Nov. 25, 2009

Complete Game Notes in PDF Format

After playing three of their first games at home, the Tigers are packing their bags for the next three weeks and will open the longest road swing of the season at the University of Washington's Husky Invitational, Friday. The Tigers will open the tournament against Sacramento State at noon (PT). Jeff Brightwell will have the live play-by-play and fans back in Memphis can listen to the game on WUMR, 91.7 FM or fans outside the WUMR listening area can listen to the live audio stream for free at www.gotigersgo.com.

Sacramento State is under new head coach Jamie Craighead. The Hornets were 9-21 last season before Craighead joined the team and are off to an 0-3 start so far this season, including a 97-92 overtime loss to UNLV.

The Hornet defense has given up 90 points in each of its three games, and is getting out-rebounded 54.0-44.7. Opponents so far have been shooting 47.4 percent against Sacramento State, a trend Craighead will be looking to reverse at this weekend's tournament.

On Sunday, the Tigers will face a conference member school of Sacramento State's, Eastern Washington. A member of the Big Sky Conference, EWU is off to a quick 3-1 start. And quick might be the word for an Eagle squad that likes to get out in transition. EWU's lone loss at Oregon, but they bounced back with an overtime win over Idaho, 54-51, and smoked Corban, 93-33 in their last game. The Eagles will play tournament host Washington Friday afternoon following the Memphis/Sacramento State game.

Memphis is celebrating a 2-0 week, having picked up a road win at Missouri, then leading wire-to-wire in a 68-51 win over UT Martin, Sunday afternoon.

Sophomore guard Brittany Carter scored 30 points against Missouri in the win, then faced a defense that played 40 minutes of a 2-3 zone specifically to keep her out of the paint and scored just two points on Sunday. Luckily, Carter's teammates have stepped up to help in scoring. Senior guard LaToya Bullard had a season-best 15 points in the Missouri win, while freshman Nicole Dickson stepped up with 24 points in the win over UT Martin.

The Tigers have had more balanced scoring this season, with eight or more players scoring in all four games so far this year, but as the Missouri game started, the Memphis offense was just three-dimensional, with Carter, Bullard and freshman Chatia Kelsey all shooting 11-for-22 from the field, while the rest of the squad started 0-for-9 from the floor. Memphis cannot afford to rely on just two or three players to score, so when seven different players scored more than five points in the UT Martin win, Tiger coach Melissa McFerrin hopes that's a trend the team builds on this weekend on the West Coast.

The Series History
This is the Tigers' first-ever meeting with Sacramento State. The last time a Memphis team faced a team from the Big Sky Conference was last year in the season-opener against Northern Arizona. Memphis won that game 64-47 and is 2-1 all-time against the current Big Sky membership.

This is the second-ever meeting between Memphis and Eastern Washington. Memphis leads the overall series, having defeated the Eagles, 98-60 back in the 1988-89 season in the opening round of the Tiger Classic in Memphis.

More Balance in the Scoring Column
In each of the first four games of the season, the Tigers have had eight or more different players score. In two of the four games, every Tiger who played has scored.

Dickson Adds Another Career Night
In just her fourth collegiate game, freshman forward Nicole Dickson set another career high with her 24-point night against UT Martin. Dickson also tied for the team lead with eight rebounds, and was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range. She also had an assist and three steals in 23 minutes off the bench.

Covering the Coasts and the Corners
Memphis will earn some frequent flyer miles over the next three weeks. The Tigers wing West to Seattle for this weekend's tournament, then return home before flying to Miami, Fla., for a non-conference game at Florida International. The flight distance between Memphis to Houston, to Seattle and back will be 4,750 miles and the flight to Miami is another 872 miles, meaning Memphis will fly over 5500 miles for their next three games and will play in two different times zones on opposite coasts and opposite corners of the country.

Needing to Clean the Glass
Memphis edged its opponents last season on the boards 39.3-38.5, but the team has been out-rebounded in three of the first four games. The Tigers out-rebounded Indiana by one, but have been out-rebounded by three, six, and one in the next three games, respectively. Memphis is getting 41 percent of its rebounds off the offensive glass, while the opposition is holding an edge in defensive rebounds 111-94.

Better From Beyond the Arc
Heading in to the Missouri game (game three), the Tigers had shot .188 and .083 from three-point range in the first two games. Since Coach McFerrin clamped down on three-point shots both in the game and in pre-game shootarounds, the Tigers have gotten more selective, and successful. The team has hit over 50.0 percent of its shots from beyond the arc in each of the past two games.

Um, It's Called the FREE Throw Line
When the coaching staff looks at the cumulative stat sheet, the field goal and three-point field goal percentage numbers have gotten better, but free-throw percentage has gone the other way. In game one against Indiana, Memphis shot 75.0 from the line. In the next two games, the Tigers shot under 50 percent (45.8, 47.1) and then shot 60.0 percent from the line in the win over UT Martin.

One of the things that allowed UT Martin to stay in the game late Sunday was that the Skyhawks shot 69.2 percent from the line and had 16 more tries than the Tigers from the charity stripe.

As Memphis has turned up the defensive pressure, the officials have got on the whistle, with Tiger opponents going to the line 19 more times this season than Memphis (24 attempts per game for opponents and 19 per game for the Tigers). So when the Tigers do get there, they need to put some points on the board.

Carter Etching Her Name in the Record Books in Her Third Career Game
In just her third career game at Memphis, sophomore guard Brittany Carter made a mark with her 30-point night at Missouri. That marked just the first time since Nov. 26, 2005 that a Memphis player had scored 30 points in a game. Tamika Butler was the last Tiger to score 30, in a loss to Clemson in the championship game of the Lady Tiger Classic.

Carter's 30 points also ties for 10th in the Memphis sophomore record book. Her game tied for 10th all-time in points, again tying with Tamika Butler, who scored 30 points in a road game at Austin Peay State on Dec. 3, 2003.