Nov. 15, 2008
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
Fans: You can watch live video from the Memphis game at Belmont with a subscription to A-Sun TV. A pay-per-view fee of $5.99 applies and you sign up here. Select Belmont from the list of schools on the left and the women's basketball will show up on the right hand column. You will have to register for an account if you do not have an A-SunTV.com account.
The University of Memphis women's basketball team will venture east on I-40 to Nashville for a non-conference Sunday game at Belmont. The meeting between the Tigers and the Bruins tips at 4:00 p.m. from the Curb Event Center.
This will be the season-opener for Belmont, while Memphis will be playing its second game in 48 hours after defeating Northern Arizona, 64-47 in its regular season opener Friday night.
Senior Paris Leonard crossed the 900-point threshold against Northern Arizona with a 17-point, six rebound effort. Fellow senior Ashley Thornton added a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Tehani Goldsmith added 10 points in her first career game in a Tiger uniform.
Actually, all 10 players both rebounded and scored for Memphis, and the team had 17 assists on 23 field goals after overcoming a difficult first half on the offensive end, shooting just 34.5 percent from the floor and earning just one trip to the free-throw line.
Belmont returns nine letterwinners and four starters from a team that posted a 14-16 record last season. Playing under a head coach who has over 500 career victories and who currently ranks 33rd on the NCAA winningest active coaches' list, the Bruins were picked to finish fourth in the pre-season coaches poll and senior post Jessica Babbitt was named to the pre-season all-conference squad after averaging 11.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last year. An active force in the paint, Babbitt comes in to her senior campaign with 780 points, 605 rebounds and 213 career blocked shots. A 40.1 percent shooter from the field, Bobbitt has also expanded her range, knocking down 11 of her 16 career threes last season.
In the last meeting, Bobbitt set a career record with 16 rebounds, and was one of four Belmont starters to score double-digit points. Junior guard Amber Rockwell also added 17 points, including an 8-for-11 stint from the free-throw line. Junior guard Kristin Bunch is the only other returning starter from last year's game, where she corralled seven rebounds and forced a team-high three steals.
The Tigers had all five starters in double-digits in last year's meeting, but were unable to overcome a 58-47 Belmont rebounding advantage. Ashley Thornton had a double-double against Belmont last year, finishing with 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Paris Leonard and Alex Winchell added 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The game can be heard on the radio in Memphis on WUMR 91.7 FM with Jeff Brightwell on the call. Fans outside the WUMR listening range can tune in to the game with a subscription to the All-Access package at www.gotigersgo.com. A monthly subscription costs $9.95 and includes all Tiger audio and video broadcasts.
About Belmont
This is the season-opener for Belmont, who is led by Tony Cross. Coach Cross has over 500 career victories and currently ranks 33rd on the list of winningest active coaches in college basketball.
Belmont returns nine letterwinners and four starters from last year's 14-16 squad and is led by pre-season all-Atlantic Sun honoree Jessica Babbitt. Babbitt, a 6-2 post has one of the more impressive career stats lines that you will see in college basketball, with 780 points, 605 rebounds, 213 blocked shots and 147 steals. She set her career high in rebounds against the Tigers last season, finishing with 16 rebounds and 13 points.
Belmont leads the series with the Tigers 3-1.
Double-Up
For the second time in as many seasons, senior forward Ashley Thornton opened the season with a double-double, finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Northern Arizona. The double-double is the first of the season and the ninth of Thornton's career. With her next double-double, Thornton will become one of just 13 players in school history to have double-digit double-doubles for her career. Regina Street holds the all-time record with 65 career double-doubles, while Tamika Whitmore had 45. Keeta Matthews is next with 36 and Kim Duppins had 27.
2008-09 Double-Doubles (#) Career Double-Doubles
Ashley Thornton (1) 9
Paris Leonard 3
Jessica Jackson 2
LaToya Bullard 1
Season Openers
With the win over Northern Arizona, the Tigers improved to 20-16 in season openers and remain perfect in the first game of a new head coach's tenure. So far in school history Memphis is 4-0 in the first game of a new head coach's schedule.
Conference USA Unsure What's to Come
With three returning starters and eight letterwinner, but with an entirely new coaching staff, the remainder of the league coaches are not quite sure what they are in for and as such, have picked Memphis to finish 11th in the league in the pre-season coaches' poll.
Memphis was picked to finish 12th last season in the pre-season poll, and ended up finishing tied for sixth.
New Faces on the Sidelines
For just the fourth time since the women's basketball program was reinstated in 1972-73, the Tigers have a new face on the sideline. Melissa McFerrin was hired on April 18, 2008. McFerrin, who was the 2008 Patriot League Coach of the Year, brings a 50-70 overall record with her to the Tiger program.
She is the program's fourth head coach in the modern era (her complete bio is on page 4 of the notes). She hired an entirely new staff to join her on the sidelines. Danielle O'Banion joins the program after playing at Boston College and coaching a Final Four Minnesota squad. Tempie Brown, a former Big 10 honorable mention player at Michigan, joined the team after spending the past four seasons at Northwestern University in Chicago, while Michael Wholey was McFerrin's first hire at Memphis. Wholey was an assistant coach under McFerrin at American University last season. Tony Martin rounds out the new staff as the Director of Basketball Operations, after spending the past seven seasons working the AAA Memphis Redbirds team in operations.
Some Early Season Home-Cookin'
Memphis will play seven of its first nine regular games in the Bluff City to start the 2008-09 season, but will alternate home and away games through their first four games. After Sunday's game at Belmont, Memphis returns home to host Louisiana Tech, Tuesday, before another bus trip, this one just 30 minutes down the road to Ole Miss on Friday. After the Ole Miss game, the Tigers will have played four games in seven days to start the 2008-09 campaign.
