Season Begins for Women's Hoops Thursday vs. Texas Southern

GAME 1: TULANE GREEN WAVE vs. TEXAS SOUTHERN
When:	Thursday, November 8 \| 7 p.m. CST
Where:	New Orleans, La. \| Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse
Watch:	Tulane All-Access
Radio:	WRBH 88.3 FM \| Listen Online
Live Scoring:	Statbroadcast
Notes:	Tulane
Social:	@GreenWaveWBB

NEW ORLEANS – Basketball season is back for the Green Wave on Thursday as the team opens its 2018-19 campaign against Texas Southern. The teams will tip off at 7 p.m. at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

Fans attending the game can pick up their free team poster and get autographs from the student-athletes after the game. Students in attendance with their student ID will also receive free Raising Cane's to eat.

STARTING FIVE

Tulane ended the 2017-18 season with a 14-17 record overall, missing the national postseason for the first time in nine years. Tulane was the No. 9 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
This season, the league's coaches have picked Tulane to finish ninth once again in the preseason poll released in October.
Starters Kayla Manuirirangi, Meredith Schulte and Harlyn Wyatt are all back for Tulane this year along with seniors Tatyana Lofton and Ksenija Madzarevic. Manuirirangi is Tulane's top returning scorer while Wyatt is its top returning rebounder.
Four newcomers are joining the team this year including local prospects Dynah Jones (John Curtis Christian) and Dene' Mimms (Warren Easton Charter). Floridian Erin Gutierrez and Texas Mia Heide are also new to the roster.
Thursday will be the first meeting all-time between Tulane and Texas Southern. Tulane is 20-6 all-time against SWAC schools.

SERIES HISTORY – TEXAS SOUTHERN

The Green Wave and Tigers have never faced each other entering Thursday's season opener.
Against current teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Tulane holds a 20-6 record all-time.
Tulane has not lost to a SWAC school since 1984. The Green Wave have won 19 straight games against SWAC schools.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS

The Tigers, based out of Houston, are coming off a great season that saw them finish 19-13 overall and second in the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season.
Texas Southern made the semifinals of its conference tournament and then advanced to the Women's NIT. In that tournament, the Tigers fell in the first round to Weber State at home.
The Tigers will be without leading scorer Joyce Kennerson this season after a year that saw her average 24.2 points per game to finish fourth in the nation in that category.
The team's top returning scorer this year is Niya Mitchell, a junior who scored 8.0 points per game as a sophomore. Mitchell is also the Tigers' top returning rebounder after averaging 7.0 boards per game in 2017-18.

A QUARTER CENTURY WITH COACH
Now entering her 25th year with the Green Wave women's basketball program in 2018-19, it's hard to imagine anyone else at the helm besides Coach Lisa Stockton. Her numbers are staggering:
three different conferences, four conference tournament championships, two conference regular-season championships, six All-Americans, 11 NCAA Tournament berths, seven WNIT spots and a boatload of wins. No one in the history of Tulane women's basketball is even close to Stockton's career numbers.

STOCKTON NEARS 500
Entering Thursday game against Texas Southern, Stockton has amassed 493 career victories at Tulane. She is just seven wins shy of 500. Stockton has more than nine times as many wins as the second-winningest coach in program history.

EXHIBITION SCORING
Tulane saw its first competition of the 2018-19 season on October 30 when Loyola-New Orleans came to Fogelman in Devlin. The Green Wave put a walloping on the Wolf Pack, winning the game 89-49. Kayla Manuirirangi was the team's top scorer with 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting. She also had a team-high five assists.

FREEMAN'S BIG DAY
Krystal Freeman had a respectable freshman year, averaging 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. But in her 2018-19 exhibition debut, Freeman lit up the scoreboard with 17 points, a would-be career high if exhibition stats counted. Freeman went 6 of 9 from the field and a perfect 5 of 5 from the free-throw line while also grabbing a team-high five rebounds.

HOT SHOOTING
Tulane opened its exhibition against Loyola-New Orleans with an incredible first quarter, shooting 69.2 percent from the field The Green Wave were also 6 of 8 from downtown in the first quarter as they built a 27-18 lead. Tulane continued its incredible shooting night throughout the game, making more than 50 percent of its field goal attempts in every quarter and ending with a field goal percentage of .567.

PRESEASON POLL
The American Athletic Conference revealed its Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Teams at Media Day in Philadelphia on October 15. Tulane was picked by the league coaches to finish ninth in the American, scoring 42 points in the voting to finish four points behind eighth-place ECU.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE AWAITS
The Green Wave will face stiff competition in the non-conference portion of their schedule this year with four games against teams who made the NCAA Tournament in 2018, two more who reached the Women's NIT and another who participated in the WBI tournament. Tulane will be facing three opponents who finished in the top 50 in RPI last year and as many as five who finished in the top 100. In conference play, Tulane will face UConn once and USF twice for three more matchups against NCAA Tournament teams from 2017-18.

HOME SWEET HOME
With a 9-5 record at Fogelman in Devlin in 2017-18, Tulane continued its stellar performance in its home venue. The Green Wave have never posted a home record below .500 in Lisa Stockton's 24 full years as the coach. Tulane also won its 400th game at Fogelman in Devlin in 2017.

CLOSING IN ON 700 WINS
Since the Tulane women's basketball team came into existence in 1975, the team has compiled an impressive 698 victories. The Green Wave need just two more victories to reach 700 as a program.

