Feb. 26, 2010

Game Notes in PDF Format

The University of Memphis (17-10, 10-4 C-USA) women's basketball team will wrap up its 2009-2010 regular season home schedule Saturday afternoon with a live televised contest against East Carolina (18-9, 7-7 C-USA) at FedExForum at 1 p.m.

Memphis is looking to avoid being swept by the Pirates, who downed the Tigers 76-59 in Greenville earlier this season. East Carolina is looking to right the ship, having lost five of the last six games, including a 65-57 loss at UAB Thursday night.

The Pirates possess the league's best offense, averaging 70.7 ppg and shooting 45.5 percent from the field. ECU loves to shoot it from beyond the arc, where the Pirates shoot 38.0 percent. Junior guard Allison Spivey leads ECU with 53 made three point field goals, while teammate Kelly Smith, a transfer from West Virginia, has added 47 triples this season.

Running the ECU offense is sophomore guard Ashley Clarke, who leads the team in scoring with 12.0 ppg, adding 5.3 rebounds a game (second on the team) and dishing out 145 assists in the first 27 ECU games (5.4 apg) against 130 turnovers in her first full season at the point for ECU.

Memphis is hoping to have a deeper bench than the Tigers had on Thursday night, when just seven Tigers were available for the game against Marshall. But in order to get the win, the Tigers got the balance that they would need to avoid the sweep against ECU, with four players scoring double-digits points while all five starters played over 31 minutes in the game.

But the zone that the Tigers played Thursday night will not work against an ECU team that possesses multiple three-point shooters, so Memphis will have to concentrate on taking care of the ball and hitting the glass as ECU out-rebounds its opposition 40.1-34.7 and has forced 484 turnovers (17.9/game).

Sophomore guard Brittany Carter posted her third double-double of the season in the last game, adding a career-high four assists to a 17-point game and 10 -rebound effort, while Ramses Lonlack added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Alex Winchell handled the point and still managed to score 14 points, handing out three assists against just one turnover. Freshman Nicole Dickson also scored double-digit points in her fourth career start, scoring 11 points with four rebounds in 31 minutes.

The Series History
This is the 15th meeting between Memphis and ECU and the Pirates lead the overall series, 8-6. ECU downed Memphis 76-59 in the meeting in Greenville earlier this season, but the Tigers are on top in the series when the games are played in Memphis, 4-2. Prior to the loss in Greenville, Memphis had won three of the last four games against ECU.

Four Games, Four Different Starting Lineups
By the end of the season, a college coaching staff knows its players inside and out, and it's a good thing as the Tiger staff has had to adjust to illness and injuries over the last four games.

Short Bench Pushes Memphis to First Round Bye
Memphis had just seven players available for the match-up against Marshall on Thursday. While all five starters had to play over 31 minutes in the game, the Tigers managed to get double-digit scoring from four of the five starters, and were narrowly out-rebounded by a bigger Marshall squad, 37-36, in the win.

Winchell Moves to Sixth in Career Threes
Junior guard Alex Winchell is not a newcomer to starting a game at point guard, she was the team's lone point guard through all the end of last season and started games this season leading up to conference play, so that wasn't going to be a question for the Marshall game. But how being the team's primary ball-handler affected her ability to shoot the three might have been a concern, especially with such a short bench and a very short window of chance for a rest. But Winchell responded by shooting 3-for-6 from beyond the arc to move in to a tie for sixth on the Tiger career record list with her 131st career three. She is now tied with former Tiger Kelly Herron (1993-1997) and is just six triples away from moving in to the top five for the Tigers.

Winchell's 54 triples so far this year is already the sixth-best single season mark in Tiger history. The record of 64 threes in a season is currently shared by LaTonya Johnson (1995-96) and Devin Necaise (2006-07).

Looking for No. 500
Sophomore Brittany Carter is all of 27 games in to her Memphis career and she is just two points shy of the 500-point barrier. She will become the 13th Tiger to score 500 or more points in a career, but will be the first Tiger since Victoria Crawford (2003-04) to score 500 or more points in a single season. Memphis has had a player score 500 or more points in a season just 23 times.

Also Looking for No. 500
Two other Tigers are also looking for their 500th career point. Savannah Ellis has 426 career points, while Ramses Lonlack has 426 points. Ellis is also looking for her 500th career rebound, with 457 rebounds heading in to the second game against East Carolina.

Carter in the Clutch
Brittany Carter added to her clutch-shooting lore in the win at UTEP on Saturday. With the Tigers missing senior point guard LaToya Bullard after Bullard went down with 17:11 to play in the second half with an injury, UTEP made a run to cut a once-10 point Tiger lead to a tie at 55-55 with 1:48 to play. Carter had teamed with Taylor Mumphrey as the duo scored eight points to build up a 10 point lead with 9:06 to play, but Memphis then went without a field goal until the 5:43 mark when Carter converted a layup. Carter scored Memphis' final eight points, twice breaking a tie score to put the Tigers back in front. Her double-pump layup in the paint with 26 seconds to go was all Memphis would need to pick up its first-ever win at UTEP.

Carter's Conversions
2/20/10	at UTEP		W, 59-57	layup with :26 left in game
2/12/10	vs. USM		W, 89-85 (ot)	layup and free throw w/ :30 left in regulation
1/28/10	at Marshall	W, 57-50	scored 10 of Memphis' last 12 points in the final
					5:24 of the game
1/15/10	at UCF		W, 49-47	jumper with :07 left in game
11/18/09 at Missouri	W, 73-72	jumper with :13 left in game

Been Awhile Since Our Wins Column Has Been This Full
Memphis' win over Marshall gave the Tigers their 17th victory of the season, the most season victories since the 2003-04 season when the Tigers were 21-10. Memphis has not won 10 or more C-USA games since the 1999-2000 season, when the Tigers were 11-5.

Three Sweeps in the East; .500 Against the West
Memphis swept three East Division foes (Southern Miss, UCF and Marshall) and with the win at UTEP, the Tigers managed to go .500 against teams from the West. This is the first time in school history that Memphis has swept more than one C-USA East Division foe.

Ellis A Scoring Threat
Heading in to this season, the Tiger coaching staff wanted more scoring from Savannah Ellis as she headed in to her junior campaign. The Wichita, Kan., native has responded by shooting 54.1 percent from the floor (86-159). Ellis' 7.3 ppg average this season is the highest of her three-year Tiger career, as is her 6.7 rebound per game average.

On the defensive end, the Tiger has also made her second appearance in the single season blocks category. After posting 37 blocks (T-8th) last season, Ellis' 33 blocks this year is already tied with Jamie Bradley's (2005-06) mark for 10th.

Lonlack Gets Defensive
Sophomore guard Ramses Lonlack draws the responsibility for defending the other team's primary ball handler, and the Tiger has responded with a team-best 74 steals so far this year. That ranks as the 13th-best single season mark in Memphis history. Five more steals will more Lonlack in to the single season top 10.

Lonlack is working toward the Memphis career top 10 as well. She currently has 139 steals,40 shy of breaking in to the career top 10 following just 57 career games. Lonlack has been a starter in 53 of the 57 games the Tigers have played since she joined the team prior to the 2008-09 season.