Southland Conference Weekly Women's Basketball Update
3/4/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2001
Nicholls State and Southwest Texas claimed the final two berths with the Lady Colonels winning the tiebreaker for the seventh spot. Nicholls split with Texas-San Antonio, defeating the Roadrunners Thursday night, whereas the Bobcats were 0-2 against UTSA.
Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana were fighting for the fifth seed with SLU needing to defeat either Southwest Texas or Texas-San Antonio to take that spot. But the Lady Lions dropped both games to tie LU in Conference, 10-10. The Lady Cardinals won the tiebreaker by having a 1-1 record against Northwestern State.
The second and third seeds were in question until the last game of regular-season play. Northwestern downed the league champion Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, then won its last game over Texas-Arlington Saturday afternoon. The Lady Demons were looking for a ULM loss to give them the No. 2 spot. But the Lady Indians surprised the Ladyjacks with a 56-51 win. It was the first time since the 1984-85 season that SFA had dropped its last two regular-season games.
The first round of the CenturyTel Classic will feature the following match-ups on Tues., March 6: No. 8 SWT at No. 1 SFA, 7 p.m. No. 7 NICH at No. 2 ULM, 7 p.m. No. 6 SLU at No. 3 NWLa., 7 p.m. No. 5 LU at No. 4 UTSA, 6 p.m.
The SFA Ladyjacks have won the Southland Conference tournament 12 of the last 13 years, including three in a row.
Texas-San Antonio is the only team participating in a doubleheader. The women's team will play Lamar at 6 p.m., followed by the men's game between No. 2 UTSA and No. 7 Southwest Texas at 8 p.m.
Net Notes Southeastern Louisiana had a chance to clinch the fifth seed with a win this last weekend and failed to defeat Southwest Texas or Texas-San Antonio. SLU was held to 30 percent shooting from the floor in the second half against SWT and lost, 67-50. Ann Webster came off the bench and had 15 points and seven steals to lead SLU. Stacey Turner had 11 points and six rebounds.
Against the Roadrunners, the Lady Lions shot 34 % for the game which included an 0-23 mark from behind the arc. Twenty-three three-point attempts was a season high. Turner was SLU's leading scorer and the only Lady Lion in double figures with 18. Katrina Joshua added nine.
UTSA shot 64 % in the first half and led by as much as 31 at one point. The 'Runners finished with a 51.7 percent shooting effort for the game with Renda Churman leading all scorers with 19 points. Churman is only the 10th UTSA player to score 700 career points and grab 350 career rebounds. She ranks fourth all-time with 106 games played.
This is SLU's second straight trip to the SLC tournament and the first time since 1995-96 that the Lady Lions have made back-to-back Conference postseason appearances (when they were in the TAAC). This is also their highest tournament seeding after qualifying as the No. 8 seed last year. SLU lost to SFA, 85-65.
Against Northwestern State this season, SLU lost, 59-50, at home and then dropped a 70-64 decision in Natchitoches on Feb. 10. The Lady Lions are 0-3 there and 0-7 overall since joining the Conference in 1997-98.
Lamar set a Montagne Center record by scoring 12 three-pointers against Sam Houston State Saturday. Eight of those treys came courtesy of Shawnta Vanzant, who set the Southland single-season record with a total of 89 this year.
The Lady Cardinals are making their first appearance in the CenturyTel Classic since they rejoined the Southland in 1998-99.
Louisiana-Monroe secured second place in the league by defeating the regular-season champion, Stephen F. Austin, 56-51, in the final game of the season. It was the third straight time ULM had defeated SFA in Monroe. The Lady Indians shot 46.2 percent from the field (24-of-52) to SFA's .310 (22-of-71). With the victory, ULM avoided losing a tiebreaker to Northwestern State, which beat SFA two days earlier, 58-55.
Terri Butler registered a double-double with a game-high 14 points and 10 rebounds. This performance came one game after she scored a season-low one point against UTA. In that game, she was suffering from an illness and was held to single digits for only the third time all season. Senior Ilona Hollosy stepped up with a career-high 28 points against the Mavs, hitting 10-of-12 from the field and 8-of-12 from the foul line.
ULM won 12 home games this season, the third-highest total in school history.
The Lady Indians are making their fourth straight trip to the CenturyTel Classic.
Northwestern State has won a school-record 13 consecutive games, yet finished third in the regular season. The Lady Demons have not lost since Jan. 15 when ULM defeated them, 82-65, in Monroe. Northwestern has not lost at home since Dec. 30 when Lamar won, 55-43, in Prather Coliseum. They Lady Demons are on a nine-game home winning streak and posted a record of 12-1 at home this season so far. They look to extend that with a first-round victory Tuesday against SLU.
Northwestern State is 14-0 when scoring more than 65 points.
The Lady Demons have now recorded three consecutive 20-win seasons and eight under head coach James Smith.
Kia Converse leads Northwestern State in scoring (14.6 ppg), rebounding (7.4 rpg), steals (2.5 spg), three-point field goals (2.4 pg), and is third in blocked shots and steals. In the last two regular-season games, she hit eight threes, one shy of tying the SLC and Northwestern records for career treys. Converse is averaging 23.25 points in the last four games and now ranks 10th all-time in scoring and steals and 9th all-time in rebounding for the Lady Demons.
NWLa. downed Texas-Arlington, 73-62, behind Converse's game-high 24 points. La'Terrica Dobin sank 13 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the charity stripe. Katrina Swanigan scored 12 points.
UTA was led by freshman Sheena Johnson, who produced the game's only double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds. With that effort, Johnson capped off a regular season with a double-double average of 10.7 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. She is the first UTA player to do so since 1979-80.
Tasha Campbell had 16 points and Renee Wharekura tallied 12 points for UTA.
After upending Texas-San Antonio, 69-63, Thursday and solidifying the seventh seed, Nicholls State lost to Southwest Texas, 69-66. Down by as much 14 points in the second half, the Lady Colonels tied the contest at 66 with 15 seconds remaining on a basket from Katie Schreiter. SWT's Kendall Arant drove the length of the floor and laid the ball in, sinking the ensuing free throw to give the Bobcats a three-point advantage with only four seconds left.
Schreiter, who is the team's all-time leader with 107 games played, led Nicholls with her second double-double in the last three games on 23 points and 10 rebounds. She also played 40 minutes for the sixth game in a row. Heidi Broussard added 13 points for the Lady Colonels, who are making their second tournament appearance in school history and second in three seasons. Nicholls has not won a postseason game.
Sophomore Mercy Okorie scored a career-high 19 points against SLU on Thursday, then backed it up with an 11-point effort against Nicholls. For the week, Okorie averaged 15 points on 65 percent shooting from the field. She averaged seven rebounds, had four assists, three steals and a block, helping the Bobcats reach the CenturyTel Classic.
After recording a season-high 19 assists against SLU, Southwest Texas tallied 20 dishes against NICH. Freshman Brooke Hogue is 6-for-6 from three-point range in the last two games. Junior Amber Morrow blocked two shots against NICH, moving her into 5th place on the all-time blocked shots list with 44. Arant is 10th all-time in steals (112) and 11th all-time in assists (175). -SLC-
