Feb. 17, 2010

Game Notes in PDF Format

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For the third straight time this season, the University of Memphis women's basketball team (15-9, 8-3 C-USA) will play a team sporting the league's longest winning streak. But unlike last weekend, when the Tigers snapped Southern Miss and UCF's three-game winning streaks in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse, the Tigers will have to make a run at Tulane's three-game streak while on the road in New Orleans.

The match-up on Thursday night features the two teams currently tied for first in the league standings with 8-3 records. Tulane ranks 27th in the country in win/loss percentage with a 19-5 overall record, and is looking for its 20th victory of the season for the first time since the 2006-07 season, when the Green Wave finished with a 26-7 mark.

The contest also features a handful of the top players in the league in terms of steals per game. In C-USA only stats, Memphis sophomore Ramses Lonlack leads the league 3.8 steals per game. Tulane's senior guard Chassity Brown is right behind Lonlack with 2.6 steals a game, and Tiger senior LaToya Bullard and Tulane junior Roshaunda Barnes are tied for fourth in the league with 2.5 steals a night.

The Green Wave is 10-3 at home so far this season and is 4-2 in Fogelman in C-USA home contests. Senior guard Chassity Brown leads the Green Wave in scoring with 14.0 ppg, adding 68 steals and 62 assists and a team-high 41 three-point field goals made. Senior guard Danielle Nunn is next on the team in scoring with 10.5 ppg, shooting 55.1 percent from the field and leading Tulane with 131 free-throw attempts on the season, hitting 67.9 percent from the stripe once she gets there.

Up front, the Green Wave is led in rebounding by sophomore Brett Benzio. The 6-3 forward averages 7.1 rebounds a game, chipping in 8.1 points. She is one of six Green Wave players to average 8.0 or more points a night, giving Tulane depth from all over the floor.

Since conference play has begun, juniors guard Roshaunda Barnes and Tiffany Aidoo have both stepped up their scoring to average double-digits (12.2 and 11.5 ppg, respectively), and the Green Wave defense has clamped down, holding opponents to 40.6 percent shooting from the floor and 34.3 percent from three-point range.

This will be the third time the Tigers have been in a tie for the league lead and have had to play a road game. Memphis lost at East Carolina as one of the team's in a tie for the league lead, and lost at Houston while tied with the Cougars and SMU for the league lead.

The Series History
This is the 34th meeting between Tulane and Memphis and the Tigers hold a series lead, 21-12. In the last game played in New Orleans in the series, then-sophomore guard LaToya Bullard shot 7-for-11 from the field and led Memphis with 16 points in a 74-66 Tiger victory.

Tigers Improve to 15 Wins
Memphis' win over UCF gave the Tigers their 15th victory of the season, the most season victories since the 2003-04 season when the Tigers were 21-10. The eight league victory is also the most since that 2003-04 season.

Series Sweep of East Division Team for Tigers
The Tigers overtime win on Friday night meant the Tigers had swept the series from Southern Miss. That marked just the second time since Conference USA went to divisions that Memphis swept both games in a series against an East Division foe. The last Tiger sweep was against East Carolina in 2007-08.

The Tigers followed that sweep over Southern Miss with a series sweep over UCF on Sunday, with the 76-72 victory.

Clutch Time = Carter Time
Brittany Carter is just 23 games in to her Memphis career after playing sparingly at Georgia as a freshman, but that's hard to remember when you look at the shots she has made to help Memphis to the top quarter of the C-USA standings. Carter hit game winners at Missouri and UCF, scored 49 points in a win over Sacramento State at the University of Washington tournament, scored nine straight points in the final five minutes of the Tigers' first-ever win over Marshall and added to that on Friday night against USM.

Memphis trailed 78-75 with 46 seconds to play when Carter got the ball at the top of the three-point arc. USM's defense was playing defense tight on the arc to prevent the three, so Carter drove between two defenders at the top of the arc and converted the layup and one to tie the game at 78-78 with 30 seconds to play.

