Ladyjack Game Notes: at Grambling
12/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2010
Grambling Game Notes
Stephen F. Austin at Grambling
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010 • 5:00 p.m. (CST)
Assembly Center (12,000) • Grambling, La.
Radio: None • TV: None • Online: None
Ladyjacks
Record: 1-7
Last 5/Streak: 1-4/L2
Coach: Brandon Schneider
Career: 307-79 (13th season)
At SFA: 1-7 (1st season)
SID: Ben Rikard
E-Mail: rikardbenja@sfasu.edu
Web: www.sfajacks.com
Tigers
Record: 4-5
Last 5/Streak: 4-1/L1
Coach: Donnita Rogers
Career: 269-207 (16th season)
At Grambling: 25-41 (3rd season)
SID: Roderick Mosley
E-Mail: mosleyr@gram.edu
Web: www.gsutigers.com
FOR STARTERS
SFA will be looking to put an end to a two-game losing streak on Saturday when it travels to Grambling for the third of four consecutive road games on this stretch.
LAST TIME OUT
The Ladyjacks trailed by just six points at the half, but only shot 18 percent in the second half as No. 11 Oklahoma picked up its 38th consecutive non-conference home win, 84-57, at the Lloyd Noble Center on Wednesday.
THE TIGERS
Saturday will be the home opener for hte Tigers after nine games away from Grambling to open the year. GSU has picked up four wins in nine tries, and was riding a four-game win streak until falling on the road at Sam Houston State on Monday.
vs GRAMBLING
The Tigers have two wins in five tries against SFA, but both of them have been by just one-point margins. Most recently the Tigers got a 65-64 win in Grambling over SFA in the 2008-09 season when Rachelle Dobbins hit a 38-foot three pointer with just eight seconds remaining to give the Tigers the edge, despite GSU shooting less than 30 percent in the game.
COVERAGE
Fans can check with www.sfajacks.com following the game for a complete recap.
UP NEXT
SFA gets 10 days off for the Christmas break before its next contest, a Dec. 21 battle at Arkansas State. That will be the final non-conference road game of the year as SFA has three home games beginning Dec. 28 against Houston Baptist before opening up SLC play against Southeastern Louisiana on Jan. 8 in Nacogdoches.
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 picked up his first win at SFA over UTPA and 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.
DISTANCE LEARNING: Junior guard Tammara Marion has picked up where she left off last season in long-distance shooting and after draining two triples at Oklahoma, she stands just 10 threes shy of moving into SFA’s all-time top five and 51 short of Dayna Reed’s all-time mark of 178 threes in a career. Marion has hit no less than two treys in each of SFA’s seven games to date and is currently leading SFA and the SLC in both scoring (18.0 ppg) and 3-pt makes per game (3.3 pg), while ranking second in the SLC in 3-pt percentage (43.3) and third in free throw percentage (87.0). If she were to somehow finish the season with the league’s scoring crown, she would be the first Ladyjack to do so since Anitra Davis in 1999.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Ladyjacks are getting their fair share of drive time during the non-conference season with 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 48 non-conference games in their careers, with 35 of those being away from home.
TAKE ALL THE FREEBIES YOU CAN GET: The last two seasons SFA has been a solid team from the charity stripe, and this year it seems to be an effective scoring tool for it again. The Ladjacks have hit 71.2 percent of their free shots this season, which is second in the SLC.
A FRESH START: SFA decided to make a change in the starting five over the Thanksgiving Break, and statistically it has made a difference. Senior Chantol Drennan made her first two starts of the season in California and responded with a season best 17 points against Loyola-Marymount, and had seven points and seven rebounds in just fourteen minutes against Denver. After sitting out the first game of the season, Drennan has averaged 8.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in just over 15 minutes of work per game in the last four games and now is leading SFA, hitting 52.6 percent of her shots from the floor. It has also improved SFA’s bench output as SFA’s bench had outscored its opponent in three of four games since making the change, before Wednesday’s game at OU, by an average of 12.3 points per game.
COUNT ON THE LONGBALL: SFA has made a three-point bucket in each of its last 38 games dating back to March 7, 2009, against UTSA when SFA went 0-for-14 from distance in a 65-51 loss to the ‘Runners. In fact, in that 38-game streak, SFA has hit multiple threes in every contest.
MARION NAMED SLC POTW: Junior guard Tammara Marion was named the SLC co-Player of the Week on Monday, sharing the honor with Lamar’s Kalis Loyd. Marion averaged 26.5 points per game last week in a win over UTPA and a loss to Texas Southern. It was her first POTW award of her career and the first for any Ladyjack this season.
HAVE A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND: Point guard Ebony Alexander has not seen the court time that she has in recent years, but the Ladyjacks seem to be getting much more bang for their buck when she is on the floor. The senior is currently second in the SLC in assists with five per contest, dishing out less than five dimes in only one of SFA’s seven games to date. Last season she finished 10th all-time at SFA with 5.6 assists per game, and if she is able to average at least six per game this season she would be the first Ladyack to do so since Stacy Brown in 1989-90.
GOODNESS, GOODNER: Already through just eight games of her senior campaign, Decreasha Goodner is showing consistent signs of being a legitimate scoring threat this season from the outside for the Ladyjacks. Goodner had only knocked down 21 three-point buckets through three seasons in her career entering this year, with a season-high of 11 last year; however, this season she has already surpassed that with 15 triples in 38 attempts (39.5 percent) Her 4-for-5 performance from behind the arc at OU was a career best, and in addition to her newfound scoring prowess, she has been a strong contributor on defense and on the glass as well. She currently leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game after pulling down a career high 11 at Texas Southern on Saturday, and is tops on the team in steals.
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 at Oklahoma she currently sits at 127 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 at TSU gave her 356 for her career, just 13 shy of Lashinda Winters’ who holds the No. 10 spot all-time in SFA history with 369.
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.
