Women's Basketball to Tip-Off the Season on Friday
Nov 17, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2005
LUBBOCK, Texas - With two exhibition games under its belt, the Tulane University women's basketball team is set to tip-off the 2005-06 regular season on Friday when it "hosts" Howard at 4:30 p.m. at the Rip Griffin Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University.
For the second consecutive season the two squads face off in the season-opener. In last year's opening game, the first meeting between the two teams, Howard came away with 67-59 victory on its home floor in Washington, D.C. The Green Wave sit at .500 overall in season openers at 15-15 while they are 7-4 in openers during the Lisa Stockton era.
During the preseason Tulane posted two exhibition wins. In the first game, the Wave handed the Houston Jaguars an 80-73 defeat behind 27 points from rookie point guard Ashley Langford and a double-double on 15 points and 13 rebounds from sophomore forward Jennifer Sands. Against perennial Division II power West Texas A&M, Tulane held on to take a 67-61 win, fueled by 20 points from sophomore guard Nikki Luckhurst and 18 from junior guard Jami Montagnino.
"This will certainly be a challenging first game for us with the way they pressure," Stockton said. "They created a lot of problems for us last year."
While the young Green Wave - a team with one junior, five sophomores and four freshmen on its roster - had several defensive miscues in its first exhibition, Stockton and her staff saw a much tighter defense against WTAMU.
"I've been really please with the way our team has improved over the last two exhibition games," Stockton said. "We are the type of team that every time we play and get more experience, we will get better."
Howard, which did not play any exhibition contests, returns two starters from last year's 17-12 team in guard Brittany James, who averaged 12 points each game, and forward Melloni Benson, a forward who tossed in 8.7 points and grabbed 4.7 rebounds per game.
Following Friday's game against Howard, the Green Wave open the Conference season on Friday, Nov. 25, when Tulane makes its first trip to El Paso to face C-USA newcomer UTEP. Tulane returns to New Orleans on Dec. 18, when it hosts Central Connecticut State in the first post-hurricane collegiate or professional competition in the city.