And if Carter isn't Clutch-Enough For You?
If teams think they can just focus on trying to stop Carter in the final minutes, there is a whole bench full of Tigers looking for their opportunity to tickle the twine. Against Houston, it was senior guard LaToya Bullard who knocked down three straight layups to start a 15-0 run that cut the deficit to four with less than a minute to play. Against Southern Miss, it was junior guard Alex Winchell. The Tigers trailed 85-83 with 1:32 to play in overtime and Nicole Dickson had tracked down an offensive rebound from a Brittany Carter missed jumper. Dickson moved the ball out to LaToya Bullard, who found Winchell in the left corner. Winchell, who had missed a three from the right corner against Houston in the last game, made sure this one suffered no such fate, swirling in the shot that pushed Memphis in front for good 86-85 with 1:03 to go.

Extra Basketball
Tiger fans might suffer a bit when the Tigers go to overtime, but with the win over Southern Miss in overtime, Memphis improved to 2-0 in overtime this season and 3-0 in overtime in McFerrin's tenure. Two of the three Memphis overtime games have come against USM.

The two overtime games in one season marked the first time since the 2007-08 season that Memphis has played two overtime games. The Tigers played both of those games in 2007-08 back-to-back and lost both by a combined five points (99-97 to UA Pine Bluff and 71-68 to Toledo).

Bullard Getting Comfortable at the Point
In the eight games since LaToya Bullard moved to the starting spot at the point to counter C-USA team's pressure, Memphis has gone 6-2. In the last five games, the senior has handed out 30 assists against just 15 turnovers, also adding 14 steals.

Lonlack Continues to Make Her Presence Known
If you are a point guard on an opposing team from Conference USA, sophomore guard Ramses Lonlack is just a pain. The sophomore is leading Memphis with 67 steals this season alone, and just set another new career high with seven steals against USM. The speedy guard also loves to get out in transition, and Friday night, knocked down 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the floor and was 6-for-8 from the free-throw line for Memphis. The Cameroon native leads C-USA in conference-only stats with 3.8 steals per game and now has 132 steals for her career.

McFerrin Wins No. 75
Melissa McFerrin is not one to draw attention to her own milestones, but the win over UAB was her 75th career victory.

The win over UCF on Sunday also pushed McFerrin's record at Memphis back to an even .500 at 27-27 heading in to a tough road weekend at Tulane and UTEP.

Carter Moves to Sixth in Sophomore Single Season Scoring
Sophomore guard Brittany Carter just 42 points shy of moving in to the sophomore single season top five in scoring. She currently has 441 points this season and has scored double-digit points in all but three Tiger games this year. She is just 138 points shy of moving in to the Tigers' single season top 10 overall (regardless of class), needing to hit 579 points to tie Tamika Whitmore's mark from the 1996-97 season (also Whitmore's sophomore season).

The 400 Club?
With so many new faces on the Memphis roster (eight newcomers to the court this year), Memphis will not have a 1,000 career point celebration this year, but might be making some progress toward some future celebrations with four different players passing their 400th career points.

Sophomore Ramses Lonlack was the first to pass the 400 point mark with her three points against UAB. Brittany Carter and Savannah Ellis both went over the 400 point mark in the win over Southern Miss. Carter now has 441 points and Ellis is at 411.

Senior guard LaToya Bullard is 12 points from 400 for her career, but went over the 200 career assist mark against Houston.

Winchell Knocks Down 100th Career Triple; Rang up 600th Point From Long Distance Versus UCF
With a pair of three-point field goals in the win over Jackson State, Alex Winchell knocked down Nos. 100 and 101 from three-point range, becoming just the seventh Tiger in Memphis history to hit 100 or more career threes.

Against UCF, Winchell hit back-to-back-to-back three-point field goals to blast past the 600 point mark for her career. She now has 608 points and has connected on 124 three-point field goals in 84 career games played.

Keeping Fans on the Edges of Their Seats
The Tigers are a team that has a lot of experience in close games. Sixteen of Memphis' first 24 games were decided by single digits, with Memphis sporting a 10-6 record in games decided by single digits.

In the last seven single digit games heading in to the Tulane game, the Tigers are 6-1.