers and UAB and Memphis leads the overall series, 25-15. The win in Birmingham last year marked the first Tiger win over the Blazers in eight tries, snapping a seven-game losing streak that began in 2005-06. Memphis is 12-6 versus the Blazers in games played at home, but has not beaten UAB here since a 93-64 win over UAB in 2003-04.

Carter Among the Country's Best Sophomores
Sophomore guard Brittany Carter is already putting in a season that ranks among the University of Memphis' sophomore record book, but the Georgia native is also one of the best sophomores in the country, ranking fifth in the NCAA in scoring among sophomores with her 18.6 ppg average.

Carter's 371 points is already the seventh-best sophomore single season total in the Memphis record book. She needs 16 more points to pass Wanda Dillard's 387 point mark for 6th overall and needs 29 more points to hit 400 to become just the fifth Tiger sophomore in school history to score 400 or more points in a single season.

Carter's 49-point outing against Sacramento State at the University of Washington tournament over Thanksgiving is still the NCAA's best single game performance this season and is one of just 11 40-plus point performances in the country so far this season.

UAB's freshman, Jala Harris, has one of those 11 40-point performances as well, scoring 40 points in the double overtime loss at Marshall on Saturday.

Upside Down in Rebounds
Heading in to league play, the Tigers had been out-rebounded in seven games, but just one time by double-digit rebounds. Since C-USA play began, Memphis has been out-rebounded in six of the seven games, and four of those have been by double digits, including both games last weekend (Marshall and ECU). The Tigers have out-rebounded just one league opponent, out-working Rice by a +10 margin on the glass in the overtime win at FedExForum.

UAB is out-rebounding its opposition since C-USA play began, 39.1-37.1 with eight different players averaging 3.0 rebounds per game or more.

Regular Season Winding Down
With just nine regular season games remaining, the race for the top four seeds in the Conference USA standings is still tight. The loss at East Carolina dropped the Tigers back in to a tie for second with SMU (who holds the tiebreaker over Memphis) and Tulane (a team the Tigers face on Feb. 18th on the road). The top four seeding is important in the league tournament in that the top four teams receive a first round bye, and start play during the quarterfinal round. Right now, Marshall is the No. 5 seed, just a half game behind the Tigers, while UAB needs a win to try to vault back in to the top four. A UAB win on Thursday would tie the Blazers with Memphis and would give them the early tiebreaker advantage in the head-to-head series.

Tiger Bench Comes Up Big at Marshall; Struggles at East Carolina
Two of Memphis' double-digit scorers came off the bench in the win at Marshall. Junior guard Alex Winchell knocked down four triples to finish with 12 points, adding two assists and a steal in 26 minutes of play. Freshman forward Nicole Dickson stepped up and had a rough shooting night, shooting 5-for-13, but finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, one assist and two steals in 30 minutes of play. Both saw significant minutes with Brittany Carter and Taylor Mumphrey in foul trouble.

But outside of Nicole Dickson's 16 points at ECU, the remainder of the Memphis bench (Chatia Kelsey, Alex Winchell, Starkitsha Luellen-Higgins) was scoreless in the loss, Saturday afternoon. The Tigers will need points from their bench if they hope to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time since Eastern Washington/Florida International (Nov. 29, Dec. 4th).

The scoreless outing was the second of the season for Winchell, who only had three scoreless games in the first 60 games of her Memphis career as a freshman and sophomore. The junior was also scoreless in the overtime win over Rice at FedExForum in January.

Dickson Posts Back-to-Back Double-Digit Outings for First Time in Collegiate Career
The struggle for the Tiger offense this season has been to find other consistent scorers to take some of the defensive attention off of Brittany Carter. Freshman Nicole Dickson started her Tiger career with a bang, scoring 20 points in the loss to Indiana at FedExForum in the season opener. She added a career-best 24 points in the win over UT Martin three games later, but once she was on the scouting report, found the double-digit outings a bit more difficult to come by, hitting 10 points just three more times in the next 14 games. But following her last 10 point game (at Marshall), she followed that up with a 16-point game at East Carolina, her first back-to-back double digit games of her young Tiger career.

Last weekend, the freshman forward averaged 13 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while the Tigers split the C-USA road series.

Kelsey Looking to Get Back on the Glass
After grabbing a career-high seven rebounds in the win over Rice, freshman guard Chatia Kelsey went through both the Marshall and ECU games without a rebound. Because the Tigers had gotten down so big and needed three point shooters in the game, Kelsey played a career-low three minutes in the loss at East Carolina.

The freshman is also getting more comfortable slashing to the basket, and if that keeps up, she will start earning more trips to the free-throw line. She has only had three attempts from the line in the last three games, and has not connected on a free-throw since the Northwestern State game (12/20/09). If Memphis can get the speedy player to develop in to a slasher against the numerous zone defenses the team sees, she has the game to put points on the board for the Tiger as her defensive ability helps to turn opposing team's point guards over as well, resulting in break out baskets for either Kelsey or her teammates.

Ellis in Junior Single Season Records
Junior center Savannah Ellis leads Memphis with 28 blocked shots so far this season. That ties the 7th-best single season mark for Memphis juniors. Ellis is tied with Damita Shazier's (1987-88) mark and is just one behind Glynetha Davis' mark from 1987-88. Ellis needs five more blocks to move in to the overall single season top 10 at Memphis. The Wichita, Kan., native currently ranks fourth at Memphis in career blocked shots with 83.

Fellow junior Taylor Mumphrey is also moving up in the junior single season records, with 25 blocked shots, which is the 10th-best single season total among the junior classes.

Getting Defensive
Looking at overall stats, Memphis ranks seventh in C-USA with 64.6 ppg given up in scoring defense. But since the calendar rolled to 2010 and Conference USA play, the Tigers have gotten downright stingy, holding opponents to just 59.6 ppg (2nd in the league) and ranking first in the league-only stats by holding opponents to just 32.3 percent from the floor.

Stingy Defense
			Overall		C-USA Games Only
Scoring Defense		6th (64.4)	1st (60.6)
Field Goal % Defense	5th (38.0)	1st (35.8)
3 Pt FG % Defense	3rd (30.6)	1st (27.9)
Steals			2nd (11.2)	1st (12.1)
Blocks			4th (3.5)	t-5th (3.1)