Dec. 29, 2011

Seton Hall Notes

Tigers vs. Seton Hall
This is the first-ever meeting between Memphis and Seton Hall. Memphis is 84-65 against teams from the Big East, but most of those meetings include games against Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and USF when those schools were members of Conference USA.

Non-Conference Schedule Winding Down
This is the final non-conference game of the season for the Tigers. Memphis is looking to close out its non-conference schedule with a 10-3 overall record, which would be the best non-conference record by winning percentage for a Memphis squad since Melissa McFerrin took over the program before the 2008-09 season.
Memphis non-conference records
2008-09 7-6
2009-10 7-6
2010-11 11-3

Tough Conference USA Start Looming
Memphis will open Conference USA play after the New Year on Thursday, January 5th, when Tulane (10-2, with a win over then-nationally-ranked LSU), visits the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. Memphis will then play at UTEP (10-2), on Jan. 8th in El Paso. That game will be televised at 11:06 AM (MT) on the Fox Sports Network (check your regional Fox Sports Network for game time in your area).

It's a rough schedule to the start of the conference schedule for Memphis, who will play three of their first five league games on the road. To date, Memphis is 1-3 in road games on the season and those first three conference road games include Southern Miss and UAB, both places where the Tigers lost last season. Memphis will be on the road for three of the four Sundays in the month of January (at UTEP, home vs. ECU,. at UAB, at ECU).

Two Clubs Looking to Snap Two-Game Skids
Friday night's match-up between Memphis and Seton Hall is a match-up of two teams looking to snap two-game losing streaks. Memphis advanced to the championship game of the St. John's tournament, coming back from a 14-point first half deficit to make it close, but falling 64-60 in Queens to the host team. Memphis then went on the road and had it's worst shooting night of the season, missing 28 layups and shooting just 25.4 percent from the field in a loss that was closer than the final 58-48 score indicated. The Tigers had led at the half in the Mizzou game, but for the first time this season, let a half time lead slip away in a loss for their second straight loss. That marked the first time since the loss in the Conference USA semifinals and the WNIT loss to Alabama to end last season that Memphis had lost two straight games.

Seton Hall is much further along in its schedule, playing its 15th game of the season and looking to get over .500. The Pirates had a good start to the season, picking up a solid win over a pesky Florida Gulf Coast team. They then won on the road at Army and New Hampshire (important this year since road wins weigh heavier in RPI points) before picking up a win over Louisiana Tech, the team Memphis beat to advance to the championship game of the St. John's tourney. After an overtime loss to Alabama and then a win over Old Dominion at the Paradise Jam, the Pirates then lost three straight, including a conference loss to Connecticut. They bounced back from the league loss with a pair of wins, but lost two home games (William & Mary and Howard) heading in to Friday night's match-up with Memphis.

Like Memphis, this is the final non-conference game on the slate for Seton Hall. Both teams want to get strong closes to the non-conference slate to prepare for their respective conference match-ups later next week (Wednesday vs. Notre Dame for Seton Hall and Thursday vs. Tulane for Memphis).

Lonlack Looking for 1,000 Points, 500 Rebounds, 250 Steals
Senior guard Ramses Lonlack is trying to become just the sixth player in Memphis women's basketball history to have over 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds and 250 steals. Lonlack already has the steals and rebounds marks passed (530 rebounds, 253 steals heading in to the Louisiana Tech game) and is now just 14 points shy of her 1,000th career point. Only five other players in Memphis' 39-year-history have had 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 steals:

Betty Booker (1976-80): 2,835 points, 628 rebounds, 360 steals
Keeta Matthews (1992-96): 2,133 points, 926 rebounds, 282 steals
Linda McKinnie (1977-82): 2,000 points, 831 rebounds, 337 steals
Kim Duppins (1978-82): 1,835 points, 1,163 rebounds, 281 steals
Kitty Allen (1993-97): 1,823 points, 559 rebounds, 289 steals

Shortening the Bench
The last two games have marked a lot of minutes for the Tiger starters. In the last two games, Memphis has played just seven players. Ann Jones and Danay Collier have been the lone players off the bench to see game action.

