Feb. 15, 2006
Against Southern Miss
USM won the first meeting with the Lady Tigers, 73-67, in a game that was televised on CSTV. Southern Miss has gone 2-2 in their last four games and needs the win over Memphis to get back into the top four in the league standings to receive a first round bye in the C-USA Championships in three weeks.
Against UCF
UCF won the first meeting this season with the Lady Tigers, 65-54, which evened up the overall series, 1-1. Francine Houston leads UCF with 12.8 ppg, whie Shleby Weber adds 9.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. UCF will host UAB, Friday night, before Memphis rolls into town, and will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak in that Friday night game.
Same Game, Same Score, Different City
Friday night and Sunday afternoon's Lady Tiger games were eerily similar. At ECU, Memphis hit seven of their 11 first half field goals from three-point range, then got dominated in the paint in the second half in a 74-54 loss. At Marshall, Memphis opened the first half hitting six of their first eight field goals from three-point range, then got dominated in the paint in the second half in a 74-54 loss. Memphis gave up 36 points in the paint. At Marshall, Memphis gave up 38 points in the paint.
Butler Moves to Fifth in All-Time Assists
Senior point guard moved into a tie for fifth all-time in career assists with four at Marshall. With 360 career helpers, Butler is now tied with Kathy Barnett (1976-78) and is 38 assists shy of Yolanda Reed (1997-2000) for fourth all-time.
Butler's 101 assists so far this saeson is the best single-season total of her four-year Lady Tiger career. This is also the first time since 2001-02 that a Lady Tiger point guard has had more than 100 assists in a season. Kalara McFadden had 119 during 2001-02. Butler's 4.6 assist-per-game average is the highest in the last eight years of Lady Tiger basketball.
Butler has had five or more assists in six of the last eight games, including 10 in the win over UTEP, her second double-digit assist outing of the season.
Memphis Needs Two Wins This Weekend
The bracket for the Conference USA Championship Tournament will likely not be figured out until the very last game of the league schedule is play on Sunday, Feb. 26th, and until the league office can work out some tiebreakers. Memphis can still improve its position in the bracket if the Lady Tigers can win two games this weekend. As of now, Memphis is two games behind UCF, one of the opponents this weekend.
Heavy Weight From Beyond the Arc
Memphis has hit 126 threes on the season, already the fourth-highest team total in Memphis history. Memphis is just one shy of the third-highest total and 11 shy of second, but the Lady Tigers aren't getting much more from the rest of the field, as Memphis' 59.6 ppg average does not rank in the top 25 season averages in the Memphis record book. The one thing all three Lady Tiger wins have in common is that Memphis scored over 70 points in all three games. Only two times when Memphis has scored over 70 points have the Lady Tigers lost the game (Clemson, Ole Miss).
Howard Notches Second Double-Double of Season
Junior Ashley Howard notched her second double-double of the season with a 16-point, 10-rebound effort at East Carolina. The 16 points was a career high. The 10 rebounds was her sixth double-digit rebound night of the season.
Bradley's Block Party Over
Pack up the party favors, senior Jamie Bradley's streak of 10 straight games with a blocked shot was snapped at East Carolina, where the senior only played six minutes, despite starting.
Butler Moving Up in Career Threes
In addition to moving in the career assist category, Tamika Butler is also just nine threes shy of tying Kelly Herron (1995-2001) at the 131 three-point field goal mark, which is the third-highest overall total, heading into the USM game.
Let's Play Weeknight Games
All three Lady Tiger wins have come during week-night games. The other thing they all have in common is that they were all games in which the Lady Tigers scored 70 or more points. Memphis is 3-2 when scoring over 70 points. The Lipscomb win was on a Tuesday, the UT Martin win on a Wednesday and the UTEP win on a Monday. That hasn't carried over to Friday's yet, the Lady Tigers are 0-9 on Fridays heading into the USM game.
