Women's Basketball To Face Southern Sunday In Fogelman Arena
Dec 10, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2011
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University women's basketball team will play its first home game in over three weeks when the Green Wave play host to the Southern Lady Jaguars on Sunday, Dec. 11, in Fogelman Arena. Tipoff for that ballgame is slated for 2 p.m.
The Green Wave's last home game was an 86-39 win over cross-town foe UNO on Nov. 21 and Tulane has become road tested since then with a 1-1 split at the Cancun Challenge on Nov. 24-25 while sandwiching wins at Louisiana Tech (61-52 on Dec. 2) and at North Texas (55-47 on Dec. 9) around a 70-55 loss to Mississippi State on Dec. 4 in Starkville, Miss. Sunday's game will be the second contest in a three-day span as the Wave returned from its game against the Mean Green on Saturday afternoon.
"We're glad to get back home," Tulane head women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton said. "That's going to be good. We (played two games) last weekend, and at least this time the second game is going to be home as opposed to two road games. The nice thing is we have a lot of depth and we're playing a lot of different players. That helps us when you have games that are close together."
The Green Wave enter Sunday's game, 7-2 on the year and sport a perfect 4-0 record at home so far this season. As a team, the Green Wave are averaging 61.2 points, 43.6 rebounds, 14.8 assists, 10.2 steals and 4.9 blocks per game. Junior guard Olivia Grayson leads the team with an 11.7 point-per-game average while senior center Brett Benzio and freshman guard Danielle Blagg follow with marks of 9.0 and 8.9, respectively. Benzio has a team-best 9.7 rebounds per game and paces the squad with 17 blocks. Grayson leads the Wave with 35 assists and 22 steals.
Tulane is connecting at a .383 clip from the field in 2011-12, hitting 204-of-533 shots from the floor, and 42-of-133 shots from beyond the 3-point arc (.316), while allowing opponents to shoot .319 overall (168-of-527) and .294 from 3-point land (42-of-143). Green Wave opponents are averaging 51.3 points, 39.0 rebounds, 9.8 assists, 10.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game so far in 2011-12.
Southern, meanwhile, comes to town 1-3 on the year and looking to snap a three-game losing streak after falling at South Alabama 57-44 on Nov. 15, dropping a 70-62 home decision to Lamar on Nov. 21 and coming up short at Louisiana-Lafayette 60-49 on Dec. 3.
As a team, the Lady Jaguars are averaging 55.2 points, 39.0 rebounds, 11.0 assists, 6.8 steals and 5.3 blocks per game. Adrian Sanders leads the team in scoring with 11.5 points per game while Jamie Floyd and Essence Hopkins follow with respective averages of 8.8 and 7.3. Floyd leads the squad with 8.5 rebounds per game and seven blocks. Sanders leads the team with 14 assists and seven steals.
Southern is hitting 38.9 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 84-of-216 attempts, including a 10-of-29 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.345). The Lady Jaguar defense has allowed opponents to connect at a 35.4 shooting percentage (81-of-229) and a 25.4 clip from 3-point land (15-of-59). Southern opponents are averaging 58.5 points, 35.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists, 10.5 steals and 0.8 blocks per game.
Sunday's game marks the seventh time Tulane and Southern will meet on the hardwood and the Green Wave trail 2-4 in the all-time series. The Green Wave, however, are 1-0 against the Lady Jaguars under Stockton after defeating Southern 61-31 last March 17 in the opening round of the WNIT in Fogelman Arena.
Tulane is 2-1 against Southern in New Orleans, falling 73-55 on Dec. 28, 1984, and earning a 76-67 decision on Jan. 24, 1983, prior to the 2011 WNIT matchup.
Southern won the first two meetings 96-50 on Feb. 24, 1977, and 60-56 on Feb. 27, 1981, and both of those contests came in the old LAIAW State Tournaments in Ruston and Hammond, respectively. After Tulane's win in 1983, the Lady Jags won the next two meetings, including a 72-55 contest on Feb. 29, 1984 in Baton Rouge.
Following the game against the Lady Jaguars, the Green Wave will take a break for exam week and return to action on Thursday, Dec. 22, when Tulane travels to Cajun Country to take on Louisiana-Lafayette at 2 p.m. at Earl K. Long Gym, before hosting the Tulane/DoubleTree Classic on Dec. 28-29 in Fogelman Arena.
For tickets to those games and future Green Wave home events, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office either in person, over the phone at 504-861-WAVE (9283) or via the Internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com. The Ticket Office located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr. Center on Ben Weiner Drive, is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
