Women's Basketball Set to Close Regular-Season Road Slate at UCF

Saturday, March 2

Orlando, Fla.

1 p.m.

Tulane University

UCF

Women's Basketball Set to Close Regular-Season Road Slate at UCF

Mar 1, 2019 | Women's Basketball

GAME 28: TULANE GREEN WAVE (15-12, 5-9) at UCF KNIGHTS (22-5, 11-3)
When:	Saturday, March 2 \| 1 p.m. CST
Where:	Orlando, Fla. \| CFE Arena
Watch:	UCFKnights.com
Radio:	WRBH 88.3 FM \| Listen Online
Live Scoring:	Statbroadcast
Notes:	Tulane \| UCF
Social:	@GreenWaveWBB

NEW ORLEANS – Tulane will hit the road for the final true road game of its season on Saturday, taking on second-place UCF at CFE Arena. The game is scheduled to tip off at 1 p.m. central.

STARTING FIVE

Tulane will be playing its final regular-season road game on Saturday at UCF, returning to face a team it defeated 61-59 in New Orleans in February.
Tulane has lost six of its last seven games, but those losses have been incredibly close. Tulane's last six losses have come by an average of just 3.83 points.
Krystal Freeman continues her tear through the American Athletic Conference and leads Tulane with 14.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this year. She averaged just 1.9 of each last season.
The Green Wave's 3-point defense has been excellent in 2018-19 as the team is allowing opponents to shoot just .265 from the line. That's the ninth-best opponent 3-point percentage in the country this year.
Tulane's underclassmen have combined for 68 percent of Green Wave scoring, 64 percent of Tulane minutes, 75 percent of Tulane's assists and 54 percent of the team rebounding.

SERIES HISTORY – UCF

The Green Wave and Knights have squared off 22 times in their history with Tulane holding a 13-9 edge in the series.
UCF had won three consecutive games in the series dating back to 2017 before the Green Wave won on February 13 by a 61-59 score.
In that game, Krystal Freeman scored 25 points to lead Tulane to a victory, and Erin Gutierrez had a crucial steal and free throws to win the game with three seconds left.
Last season, UCF beat the Green Wave 59-51 in the teams' meeting in Orlando.

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS

The Knights, based in Orlando, Florida, are currently the second-best team in the American Athletic Conference and hold a very strong season record of 22-5. The team is 11-3 in conference play with its only losses coming to Tulane once and UConn twice.
Kay Kay Wright has done it all for UCF this year, averaging a team-best 18.3 points per game while also topping the team with 102 total assists. Wright also leads the team in steals with 50.
Nyala Shuler is the Knights' top rebounder with 7.0 boards per contest.
Nationally as of Wednesday morning, UCF has an RPI of 15 and is 20th in the nation in scoring defense. The Knights allow opponents to score an average of just 55.9 points per game.

A QUARTER CENTURY WITH COACH
Now in 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.

#LOCKEDINFORSTOCKTON
With a victory over Nicholls on December 4, Coach Lisa Stockton recorded her 500th victory at Tulane. In her 25 years with the Green Wave, Stockton is averaging 20 wins per season – and rising. She is currently the nation's 10th-longest tenured coach at a D1 school. She has more than eight times as many wins as the second-place coach in program history (Joline Matsunami, 1985-90, 60 wins). She was honored for her 500th win on January 26 against Wichita State.

UNDERCLASSMEN OVERPERFORMING
Tulane's roster is seeing a youth movement this year 2018-19 with underclassmen getting a supermajority of minutes played, points scored and assists. Freshmen and sophomores have combined for 68 percent of Green Wave scoring, 65 percent of Tulane minutes and 75 percent of Tulane's assists. Tulane's underclassmen have also contributed 52 percent of the team rebounding.

CLOSE CALLS
Though Tulane has lost six of its last seven games, most of those losses have been incredibly close. The Green Wave's average margin of defeat in its last six losses is just 3.83 points per game. Tulane lost to ECU by just 2, to USF and Tulsa by 5 points apiece, to Memphis by 6 points, to Houston by 1 point in overtime and to SMU by 4.

FREEMAN MAKING THE LEAP
Krystal Freeman is undeniably a candidate for The American's Most Improved Player Award this season. Averaging 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game as a freshman, she has improved those numbers to 14.4 and 7.4, respectively, leading Tulane in both categories. She has compiled seven double-doubles this season after none as a freshman, and she has been named the league's Player of the Week twice and to the Honor Roll four times. Freeman has now recorded double-figure scoring in 22 of Tulane's 27 games this year and has reached 15 points in 15 games.

WYATT BLOCKING SHOTS
Senior Harlyn Wyatt had another great blocking day on February 24 against SMU, as she had five total blocks. That number got her to 108 in her career and broke her single-season career high. Wyatt has 35 blocks this year, and her single-season career high before 2018-19 was 30. She needs three more blocks to tie with Brittany Lindsey for seventh all-time in program history.

ANDERSON DISHING DIMES
Kaila Anderson came by assists frequently on Sunday against SMU, racking up eight assists in the game. Anderson's eight assists were her most since she had eight at SMU on January 13, a span of 11 games. Sunday's contest marked the 13th time this season Anderson had at least five assists in a game.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against SMU:

Dynah Jones scored her 200th point.
Meredith Schulte made her 100th free throw.

Coming up soon:

Sierra Cheatham will reach 400 points with 3 more.
Harlyn Wyatt is 7 points away from 700.
Krystal Freeman is eight boards away from 250.

NEXT UP
The regular season comes to an end for Tulane on Monday when Cincinnati rolls onto Freret Street for a Lundi Gras contest. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at Fogelman in Devlin.