Ladyjack Game Notes: vs Tulane
11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2010
Stephen F. Austin vs Tulane
Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,203) • Nacogdoches, Texas
Radio: WIST 690 AM (NO) • TV: None • Online: www.sfajacks.com
Ladyjacks
Record: 0-2
Last 5/Streak: 0-2/L2
Coach: Brandon Schneider
Career: 306-74 (13th season)
At SFA: 0-2 (1st season)
SID: Ben Rikard
E-Mail: rikardbenja@sfasu.edu
Web: www.sfajacks.com
Green Wave
Record: 2-0
Last 5/Streak: 2-0/W2
Coach: Lisa Stockton
Career: 391-189 (18th season)
At Tulane: 328-162 (16th season)
SID: Richie Weaver
E-Mail: rweaver@tulane.edu
Web: www.tulanegreenwave.com
FOR STARTERS
The Ladyjacks dropped to 0-2 to open a season for for the first time since 2004-05 with a 59-54 loss on Wednesday at Rice, but have a chance to pick up their first win of the season in front of their home crowd on Saturday when SFA hosts Conference USA favorite Tulane in the Ladyjacks’ home opener.
LAST TIME OUT
SFA shot just 29 percent and was outscored 23-9 in points off turnovers as Rice pulled away late at Tudor Fieldhouse for a five-point win. Tammara Marion led all scorers in the game, hitting for 15 points.
THE GREEN WAVE
Just two games into the 2010-11 season the Green Wave is showing exactly why it was picked to take the Conference USA crown for the second conescutive season. Tulane blew past Mississippi State by 20 points on Tuesday for its second straight win of the young season, but now take on a road test for the first time this year when it comes to Nacogdoches.
vs TULANE
Even though the all-time series is tied at four wins apiece, the Green Wave has dominated the series in recent years. All four of SFA’s wins in the series came before the 1990s, and since the revitalization of the series in 2004, Tulane has taken each of the last four games by an average of 18.3 points, including a 33-point win in Fogelman Arena last season.
COVERAGE
Tim Grubbs will have the Tulane radio call on WIST 690 AM for the Green Wave. Fans can also log onto www.sfajacks.com for Gametracker, live audio and video of the game, as well as a live chat led by SFA student assistant Corey Culhane
UP NEXT
SFA treks out on its longest road trip of the year over the Thanksgiving holiday, and will play back-to-back games for the only time in the regular season at the Loyola-Marymount Tournament. The Ladyjacks will take on the host Lions before taking on either Denver or Georgia in the second game.
SCHNEIDER’S DEBUT SEASON: This season is marking the beginning of a new era in Ladjack basketball as Brandon Schneider is in 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.
EARLY HOME SUCCESS: The Ladyjacks will be attempting to keep their string of success in home openers going on Saturday against Tulane, as SFA has won each of its last five home openers dating back to 2004-05. That year Rice came in and took a 75-62 victory over SFA in the opener.
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.
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 has gotten the start in each of the first two games of the year and responded with 14 points against UNT and 11 against Rice. It stands to reason that she has pushed her way to double figures in those games since she has now done so in seven of her 10 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 have struggled from the floor against both UNT and Rice to the tune of just 31.4 percent, making it five consecutive games dating back to last season in which SFA has shot under 40 percent.
FORD TOUGH: Senior Jordan Ford has gotten out to a nice start offensively for SFA and through two games leads the team at 14.5 points per game, including a 20-point night in the opener at UNT. 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 for her career, and after knocking down two triples on Wednesday at Rice she currently sits at 105 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 five assists against Rice gives her 333 for her career, just 36 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.
SFA also signed five prepsters to join the squad next year, with three of the incoming prospects - Daylyn Harris (F, Livingston HS), Ashley Bettis (G, Channelview HS) and Kyaris Johnson (G, Mansfield Legacy HS) - ranked as top-40 recruits in Texas according to multiple publications. The Ladyjacks also signed Tierany Henderson (F, Austin LBJ HS) and Brittney Matthew (G, Fort Bend Hightower HS), a point guard who led Hightower High School to the Class 5A state title game in 2010.
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.
-SFA-
