March 8, 2010

Tulane Game Notes in PDF Format

TULSA, Okla. - The Tulane University women's basketball team opens play in the 2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship on Tuesday, March 9, when the top-seeded Green Wave take on No. 8 seed UCF at noon in the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

After going 23-6 overall and winning the C-USA regular-season title with a 12-4 league record, Tulane earned a first-round bye. The Wave will be battling a UCF club that survived a fierce battle from ninth-seeded Marshall in the tournament's opening contest, 59-57 in overtime. Earlier this year, the Green Wave defeated UCF in come-back fashion, earning a 72-70 decision on Jan. 31 in Orlando.

"It's a new season and I think we have to approach it that way," Conference USA Coach of the Year Lisa Stockton said. "We need to take the good things from the regular season - the confidence that we've built and the things we've done well - and put them into this new season. We realize that for everyone, no matter what their record was, it's now 0-0. We're got to be ready to step up and defend."

As a team, the Green Wave are averaging 70.3 points, 35.9 rebounds, 15.7 assists, 12.3 steals and 3.3 blocks per game. Second-team All C-USA honoree Chassity Brown leads the team with 13.6 points per game while third-team all-conference recipient Danielle Nunn and junior forward Tiffany Aidoo are next with respective averages of 11.2 and 9.9. Sophomore center Brett Benzio leads the team in rebounds, averaging 6.8 per game, while junior guard Roshaunda Barnes paces the Wave with 122 assists and 83 steals.

Tulane is hitting 42.3 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 711-of-1680 attempts, including 177-of-514 from beyond the 3-point arc (.344). The Green Wave defense has held opponents to a 38.9 shooting percentage (633-of-1626) and a 30.4 clip from 3-point land (121-of-398). Tulane opponents are averaging 60.2 points, 39.2 rebounds, 12.0 assists, 8.3 steals and 2.8 blocks per game.

In its 15th year of existence, the Conference USA Tournament will be hosted by the University of Tulsa at the Donald Reynolds Center. While it is possible that C-USA will send more than one teams to postseason, the event will once again determine which team receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

With all 12 teams making the C-USA Tourney, Tulane is 12-4 against the tournament field, including a perfect 5-0 against teams in their half of the bracket with single wins over fourth-seeded Memphis, eighth-seeded UCF, No. 9 seed Marshall and No. 12 seed Southern Miss.

The Green Wave are 7-4 against the other half of the bracket after posting a pair of wins over seventh-seeded Rice and 10th seeded UTEP and earning a single victory against No. 6 seed UAB. Tulane split a pair of games with No. 3 seed SMU and 11th-seeded Tulsa, while going 0-2 against No. 2 seed Houston.

Since the inception of Conference USA prior to the 1995-96 season, Tulane is 20-9 in Conference USA Tournament play and came home with the tourney title in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

"When you look at the parity in this conference, I think it can be anyone's tournament," Stockton said. "I think anybody can get hot and win it. When you look at how many seeds came down to the last week, that really shows you how anybody can beat anybody. The percentages of people winning at home, that is all neutralized except for Tulsa. It'll be exciting."

The Green Wave are playing as the No. 1 seed for just the second time in C-USA Tournament history and ironically enough, the last time that happened was back in 2007 when the event was held in Tulsa. That year, Tulane went 1-1 with a quarterfinal win over Houston (62-55) before falling to fourth-seeded Rice in the semis (64-52) and playing in the WNIT. The Green Wave have their sights set on the NCAA Tournament this year, however, and realized the best way to get in is to win C-USA's automatic bid.

"I feel like we've put ourselves in a good position [to earn an NCAA berth]," Stockton said. "I think we can get an at-large bid. Whether we do or not, I don't know. The deeper we go, the better chance we have even if we don't win it. I think we've made a case. I think we've got the wins. We've played well in the last 10 games, we don't have bad losses, but when it gets to a committee it's out of our hands. The only thing we can do is take it out of someone else's hands."

If Tulane wins on Tuesday, it will advance to the semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Following an off day on Thursday, the C-USA Championship concludes on Friday, March 12, with the championship game tipping off at 12:30 p.m. Both semifinals and the championship game will be televised live on CBS College Sports Network and the winner of Friday's contest will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

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