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No. 24 Tarleton (15-3, 2-1 LSC) vs. Abilene Christian (12-6, 2-1 LSC)
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 • 6 p.m.
Wisdom Gym • Stephenville, Texas
WHAT'S ON TAP
The No. 24 Tarleton TexAnns return home to take on the Abilene Christian Wildcats on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. inside Wisdom Gym.
The match-up will be broadcast live on KSTV (93.1 FM) in Stephenville. Play-by-play announcer Lucas Vance will have the call for all TexAnns. Fans can listen to the action live via the Tarleton Athletics Radio Network by logging onto the KSTV web site or by clicking the Listen LIVE button in the game preview.
Live audio and video will be available for all home games throughout the season. The video and audio streams of the broadcast will be available on TarletonSports.com as part of Tarleton All-Access.
ABOUT THE TEXANNS
The TexAnns (15-3, 2-1 LSC) nearly escaped a 17-point deficit to No. 11 West Texas A&M this past Saturday in Canyon, but the Lady Buffs went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe over the final :32 seconds in regulation and Tarleton came away with a five-point loss, 74-69.
The TexAnns opened the game scoring the first nine points, but the Lady Buffs prevailed over the course of the next 10 minutes and took their first lead of the game, 15-14, on a jumper from Jamie Simmons. Tarleton tied the game back-up on six occasions up to the 3:40 mark, but a 9-0 run by WT pushed the Lady Buffs lead to 36-27 with 1:42 remaining in the period.
WT took a 38-31 lead into the break and increased its lead to 17 points with 14:54 left to play. Tarleton begin its emergence with a lay-up from Shelby Adamson with 14:25 remaining that led to a 19-8 run by the TexAnns over the next nine minutes. Tarleton had pulled to within eight points with 5:28 left to play, down 62-54. WT increased its lead to by as many as 12 more points until Morgan Stehling's lay-up with 3:08 pulled the TexAnns back to within eight points again, 68-60.
A three-pointer from Sonya Sundberg and a lay-up from Stehling pulled the TexAnns to within three points, down 68-65, but the TexAnns were forced to foul and WT answered on all three trips to the free throw line and came away with the 74-69 victory in the end.
The TexAnns shot .460 from the field, but were limited to just 3-of-16 shooting from the three-point line and gave up 22 turnovers in which WT scored 27 points off of. WT mad .722 percent of its shots in the second-half, going 13-for-18 from the field. The Lady Buffs finished the game shooting .543 percent. It was just the second time all season that the TexAnn had allowed an opponent to make 50 percent or more of their shots. Tarleton has dropped both of those contests (UT-Permian Basin, 1/11/10).
Stehling scored a career-high 18 points in the loss and JoAnne Jones (16) and Shelby Adamson (12) each scored in double digits as well. WT meanwhile had four players in double digits with Simmons leading the way with 24 points.
HOME SWEET HOME
The TexAnns look to keep their perfect home record intact against Abilene Christian on Wednesday. Tarleton is 9-0 inside the friendly confines of Wisdom Gym this season and are on a current 13-game winning streak inside the building that dates back to last season. Tarleton's last home defeat came to West Texas A&M (70-63) back on Jan. 24, 2009.
STEHLING STRIVING IN STARTING ROLE
Morgan Stehling has started just five games in her young career, but she has been a powerful force in those five games. Since joining the starting line-up on Jan. 16 against Angelo State, the sophomore forward has averaged 12.8 points while going 12-of-15 (.800) from the free throw line over and managed to pull down 5.3 boards over the last four games. She scored a career-high 18 points against WT on Saturday.
She scored 12 points and pulled down five rebounds in her only start last season against Central Oklahoma in the first round of the LSC Championship Tournament.
ADAMSON COMING ON STRONG
Sophomore guard Shelby Adamson had her best outing of the season against Texas A&M-Commerce a few weeks ago, scoring what was then a new career-high 16 points. Since then, Adamson has averaged 14.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game which included a new career-high 24-point effort against Angelo State.
Adamson leads the team averaging 15.3 points in LSC South Division play. She has made a remarkable 70 percent of her shot from the field in those games as well.
SEEING DOUBLE VISION
JoAnne Jones recorded her first double-double of the season in Tarleton's 61-35 win over Angelo State on Jan. 16. The senior center poured in 18 points while pulling down a season-high 14 rebounds. It was Jones' 11th double-double of her career, but first since March 4, 2009 (18 pts, 10 reb). Brittnie Haley leads the TexAnns with four double-doubles on the season. Kelsey Benford has also recorded a double-double as well.
CONTROLLING THE INSIDE
The TexAnns have out-rebounded the opposition in 14 of their 18 games this season and are 12-2 during those contests. Tarleton had a streak of nine straight games out-rebounding the opponent come to an end last Wednesday against ENMU (24-24).