Debate This!
Memphis' first two road games follow the same trail as the first two presidential debates of 2008. Memphis will play at Ole Miss (host of the first debate) on Nov. 21st, after having played its season road opener at Belmont (host of the second debate and the first-ever presidential debate in the state of Tennessee), Nov. 16th. The game at Belmont will be played in the exact same building as the second presidential debate.
Leonard Looking for a Grand
Senior guard Paris Leonard crossed the 900 point mark with her 17-point effort against Northern Arizona, moving to 901 points for her four-year Memphis career. The lone senior to suit up for Memphis her entire collegiate career, Leonard needs just 99 points to become the 19th player in Memphis history to score 1,000 or more points in her career. Leonard already ranks in the career top 10 in three-point field goals attempted (327) and made (105). She is just 44 steals shy of breaking in to the career top 10 in that category as well.
Thornton Also Looking to Move Into Career Top 10
Senior Ashley Thornton is also looking to move in to the career top 10. In just her third season in a Tiger uniform, Thornton already has 470 career rebounds. If she can wrangle up 200 more rebounds this season. The 10th-place spot on the list now is 670 rebounds for four-year player Diane Gray (1988-1992).
Jackson Posts Single Season Top 10 Performance in Just Half a Season
Senior center Jessica Jackson capped her first half of a season in a Memphis uniform with 32 blocked shots, the 10th-best single season performance in school history. What made that feat even more impressive is the Memphis native had to sit out the first semester games due to NCAA transfer rules and was only able to play in 23 games.
Bullard Hands out a Century-Mark of Assists
Junior point guard LaToya Bullard handed out 127 assists in her sophomore season, despite only being able to play in 22 games. Bullard, like Jackson, sat out the first semester games due to NCAA transfer rules, and missed the Houston game due to illness. The 100 assists was the first time since Tamika Butler passed the 100-assist mark in 2005-06.
Bullard also averaged 10.0 ppg, including her second career 20-point night in the Conference USA tournament against Tulsa. The 27 points pushed her over 200 for her career through just 22 games.
The 5.77 assist per game average currently ranks second in the Memphis career record book for Bullard with two years of eligibility remaining.
Winchell For Three!
Alex Winchell capped her freshman campaign as the only freshman to play in all 30 games. She also knocked down 30 three-point field goals, the sixth-best single season total for any Memphis freshman. The 30 triples was one better than the mark set by former teammate Alysse Davis and just two shy of breaking into the single season top five in the freshman single season record book.
The 97 three-point field goal attempts was the fourth-most attempts in the freshman records. Current teammate Paris Leonard holds the freshman record for three-point field goals attempted in a season with 119.
Winchell also ranked 10th in single-season assists in the freshman records, finishing with 59 assists.
Goldsmith and Lonlack Make First Career Starts
Junior college transfer Tehani Goldsmith and freshman Ramses Lonlack made their first career starts in the win over Northern Arizona. Goldsmith was a junior college All-American at Yavapai College in Arizona, while Lonlack came to Memphis from her native Cameroon via stop at prep school in Massachusetts. Goldsmith finished with 10 points and four assists in 24 minutes, while Lonlack had four points with six assists and a steal in 26 minutes of play. Freshman Laquawanda Sippio also saw her first-ever action in a Tiger uniform, finishing with one point and one rebound in eight minutes of play.
Total Team Effort
In the win over Northern Arizona, all 10 Memphis players scored and all 10 tracked down at least one rebound. The last time every Memphis player scored in a game was Feb. 24th of 2007 against Rice and the last time every Memphis player had a rebound was Mar. 2, 2006 against Marshall.
100 League Victories
Memphis closed last season with seven Conference USA victories. The Feb. 28th win against Southern Miss was the program's 100th league victory, making the Tigers' the third-winningest program in league history. Only Tulane (120) and Louisville (103) have more C-USA victories than the Memphis Tigers.
All-Time Victories in C-USA Play
Tulane ( 1995-present): 120
Louisville (1995-2005): 103
Memphis (1995-present): 100
DePaul (1995-2005): 94
Marquette (1995-2005): 92
UAB (1995-present): 88
Southern Miss (1995-present): 87
Cincinnati (1995-2005): 81
Houston (1995-present): 79
Charlotte (1995-2005): 58
USF (1995-2005): 46
East Carolina (2001-present): 44
Saint Louis (1995-2005): 44
TCU (2001-2005): 41
UTEP (2005-present): 32
SMU (2005-present): 30
Rice (2005-present): 27
Marshall (2005-present): 24
Tulsa (2005-present): 24
UCF (2005-present): 11
Memphis Gets a Tiger From Overseas
Aroha Jennings (2006-2008) was just the program's second native of New Zealand and capped her career among the top 40 in scoring, despite being here just two years. The international trend continues for Memphis as the team added its fifth-ever international player with the signing of freshman guard
Ramses Lonlack. Lonlack had come to the U.S. from her native Cameroon and played 2 1/2 years of prep basketball before signing with the Tigers over the summer.
She is just the second player from the African continent for Memphis, following Nigeria's Charity Egenti (2002-2004). Lonlack played her prep ball in Massachusetts at Stoneleigh-Burnham School. There, she scored over 1,000 points in just 2 1/2 years, although she may draw Tiger fans' attention early for her defensive intensity.
Working on Their Strokes
The returning members of the women's basketball team will have some work to do at the free-throw line coming in to 2008-09. Of the eight returners, only two shot over 70 percent from the line last season -- Jessica Jackson (71.9) and Shae Seagraves (83.3). The Tigers' graduated Aroha Jennings, who is the second-leading free-throw percentage shooter in Memphis history, and Jessica Hall, both over 80 percent shooters from the stripe last year.
