February 25, 2008

Women's Basketball Set to Take on Missouri S&T Tuesday

THE SETTING: The University of Missouri-St. Louis women’s basketball team continues a four-game road swing that will close out the season when it visits Missouri S&T Tuesday night.

The game will also be the third in four days for the Tritons, who are coming off a 72-52 setback at Drury Sunday. UMSL also earned a 78-73 victory at Rockhurst on Saturday.

THE SERIES: UMSL and Missouri-S&T meet for the 42nd time with the Lady Miners hold a 27-15 edge in the series. Since joining the GLVC two years ago, Missouri-S&T has won all five meetings. The Lady Miners have also won six straight, with the last Tritons win coming Dec. 20, 2003, in St. Louis by the score of 73-44.

EARLIER THIS SEASON: Tamara McCaskill’s jumper in the lane with two seconds remaining was all Missouri Science & Technology needed as the Lady Miners earned a 62-60 victory past UMSL in GLVC action on Jan. 12 in St. Louis

McCaskill’s heroics came in a game that saw 11 lead changes and nine score ties.

Senior Courtney Watts and junior Mary Slaughter paced the UMSL offense with 14 points each. Watts scored 12 of her points in the second half, including five straight in the final 32 seconds. With the Lady Miners taking a 58-55 lead on a Katie McElrath lay-up with 1:23 to play, Watts scored on a lay-up of her own and then knocked in a three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining to knot the score at 60-60 before McCaskill’s game winner.

Watts also dished out five assists and collected three steals, while senior Taylor Gagliano added 12 points for the Tritons, who finished the game shooting 38.7 percent. Missouri S&T shot at 40 percent clip. UMSL also held a 45-37 rebounding advantage with freshman Kelly Mitchell pulling down a team-high six rebounds.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Missouri S&T stands at 19-5 overall, including 13-4 in the GLVC and is coming off a 89-75 setback at Drury, which snapped a four-game winning streak.

The Lady Miners are led by Tamara McCaskill’s 14.5 points per game. Katie McElrath adds 11.5 points per game, while Katie Bunge is the top rebounder at 8.0 rebounds per game. Bunge also averages 10.6 points per game.

THE OPPOSING COACH: Alan Eads enters his sixth season as the head
coach of the Lady Miner basketball program.

AN UMSL WIN WOULD...:
... improve the Tritons’ record to 8-18, including 5-13 in the GLVC.
... snap a six-game losing streak to the Lady Miners.
... be the Tritons’ first victory over Missouri S&T since a 73-44 victory on Dec. 20, 2003.

SENIOR STAR PART I: Senior Courtney Watts is ranked in the top 10 in 11 different career categories, including: free throws made (3rd - 269); assists (3rd - 359); free throws attempted (4th - 359); steals (4th - 139); assists average (5th - 3.4 apg); three-point field goals attempted (6th - 384); three-point field goals made (6th - 126); free throw percentage (7th - 74.9%); three-point field goal percentage (8th - 32.8%); steals average (10th - 1.3); points (8 - 1,027).

1,000 AND COUNTING: Courtney Watts became the 11th member of UMSL’s 1,000-point club against Quincy on Feb. 16. Watts notched the milestone at the 9:09 mark in the second half.

She is the first player to reach 1,000-points since Christy Lane (2000-03).

SENIOR STAR PART 2: Senior Leslie Ricker recorded her 500th career rebound against Oakland City Feb. 5 to etch her name in the career record books. Ricker has 531 career rebounds, which ranks seventh all-time.

She also became the first UMSL player to record 500 rebounds in a career since Lynette Wellen did so during 1998-2002, finishing with 519.

Ricker also etched her name in the assists record books against Rockhurst Feb. 7 and has 184 in her career, the ninth best effort all-time.

AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT TAYLOR: Taylor Gagliano is shooting at a 38.6 percent clip from beyond the three-point line during her career, which ranks second all-time in school history.
THREE’S THE WAY: For the second time in less than a week, the Tritons broke the school record for three-pointers made in a game, connecting on 17 against Oakland City Feb. 5. UMSL had set a new record with 16 at Quincy on Jan. 31 to better the old mark of 15 set against NW Missouri on Jan. 20, 1996.

The Tritons also broke the old mark of 31 three-point attempts against NW Missouri with 34 treys taken against Bellarmine on Jan. 26.

UMSL has made at least two three-pointers in each game this season and has made four or more in all but three games. The Tritons have had 10 or more three-pointers six times.

UMSL also leads the GLVC in three-point field goals made, averaging 7.56 per game and ranks 17th in all of NCAA Division II.

TRITON TIDBITS:
• Ten different players have started at least one contest. In addition, 10 different starting line-ups have been used at least once.
• UMSL’s four seniors have combined to play in 421 games: Courtney Watts (106), Leslie Ricker (106), Taylor Gagliano (106), Amanda Miller (103).
• Courtney Watts has just two career 20-point plus scoring games - both of which came this year.
• Kelly Carter came off the bench against Oakland City on Feb. 5 to score a career-high 14 points. Entering the game, she had recorded just 24 points on the season.
• Kristi White became the first Triton to score 20 or more points in a game this season, netting a career-high 26 at Oakland City on Dec. 31. White sank seven three-pointers in the contest, the most by any player in the GLVC this season.
• Leslie Ricker recorded 11 points at Lewis on Jan. 17 and followed that up with 10 points at Wisconsin-Parkside on Jan. 19, marking only the third time in her career she has done so and the first since she was a sophomore.
• Mary Slaughter recorded her first career double-double against SIU Edwardsville Feb. 14, tallying 16 points and 13 rebounds.

TRITON TRENDS:
• Kristi White is shooting 45.4 percent (5-of-11) from three-point range in the last three games.

HEAD COACH LISA CURLISS-TAYLOR: Lisa Curliss-Taylor was named the 10th coach of the Tritons women’s basketball program in May of 2007. Curliss-Taylor comes to UMSL from East Texas Baptist, where she spent the last four years serving as the head coach. During that time, she compiled a 57-48 record, including a 40-14 mark in her final two seasons at ETBU.

Prior to her head coaching job at ETBU, Curliss-Taylor was an assistant coach at NCAA Division II Washburn University for two seasons. The team went 53-11 in those two seasons, including a 30-4 record in 2002-03 while winning a conference and regional championship, and earning a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight.

In the 2000-01 season, she was an assistant coach at Norman (Okla.) High School.

Curliss-Taylor spent two seasons as a student-assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma for head coach Sherri Coale, where the team went 25-8 during the 1999-2000 season and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

Originally from Oklahoma City, Okla., Curliss-Taylor played collegiately at the NCAA Division I level at Oral Roberts University, before transferring and coaching at Oklahoma.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE: In the latest Massey Rankings released Feb. 11, UMSL is ranked as having the 31st toughest schedule in the country, which is fifth in the GLVC, behind Drury (19), Lewis (22), Quincy (24) and UW-Parkside (30).

The Tritons are being tested by eight squads which advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament last season and a rigorous 15 road games this season.

The Tritons dropped a 76-46 decision to Augustana (S.D.) Nov. 23, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

UMSL then opened the home portion of its schedule with a 73-55 loss to Washburn on Dec. 4, which advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

The Tritons earned a 53-50 victory at Grand Valley State Dec. 15, a team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

In GLVC action, UMSL faces Drury, an NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist and Lewis, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Bellarmine, SIU Edwardsville and Northern Kentucky also qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.