Tarleton has been out-rebounded just three times this season, but was a perfect 2-0 in before Saturday's loss to West Texas A&M. The Lady Buffs out-rebounded the TexAnns 28-26 in Canyon.
Pittsburg State out-rebounded the TexAnns 46-41 in Tarleton's 75-46 win over the Gorillas. Tarleton was then out-rebounded 34-27 against Northeastern State, but Tarleton came back to win that game, 56-42.
JONES NETS 1,000 POINTS FOR HER CAREER
JoAnne Jones became just the 19th player in Tarleton TexAnn history to record 1,000 points in her career. Jones netted a lay-up with 4:41 remaining in the second-half of Wednesday's game against ENMU to give her 11 points on the night and exactly 1,000 in her four-year career at Tarleton.
The last two players to joing the elite 1,000 point club for the TexAnns has been Katie Crawford (1,259 - 2007) and Misty Wilson (1,440 - 2002).
LEADING THE PACK
Brittnie Haley has led the TexAnns in scoring in seven games this season. Tori Skarke follows having led in four games. JoAnne Jones and Shelby Adamson each led three times, while Morgan Stehling has led twice. Tara Towns has led once this season.
HELPING THEIR OWN CAUSE
The TexAnns have scored more points off turnovers than their opponents in 16 of their 18 games this season, with UTPB (21-20) and West Texas A&M (27-25) being the only teams to score more. In all, Tarleton has out-scored opponents 449-283 in points off turnovers.
STARTING STRONG IN LSC SOUTH
The TexAnns opened south division play at 2-0 for the first time since 2007-08. Since joining the LSC in 1994, the TexAnns had opened division play (north and south) at 2-0 just four times. The TexAnns started out 3-0 just one time, back in 2005-06.
DOMINATING THE LSC
The Texans (15-3) and TexAnns (15-3) are a combined 30-6 (.833) on the season. That is tops in the Lone Star Conference for two teams from the same institution. West Texas A&M teams are behind Tarleton with a combined 30-10 (.750) record.
D-FENCE... D-FENCE... D-FENCE...
Since giving up 86 points on 51 percent shooting to UT-Permian Basin in Odessa back on Jan. 11, the TexAnns have gotten back to the basics - defensively. Tarleton has given up just 50.5 points to opponents, while allowing the opposition to just a .356 shooting percentage over the past four games.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
ACU had won five straight games before falling to Angelo State, 57-52, in San Angelo on Saturday. The loss came after an upset win over then No. 9 West Texas A&M, 69-67 in Abilene.
The Wildcats fell behind by 10 points at the break (35-25), thanks in large part to ASU going 11-for-12 from the free throw line in the first-half. The Wildcats did manage to outscore the Rambelles 27-22 in the second period, but it wasn't enough to come away with the victory.
Courtney Laing led the Wildcats off the bench with 15 points. Camille Perkins led the Rambelles with 15 points as well.
Jamie Meyer leads ACU with an impressive 20.3 points per game average. That is good enough for 10th most in the nation. Her sister, Jody, averages 15.5 points and 10.9 rebounds (12th in the nation) on the season as the only player in the LSC to average a double-double every game. Jody also leads the team with 23 blocks. Kat Kundmueller has dished out a league-high 133 assists while averaging 7.4 assists per game. That ranks her second in the nation behind Delta State's Bug Cooper (8.1 apg).
As a team, ACU is shooting .445 from the field, .314 from beyond the arc and .721 from the charity stripe. ACU ranks 30th in the nation in field goal percentage and 69th in free throw percentage.
Head coach Shawna Lavender is in her seventh season with the Wildcats. She brings in a current overall record of 121-76 into Wednesday's game. Lavender is 7-4 all-time when playing the TexAnns.
THE SERIES
The Wildcats lead the all-time series having won 27 of the 35 meetings between the two teams. ACU has won four of the last five games, but the TexAnns did manage to split the season series last year. Tarleton dropped the first game 77-71 in Abilene before evening up the 2008-09 series with a 73-59 win at Wisdom Gym.
The Wildcats hold the series' longest winning streak, having won 13 consecutive games from 1995-2001. ACU is 12-4 all-time inside Wisdom Gym.
A LOOK AHEAD
The TexAnns hit the road again this Saturday when the team travels to Kingsville to take on the Javelinas of Texas A&M-Kingsville. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. at the Steinke Center.
Tarleton returns home on Wednesday, Feb. 3 to open-up “LSC Rivalry Week” against Midwestern State. The TexAnns and Mustangs will hoop it up in Stephenville that Wednesday at 6 p.m. before moving the series to Wichita Falls on Saturday. Tip-off next Saturday, Jan. 6, is set for 6 p.m. as well.
