Ladyjack Game Notes: at Rice
11/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2010
Rice Game Notes
Stephen F. Austin at Rice
Friday, Nov. 12, 2010 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
Tudor Fieldhouse (5,750) • Houston, Texas
Radio: None • TV: None • Online: RiceOwls.com
Ladyjacks
Record: 0-1
Last 5/Streak: n/a
Coach: Brandon Schneider
Career: 306-73 (12+ years)
At SFA: 0-1 (1st season)
SID: Ben Rikard
E-Mail: rikardbenja@sfasu.edu
Web: www.sfajacks.com
Owls
Record: 1-2
Last 5/Streak: n/a
Coach: Greg Williams
Career: 273-227 (17+ years)
At Rice: 72-88 (5+ years)
SID: Jay Jameson
E-Mail: jj7473@rice.edu
Web: www.riceowls.com
FOR STARTERS
SFA dropped its season opener for the first time in three years on Friday at North Texas, but quickly has a chance to square the record with a road tilt at Rice on Wednesday. The Ladyjacks have not dropped two in a row to open a season since 2004-05 and will be in search of the first win at SFA for first-year head coach Brandon Schneider.
LAST TIME OUT
SFA shot just 32 percent in its season opener on Saturday at North Texas, and despite coming back from an 18-point second half deficit to tie the game late, the Mean Green were still able to pull out a 78-75 win despite 20 points from SFA's Jordan Ford and 14 from Courtney Conwright.
THE OWLS
Rice wasted no time out of the gate in 2010-11 getting three games under their belt last weekend at the World Vision Invitational, picking up an overtime win over Montana State before dropping conseucutive games to Florida International and No. 2 Baylor.
vs RICE
Despite being less than three hours apart, SFA has only played Rice five times in the history of the series. This will be the fourth time since 2003 that the Ladyjacks have taken on the Owls after the series was dormant for more than two decades. SFA won the first two games of the series before Rice answered with consecutive wins, but most recently it was SFA scratching the left-hand column with a 10-point win in Nacogdoches last year.
COVERAGE
Fans can log onto RiceOwls.com for a live audio and video stream from Tudor Fieldhouse.
UP NEXT
The Ladyjacks open up their home slate on Saturday with a clash against Tulane before heading off to the West Coast for their longest road trip of the year when they'll take part in the Loyola-Marymount Tournament. SFA will face the host in the first game before taking on either Denver or Georgia.
SCHNEIDER'S DEBUT SEASON: Friday's game at North Texas marked the beginning of a new era in Ladjack basketball as Brandon Schneider made his debut as SFA's head coach. Schneider is the eighth head coach in SFA history and comes to Nacogdoches on the heels of a 12-year career and a national title last season at Emporia State University in Kansas. SFA's loss in his opening game is not an unusual occurence for new Ladyjack coaches as SFA's previous coaches are now just 2-6 all-time in their debut game.; however, with over 300 career wins to his credit, Schneider is looking to continue a trend of overall early success by SFA coaches as each of the last three SFA skippers have won no less than 22 games in their debut year.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Ladyjacks will get their fair share of drive time during the non-conference season as eight of the first 10 games of the season will all be played away from Johnson Coliseum. They will get a slight change with three home non-conference games in January before league play starts, but being on the road is nothing new to this group after playing just three home games before SLC play last year as well. In all, this year's senior class has played 40 non-conference games in their careers, with 29 of those being away from home.
CHARITABLE OPENER: SFA made more of a point to attack the basket in the second half of Saturday's game at UNT, and it was rewarded with 17 trips to the free throw stripe. The Ladyjacks went on to convert 19 of 25 from the charity stripe on the evening, which is the most freebies both attempted and made since SFA hit 21 of 28 last season in a 95-83 win over Texas State last season - a span of seven games.
CONWRIGHT ON THE MARK: Courtney Conwright was SFA's first player off the bench for the majority of last season, starting just eight games while averaging just over eight points per contest in approximately 20 minutes of playing time; however, she got the start in the season opener and responded with 14 points against the Mean Green. It stands to reason that she pushed her way to double figures after getting the start since she has now done so in six of her nine career starts.
