Tulane University
SMU
Sands Comes Home To Lead Tulane To Win Over SMU
Feb 26, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2006
DALLAS, Texas - Tulane's Jennifer Sands came home to Dallas in a big way Sunday, scoring 24 points and pulling down 12 rebounds to lead the Green Wave to a 71-58 victory over SMU at Moody Coliseum.
With the win, Tulane earned the sixth seed in the Conference USA Tournament while evening its league record at 8-8 and improving to 14-11 overall. The Green Wave will face UCF in the first round of the C-USA Championship, which will be held March 2-5 at Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
Sands, who attended Dallas' Lincoln High School, scored nine of Tulane's first 16 points as the Green Wave took an early 11-point lead, 16-5, and were able to maintain it through most of the game. Tulane shot 51 percent from the field for the game, including Sands' 10-of-15 effort.
"Jennifer really wanted to win this," said Tulane Head Coach Lisa Stockton. "We wanted to finish in the top half of the conference and Jennifer took the team on her shoulders to get that done."
Sands' double-double was her third of the year while her 24-point day was her fourth 20-point effort of the season. She was joined in double figures by Green Wave teammate Alendra Brown, who recorded a career high 16 points while holding SMU's Janielle Dodds, one of the leading scorers in Conference USA, to just 10 points.
"This was probably the best execution, offensively and defensively, we have had all year," Stockton said. "Defensively, we were very focused. We were worried about their scoring in the paint, but our posts really stepped up. We beat a very good team today."
Tulane point guard Ashley Langford, who also enjoyed a homecoming as her father's family lives in Dallas, continued her stellar play by breaking her own school record for assists in a game with 14 Sunday. She had set the record a week ago versus East Carolina with 13. Early in the game, she broke the school record for assists in a season with her second assist on a backdoor feed to Jami Montagnino. Langford finished the regular season with 152 assists on the year and leads the league in that category.
Tulane dominated nearly every facet of the game, pulling down 41 rebounds to the Mustangs' 28 and totaling 21 assists on their 25 field goals. SMU shot just 33.9 percent from the field for the game and hit only six-of-22 tries from three-point range.
SMU fell to 15-13 overall and 10-6 in the league and earned the No. 3 seed in the C-USA Tournament. The Mustangs were led by Katie Gross with 12 points.
At the 15:48 mark of the second half, SMU narrowed Tulane's lead to five points, but Sands and Kendra Barnes hit layups off feeds from Langford to extend the lead back to nine. Tulane's lead did not fall below eight from the 12:50 mark through the end of the game.
Your goal throughout the regular season is to be playing your best basketball by the tournament," Stockton said. "I believe we are. I see a lot of confidence with our players on floor that we can match up with anyone. I love our team confidence."