Quick Hits:
- Nicole Dickson's double-digit streak was snapped at 10 games in the loss at Missouri. The junior finished with nine points, but an abdominal muscle strain affected the shooter, who was 3-for-14 from the field, 2-for-7 from three-point range and 1-for-2 from the free-throw line.
- In games where Ramses Lonlack shoots under 39 percent from the field, the Tigers are 0-3.
- After shooting 26.2 percent from the field in the first three games, Brittany Carter shot 58.8 percent from the field during Memphis' seven-game win streak. In the last two games, she has shot 36.3 percent (16-for-44).
- Brittany Carter had a career-best seven offensive rebounds in the loss at Missouri.
- Ramses Lonlack was held without an assist for the first time in nine games. The only other game this season where she did not have an assist was against Belmont. After having more assists than turnovers in six of the first eight games, she has gone three straight games now with more turnovers than assists, dropping her assist-to-turnover ratio to 1.1.
- Jasmine Lee shot a season-low 20.0 percent from the field in the Missouri loss. She was 3-for-15 from the field, but 4-for-5 from the free-throw line to finish with her fifth double-double of the season.
- Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir had one of her best shooting performances of the season at Missouri, shooting 42.9 percent from the field (second only to a 44.4 percent clip in the win at UALR). In road games, Abdul-Qaadir is shooting 34.5 percent from the field (fourth on the team).
- For the first time this season, Abdul-Qaadir had more turnovers (3), than assists (1) at Missouri. That also marked the first time this season the sophomore had just a single assist in a game. Abdul-Qaadir also was held without a steal for the first time this season.
- Ann Jones was held without a field goal attempt for the first time in her young career in the loss at St. John's. She was then held scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting in the loss at Missouri. That marked the first time Jones was held scoreless on back-to-back games.
- Danay Collier has been credited with a block in four of the last five Memphis games.

Three With Double-Digit Boards in Missouri Loss
Memphis had three players who finished with double-digit rebounds in the loss at Missouri. That marked the first time since Nov. 23, 1998 that three Tigers had double-digit boards. Then, Dwelia Smith, LaTonya Johnson and Tamika Whitmore all had double-digit rebounds in a 77-58 win over Northeast Louisiana in the opening game of the Tiger Classic. Jasmine Lee led Memphis with 12 rebounds at Missouri, while both Brittany Carter and Nicole Dickson finished with 10. Dickson was battling an abdominal muscle strain that limited her to just nine points on 3-for-14 shooting, and a lot of the team's rebounds in that game were offensive ones (24). Memphis missed a number of layups in the Mizzou loss and out-rebounded Missouri, but a lot of those missed layups became offensive boards (24), of which, only 19 points came from second-chance points (12 of 24 rebounds).

Carter Looking to Break in to Top 15 in Scoring
Senior guard Brittany Carter will leave with her name all over the school record book, but the Covington, Georgia, native's most impressive mark may be breaking in to the career top 10 at Memphis despite playing just three seasons for the Tigers. Carter is already 16th in career scoring with 1,273 points (26 points shy of Victoria Crawford's mark of 1,299 for 15th). Carter (2009-present) and Lynn Enzweiler (1973-75) are the only players in the top 20 in career scoring at Memphis who have played less than four seasons in the blue and gray.

Abdul-Qaadir Eying School Mark in Consecutive Free-Throws
This hopefully does not jinx her, but sophomore point guard Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir is already eying a spot in the record book. Heading in to the game against Seton Hall, Abdul-Qaadir has hit 22 straight attempts from the free-throw line. Her last miss from the stripe was the front end of a one-and-one with 2:24 remaining in the game in the win over Belmont in the Tigers' second game of the season. After having no free-throw tries at Illinois or against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the sophomore has hit everything since, improving to 24-for-25 on the season from the stripe.

The school record for consecutive free-throws made is 24, held by Devin Necaise. Necaise hit 24 straight free-throws before a miss at UAB. She went on that same season to set a school record for free-throw percentage (90.9), that she broke a season later (96.6). For this season, Abdul-Qaadir is shooting 96.0 percent from the line.