Nov. 23, 2008
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
The University of Memphis women's basketball team (2-2) will kick off a five-game home stand, Monday night, against Ohio University. The Tigers are happy to be back in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse, where they are 2-0 on the season after going 0-2 on the road in the first four regular season games.
This is the first-ever meeting between Memphis and Ohio and the Tigers do not have a long history against the Mid-American Conference, having only faced two other MAC teams in the program's history. The Tigers are looking to reverse one trend against the MAC. After going 2-0 over Northern Illinois, Memphis dropped its last meeting against a MAC team, as Toledo defeated the Tigers in overtime at FedExForum last season.
Memphis is coming off an 84-63 loss at Ole Miss on Friday night. The Tigers were ice cold from the field at Ole Miss, at one point shooting 3-for-27 (.111) in the opening half. Memphis finished shooting just 20 percent in the opening half, and shot 51.5 percent in the second half to finish with a 35.3 percent stroke from the floor. The Tigers were forced in to 24 turnovers, while forcing 27 turnovers against Ole Miss, but the Rebels out-rebounded Memphis 46-34 and had a 46-18 advantage in points off the bench in the victory.
Ohio is coming off a tough loss at Morehead State, 56-52. The Bobcats led most of the Morehead State game, but were forced into 32 turnovers, including 25 from the Ohio starting five. The Bobcats held a 44-31 rebounding advantage, but got just five points from their bench, compared to 21 from the Morehead State non-starters.
Playing away from home is something Ohio will get comfortable with early in the season, as the Bobcats will play eight straight games away from home before finally getting to play their home opener Dec. 19th against Cleveland State.
Both programs have new head coaches coming in to this season. Melissa McFerrin has her Memphis squad at .500 through a busy week, as Memphis played four games in eight days. Semeka Randall is in her first season as a head coach, coming to Ohio after serving as an assistant coach at Cleveland State, Michigan State and West Virginia after playing across the state at the University of Tennessee.
About Ohio University
The Bobcats are in their first season under new head coach Semeka Randall, who played her college basketball at Tennessee. Randall has a line-up returning with three starters and nine letterwinners returning. This is the first-ever meeting between the two programs and is the third straight road game for Ohio. The Bobcats will be getting used to life on the road, playing eight straight road games before finally opening their home schedule on Dec. 19th. In all, Ohio will play 18 of their 29 games this season away from the Convocation Center in Athens. Ohio.
Banishing the Monster
Head Coach Melissa McFerrin referred to the Tigers' shooting woes in the first half at Ole Miss as a case of "being afraid of the invisible seven foot monster in the paint" as Ole Miss used a significant size advantage to hold Memphis to just 3-for-27 shooting in the first 17 minutes of the opening 20 minutes. Memphis came out and was able to get out in transition and to finally start putting points on the board in the second half, including 24 points from Paris Leonard and 11 points from freshman Ramses Lonlack.
Senior Ashley Thornton had her double-double streak snapped at three games against Ole Miss, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds.
Lonlack a Force as a Freshman
Freshman guard Ramses Lonlack has now started the first four games of her collegiate career and is already tied for third on the team in scoring (8.0 ppg) and ranks second on the squad with nine steals through the first four games. The freshman is also the team's second-leading rebounder (6.0/game) and is tied with senior Ashley Thornton for the team lead in offensive rebounds with 13 so far this season.
The Cameroon native continues to add weapons to her game, knocking down her first career three-point field goal at Ole Miss, Friday night.
Getting More Consistency From the Bench
In the two Tiger victories so far this season, the team has held the opposition to 31.2 percent from the field and has forced a total of 44 turnovers (22.0/game). They've also held the shooters to just 22.9 percent from three-point range. In the two Tiger losses, the team has allowed the opposition to shoot 47.7 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from three-point range.
Field Goal Percentage Defense A Defining Factor
Memphis is 2-0 when the Tigers' bench outscores the opposition, but is 0-2 when the bench gets outscored. And with Ole Miss up big, the Rebels went to their bench to give their bench some playing time, and the bench responded, scoring 46 of Ole Miss' 84 points. Memphis got just 18 points off its bench, including nine from Alex Winchell, who was 3-for-12 from the field, and five from Shae Seagraves, who was 2-for-6 from the floor.
Double-Up
Ashley Thornton became the first player since Tamika Whitmore to have three consecutive double-doubles with her 14 points and 10 rebounds Tuesday night. Whitmore had four double-doubles from Jan. 8-Jan. 17, 1999. With her third double-double of the young season, Thornton now has 11 career double-doubles heading into the Ole Miss game.
Career Double-Doubles
Regina Street (1981-1985) 65
Tamika Whitmore (1996-1999) 45
Keeta Matthews (1992-1996) 36
Kim Duppins (1978-1982) 27
Diane Gary (1990-1992) 17
Linda Street (1978-79) * 17
Wanda Simpson (1982-84) 14
Melissa Abraham (1999-2002) 13
LaTonya Johnson (1994-98) 13
Debra Grandberry (1982-83) 12
Ashley Thornton (2005-present) 11
Glynetha Davis (1987-89) 11
Phillis Vaughn (1985-87) 11
Monica Glass (1986-87) 10
Thornton Gets 600th Point, Looking for 500th Rebound
Senior forward
Ashley Thornton finished with eight points at Ole Miss, pushing her past 600 points for her 65-game old Memphis career. She is also just three rebounds shy of passing the 500-career rebound mark.
Winchell Approaching 200 Point Mark
Sophomore guard Alex Winchell comes in to Monday's game against Ohio University just nine points shy of her 200th career point. In 34 career games, Winchell is averaging 5.3 ppg and averaged 5.0 ppg last season. She has already become a more integral part of the Tiger offense, averaging 8.0 ppg this season.She has also improved her efficiency from the free-throw line, connecting on 7-of-8 attempts through the first four games (87.5) after shooting 45.8 percent from the line last season.
Ellis Powering Toward 100th Career Point
Savannah Ellis was scoreless in the loss at Ole Miss, not attempting a shot in the 21 minutes she played. Ellis has 91 points for her career and is now nine points shy of her 100th career point. Getting the ball inside to the posts will be important to the Tiger offense, as Ellis is hitting 54.5 percent from the field this season, and connected on over 60 percent of her shots from the field last season.
Double-Up, Part II
Also in the Louisiana Tech game, sophomore center Savannah Ellis got her first career double-double, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds. That marked the first time since the season opener in 2004-05 that Memphis has had two players get a double-double in the same game. Victoria Crawford and Raven Rogers were the last Tiger duo to have double-doubles in the same game in the season-opening win over Mercer.
2-0 at Home
The win over LaTech pushed Memphis to 2-1 on the season and to 2-0 in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. The last time Memphis was 2-0 at home to start the season was 2004-05 when the Tigers defeated Mercer in their season opener, then downed Lipscomb. That Memphis team opened the season 4-0, all home games before falling at No. 14 Vanderbilt.
Leonard Rolling Toward 50th Career Double-Digit Scoring Night
Senior guard Paris Leonard has battled some shooting woes in the last three games, going 4-for-9 against Louisiana Tech, 3-for-16 at Belmont and 10-for-21 at Ole Miss, but she did connect on two three-point field goals late in the game at Ole Miss, her 48th career game with double-digit points.
Leonard is also five steals shy of her 150th career steal.
Leonard Looking for a Grand
Senior guard Paris Leonard comes in to the Ohio game with 945 career points, needing just 55 more to become the 19th player in Memphis women's basketball history to hit the 1,000 career point mark.
