Feb. 8, 2008
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
The University of Memphis women's basketball team (6-16, 3-6 C-USA) will be looking to get back on a winning track when the Lady Tigers travel to Orlando to face a UCF team that features one of the best rebounders in the country.
UCF is led by freshman forward Tia Lewis, a 6-4 post player who currently ranks second in the country in rebounding with 12.0 rpg. Lewis also leads the team with 12.6 points per game, while fellow freshman Emma Cannon is also averaging close to a double-double with 11.8 ppg and 9.4 rpg. Freshman guard Marshay White is also averaging double-digit points with 11.2 ppg and leads the Knights with 22 three-point field goals made so far this season. The young Golden Knight offense also has another freshman averaging close to double digits with D'Nay Daniels averaging 9.7 ppg.
A pair of players posted double-doubles in a 85-67 loss to UAB Thursday night. Emma Cannon led the team with 24 points and added 11 rebounds, including five offensive, while Tia Lewis added 10 points and 15 rebounds in 36 minutes of play.
UCF is looking to snap a four-game losing streak under first year head coach Joi Williams. Williams, who spent the past four seasons at Murray State, capping her career there with a 54-61 record. At Murray State, Williams helped a team go from 13-15 in her first season to a 21-10 mark in 2006-07 and a WNIT bid.
Memphis fell in to ninth in the Conference USA standings with a 76-56 loss at Southern Miss. The Lady Tigers led at the half in that game before USM inserted both centers in to the lineup at the same time, clogging the paint and forcing Memphis to shoot just 25 percent from the field in the second half after shooting 46.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
Jessica Hall scored a career-high 22 points and tied a career-high with seven rebounds in the loss at USM, while Ashley Thornton added 16 points and eight rebounds, falling just two rebounds shy of her second career double-double in Reed Green Coliseum. The 22 points pushed Hall in to the Memphis scoring lead with 14.1 ppg in league play and 12.5 ppg overall. She remains the lone Lady Tiger to have connected on more than 10 triples since league play started.
Memphis has struggled with its offense in each of the past three games, managing just nine assists in each of the three contests, including nine assists on 22 field goals against Southern Miss. Part of the problem against Southern Miss for Memphis was once the lane was clogged with USM posts Stephanie Helgeson and Liz Biland, Memphis had cold outside shooters outside of Jessica Hall. Starters Aroha Jennings and Paris Leonard were each held scoreless in the USM loss, as outside of the 38 points scored by Hall and Thornton, the remainder of the team managed just 18 points.
Memphis vs. UCF
This is the sixth meeting between UCF and Memphis but the first between the current head coaching staffs. UCF leads the overall series 3-2, including a 2-1 record in games plays in Orlando. This will be the first of two regular season meetings between the two C-USA East Division programs and the first between UCF Head Coach Joi Williams and Memphis Head Coach Blair Savage-Lansden.
Hall Goes For Career-High Points....
Jessica Hall led Memphis with a career-high 22 points and tied a career-high with seven rebounds in the loss to Southern Miss. Hall has now scored double-digit points in seven of the last eight games. Her lone two C-USA games where she hasn't hit the double-digit mark was a scoreless night to open league play at UAB and then a six-point night at UTEP in the second game of Memphis' last C-USA road trip.
Needing Some Assist(ance)...
In each of the last three games, Memphis has managed just nine assists at the end of the night. At Southern Miss, Memphis had nine assists on 22 field goals. Memphis also had nine assists on 22 field goals in the win over Rice and nine assists on 17 field goals in the loss to Houston.
Battle of the Boards....
The game at UCF will be especially important for the Lady Tigers when it comes to work on the glass. UCF freshman forward Tia Lewis ranks second in the NCAA in rebounds per game, trailing just Oklahoma's Courtney Paris with 12.0 rpg. Memphis out-rebounded Southern Miss 35-34 and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds in the loss. One positive for Memphis, it has out-rebounded its opponents in each of the last two games, outworking Rice 52-42 in a win at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse on Sunday.
Thornton Two Points From 500
Junior Ashley Thornton has only played in 53 career games with Memphis after spending her freshman season at Birmingham Southern College. But she is just two points shy of her 500th career point at Memphis, which would put her in the Memphis top 50 career scorers with the second half of the Conference USA slate still to play.
Jackson Hits 100th Career Point
With her six point effort at Southern Miss, Jessica Jackson passed the 100-career point mark. Jackson shot 3-for-4 from the field and now has 104 career points. She needs 17 more rebounds to pass the 100 career rebound mark heading in to the UCF game.
They're Free, We Might As Well Hit Them
Memphis has struggled a times from the free-throw line, missing opportunities to put points on the board with the clock stopped. But Memphis has gotten better in the last two games, going 25-for-31 (80.6 percent) against Rice and Southern Miss.
Leonard 11 Away From 800
Paris Leonard now has 789 career points. She needs just 11 more points to hit the 800-point mark and to tie Lady Tiger assistant coach Jennifer Sullivan for 25th on the Memphis all-time scoring charts. Leonard's 87 career three-point field goals also means she is just 13 treys shy of becoming the sixth player in Memphis history to pass the 100-career three-point field goal mark. The Wooddale HS product is also just six rebounds shy of the 100 rebound mark for the season. Leonard has worked a lot harder on the glass this year, pushing the 100 rebound mark with the second half of the league slate still to play after grabbing just 59 rebounds last season.
The Arc Not Being Kind to the Lady Tigers
While Memphis hit a season-high from the free-throw line against Rice, the Lady Tigers also connected on just 2-of-12 three-point field goals attempts for 16.7 percent, their lowest shooting stroke of the season from behind the arc. The struggles continued against USM, hitting just 3-of-14 from beyond the arc. Memphis has hit under 25 percent from beyond the arc in each of the last two games.
Comeback Victory(ies)
Memphis definitely accomplished a couple of things you like to have in order when you are about to embark on a three-game road swing against Rice. Memphis had its best shooting night from the free-throw line, and also came back for their first win after trailing at the half. The Lady Tigers have been down at the break 12 times in the first 21 games and trailed Rice 25-24 before coming back for the victory. The flip side is Memphis has led four games at the half that they have lost (USM, UAB, Toledo, Southeastern Louisiana). But the Lady Tigers have protected more halftime leads than they have lost, picking up five wins after leading at the break (at Tulane, East Carolina, Loyola, Alabama A&M, Tennessee State).