EARLY SEASON HANGOVER: After running off a seven-game win streak to end the regular season last year, the Ladyjacks were hampered by cold shooting in the postseason and it seemed to have carried over into this year. The Ladyjacks struggled from the floor against UNT to the tune of just 32.9 percent, making it four conescutive games dating back to last season in which SFA has shot under 40 percent.
FORD TOUGH: Senior Jordan Ford got out to a nice start offensively for SFA with a 20-point night in the opener at UNT on Saturday., going 8-for-17 from the floor against the Mean Green. Ford hit the 20-point mark three times last year, which was the most of any Ladyjack not named Whitney Cormier, with SFA going 3-0 in those games.
PRESEASON POLLS: With just one starter lost from last season's SLC co-champions that went 13-3 in the league, one would assume that the Ladyjacks would be receiving plenty of respect around the league entering this year. The Ladyjacks did make the transition this year back into the SLC West Division and still managed to garner three first-place votes in the coaches poll and two more in the SID poll, but were still only selected to finish third in the division behind UTSA and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
MARION PRESEASON ALL-SOUTHLAND: A third-team all-SLC selection as a sophomore last season, Tammara Marion was an easy choice for preseason all-SLC this year. The Houston junior was placed on the second team after averaging 12 points and nearly four rebounds per contest last year and leading the SLC in three-point percentage, hitting nearly 40 percent of her shots from behind the arc.
RECORD WATCHES: Last season sophomore Tammara Marion became the seventh Ladyjack to record 100 career three-pointers in the regular season, and after knocking down two triples in the season opener at North Texas she currently sits at 103 for her career. If she hits her career average again this year for three-pointers in a season she will move into the program's all-time top five with a year of eligibility remaining. Ebony Alexander is also inching her way toward one of SFA's top-10s as her seven assists in the season's first game gives her 328 for her career, just 41 shy of Lashinda Winters' who holds the No. 10 spot all-time in SFA history with 369.
BRING `EM BACK: The Ladyjacks bring back 11 players off their roster, missing just two players from last season, including first team all-SLC guard Whitney Cormier. Putting it statistically, SFA is returning 79.5 percent of its scoring from a year ago and 86.3 percent of of the team's rebounding.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST: SFA was one of the top offensive teams in the country last season, finishing the year ranked seventh in the nation averaging 78.3 points per game. SFA was also very active on the defensive end ranking 16th in the country with an average of 11.2 steals per game. SFA also ranked 15th in the country in turnover margin (+5.54).
90-POINTS: The Ladyjacks scored at least 90 points five times last season, which was more than in the previous five years combined. It was the most 90-point outings by a Ladyjack squad since they recorded six during the 1997-98 campaign.
800-WIN CLUB: The Ladyjacks became the sixth member of an exclusive club with their 73-40 victory over Sam Houston State in 2007-08. SFA became only the sixth women's program in NCAA Division I history to record 800 wins. The Ladyjacks joined Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, Texas and James Madison as the only schools to ever accomplish the feat. Making the victory more special was the fact that it was Sue Gunter Day on the SFA campus. Tennessee Tech also joined the 800-win club in 2008-09.
WAITING IN THE WINGS: The Ladyjacks brought in a pair of D-I transfers in the off-season, but both will have to sit out the 2010-11 season before hitting the floor for SFA next season. Both Indiana transfer Ashlee Mells and Kansas transfer Annette Davis are Texas natives, with Mells playing her high school hoops at South Grand Prairie High School and Davis prepping at Bellaire High School in the Houston area. Mells was ranked as one of the top-100 players in the country out of SGHS, averaging better than 15 points per game in her prep career, while Davis joins her sister, Toni, on the SFA roster and averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds a game at BHS in her senior season.
RECORD-SETTING ARC ANGELS: The Ladyjacks set a few offensive records during the 2009-10 season. SFA recorded 207 three-pointers on the season, shattering the previous record of 179. The Ladyjacks recorded a new single-game record for threes when they buried 13 against Lamar, and Tammara Marion tied a school record with her seven triples against Central Arkansas.
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