BLOCK PARTY
Tulane senior Harlyn Wyatt enters the 2018-19 campaign in sole possession of 10th place all-time in Tulane history in blocks. Wyatt now has 73 total blocks and 0.7 per game, both numbers that put her 10th in program history. Wyatt needs 12 more blocks to move up to ninth in program history, and with her three-year average would likely finish 2018-19 in eighth all-time at Tulane.

THREE-POINT PARADE
The Green Wave were excellent from downtown in 2017-18, sinking 205 3-pointers to set a new program record. Tulane also took a program-best 606 attempts from long range and had a percentage of .338, good for eighth all-time in team history. Included in those 205 made 3-pointers was a 15-make performance against San Diego State in the Junkanoo Jam in November, setting a single-game program record for made 3s.

LIGHTING UP TROY
One of the best offensive games of the year for Tulane in 2017-18 was its Tulane Classic contest against Troy. In that game, Tulane put up 106 points, the fifth-most points in a single game in team history. Tulane also recorded 29 assists – tying for the fourth-most in team history – and 13 made 3-pointers to finish third all-time in program history.

MANU GOES HOME FOR TOURNAMENT
Junior guard Kayla Manuirirangi went home to New Zealand in August to take part in the U23 Nationals competition for her home region of Taranaki. The U23 Nationals crowns a national champion in New Zealand, pitting the country's best women's basketball players against each other by region. Manuirirangi has previously tried out for New Zealand's national team last summer, and competing in this tournament could get her noticed by the national team once more.

NEW TO THE WAVE
Tulane has four freshmen on the 2018-19 roster: Erin Gutierrez, Mia Heide, Dynah Jones and Dene' Mimms. Gutierrez is a Florida native who played for Nova High in Davie, Florida. Heide played her high school ball at Austin High in Austin, Texas. Jones and Mimms, meanwhile, are New Orleans natives. Jones was a star player for John Curtis Christian and Mimms saw her high school action for Warren Easton Charter.

ARABELLA ROLLING WITH THE WAVE
Six-year-old Arabella Gerald officially signed with the Tulane women's basketball team in a Draft Day ceremony on October 4. In her role with the team, Arabella will attend practices, games and other events, providing support for the student-athletes and coaches while they provide support and a fun environment for her.

Arabella signed with Tulane through Team IMPACT, a national nonprofit organization that connects children facing serious and chronic illnesses with local college athletic teams, forming life-long bonds and life-changing outcomes. Arabella has been diagnosed with Mitochondrial disorder, type 3, a genetic condition that can affect several parts of the body and causes a weakened immune system, difficulties with coordination, low endurance and low stamina.

FAMILIAR FACES BACK
Green Wave fans will notice two familiar faces back on the bench this year. Olivia Grayson, who played for Tulane from 2009-13, is the team's new Director of Student-Athlete Development and Video. Leslie Vorpahl, a guard on the roster from 2013-17, has been added as the team's newest graduate assistant. During their playing days, both eclipsed 1,000 career points and surpassed 400 assists.

LOSSES FROM 2017-18
Two familiar faces to Green Wave fans will be absent from this year's roster. Then-seniors Caylah Cruickshank and Kolby Morgan both graduated at the end of last year. Morgan, a Second Team All-AAC player, averaged a team-best 19.5 points per game last year. She also had 5.4 boards and 3.3 assists per game. Cruickshank played 12.6 minutes per game as a senior and scored 2.7 points per game. Also off the team is would-be senior Tene Thompson. After dealing with injuries in her junior year, Thompson left the basketball team and will be finishing her degree at Tulane this year.

GREEN WAVE IN THE PROS
Kolby Morgan graduated last year as one of the top players in Tulane history, and she did not see her basketball career come to an end. Morgan is now playing professional basketball with Riva Basket in Switzerland in the highest level of Swiss women's basketball. Morgan's point scoring has not slowed down, as she is leading Riva Basket with 28.3 points per game so far this year according to EuroBasket.com.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Tulane will have two players on the roster from foreign countries in 2018-19. Senior Ksenija Madzarevic is originally from Novi Sad, Serbia, though she played high school basketball in northeast Georgia near the South Carolina and North Carolina border. Farthest from home is junior guard Kayla Manuirirangi who hails from Hawera, New Zealand. Her hometown is on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island between Auckland and Wellington.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Coming up soon:

Kaila Anderson needs 18 points for 100.
Krystal Freeman is 8 points and eight rebounds shy of 50.
Ksenija Madzarevic is one point away from 100.
Meredith Schulte will reach her 100th played game with two more appearances.
Harlyn Wyatt needs just one more appearance for 100 career games.

NEXT UP
Tulane has a full week off before its second game of the year when it travels just 90 minutes away to Baton Rouge to face LSU. The Green Wave and Tigers are set for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff on SEC Network+ at 6:30 p.m. next Thursday.

Season Begins for Women's Hoops Thursday vs. Texas Southern

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Players Mentioned

Kaila Anderson

Caylah Cruickshank

Krystal Freeman

Erin Gutierrez

Mia Heide

Dynah Jones

Tatyana Lofton

Ksenija Madzarevic

Kayla Manuirirangi

Dene' Mimms

Kolby Morgan

Meredith Schulte

Tene Thompson

Leslie Vorpahl

Harlyn Wyatt

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Tulane University Athletics

Season Begins for Women's Hoops Thursday vs. Texas Southern

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kaila Anderson

Caylah Cruickshank

Krystal Freeman

Erin Gutierrez

Mia Heide

Dynah Jones

Tatyana Lofton

Ksenija Madzarevic

Kayla Manuirirangi

Dene' Mimms

Kolby Morgan

Meredith Schulte

Tene Thompson

Leslie Vorpahl

Harlyn Wyatt

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