|
|
A quick recap of the early going.
UConn started huge, hammering Georgia, 99-70, on Nov. 12. The lead was already 29 midway through the first half. Svetlana Abrosimova has 18 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds, four steals and zero turnovers in 31 minutes. More than 16,000 were on hand at the Hartford Civic Center.
Next game for the champs: a 98-63 win over Pepperdine on Nov. 22. 'Without a doubt,' Waves coach Mark Trakh said, 'that was the best team I have ever seen in women's basketball.'
After that: 100-54 over Washington on Nov. 25. 'In losing to UConn, (Washington coach June) Daugherty's Huskies got a polite introduction to big-time college basketball,' a Nov. 26 Seattle Times staff report read. 'Their fans saw a style of women's basketball not seen in the Pacific Northwest, even when the WNBA's best come to town. The UConn win was a surgical dismantling.'
And then: 90-63 over George Washington on Nov. 29. 'It's hard to say what was most disheartening for George Washington,' Matt Eagen wrote in the Nov. 30 Hartford Courant. 'Was it the no-look wraparound pass on the break from (Diana) Taurasi to a streaking Swin Cash? Was it Svetlana Abrosimova calmly hitting back-to-back three-pointers for UConn's first points? Was it the stifling defense, which forced 29 turnovers -- including five in a row during one early stretch when the issue was still undecided? All of the above?'
Miami on Dec. 5, Holy Cross on Dec. 7 and Illinois on Dec. 10 -- 77-53, 92-32 and 97-55. Connecticut is cruising, 7-0 and No. 1. Only one team -- and only maybe one -- is close enough in the rearview even to be recognized.
| Seed | Team | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Connecticut | Twenty-three straight wins. Hasn't lost since Feb. 2. |
| 2. | Texas Tech | The Lady Raiders, in town for a Dec. 28 game with Rice, will cheer on the Texas Tech football team against East Carolina in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl in Houston. |
| 3. | Florida | Freshman Vanessa Hayden has three 'double-doubles' in seven games, the most recent coming Dec. 9 in an 85-44 victory over Central Florida. Hayden recorded 19 points and 11 rebounds. |
| 4. | Penn State | Senior swing player Lisa Shepherd had 26 points in the 95-86 win over Maryland on Dec. 5 and then 20 in the 77-76 win over Vanderbilt on Dec. 10. In the Vandy game, Shepherd improved a made-free-throw streak to 15 and bottomed a game-winning three-pointer with six seconds to go. 'Lisa Shepherd is Miss Utility for us,' Lady Lion coach Rene Portland said. |
| 5. | Clemson | Clemson fans broke out the familiar 'OVERRATED!' chant as the clock wound down on the Lady Tigers' 93-75 upset of previously-third-ranked Duke on Dec. 9. I'm all for loudly unhospitable home crowds, but I've never understood the thinking behind this particular cheer. If your team upsets someone, don't you want to believe that the vanquished is, in fact, exactly as good as its incoming ranking suggested? That means your team is even better than that, right? Of course, 'WISELY RATED!' isn't quite as catchy. |
| 6. | Vanderbilt | Senior center Candice Storey is a three-time winner of the program's Bedford Hunter Loyalty Award, named after a long-time supporter of the women's basketball team. Bedford Hunter, who died in December 1996, served as the team's unofficial statistician in its early years. In addition to serving on the university's student-athlete advisory board, Storey volunteers at Our Kids, a clinic for sexually-abused children; Edgehill Community Center; Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, and the Ronald McDonald House. |
| 7. | Old Dominion | Don't lose faith, ODU fans: The 1993-94 Lady Monarchs also started 2-3, and then that team went 24-3 the rest of the way. |
| 8. | Boston College | The Eagles were within six with 6:57 to play at Tennessee but lost, 72-57, on Dec. 6. Janelle McManus, the smallest player on the court in the game at 5-6, had 18 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Fellow freshman guard Amber Jacobs chipped in 16 points. Coach Cathy Inglese played her starters and one reserve at least 32 minutes each; UT coach Pat Summitt played four of her backups at least eight minutes. 'We played with a lot of heart,' Inglese said, 'especially our two freshman guards.' |
| 9. | St. Joseph's | Virginia missed six straight free throws in the final minute of its Dec. 6 game at St. Joseph's but prevailed, 62-58. Hawks senior point guard Angela Zampella had 21 points, and junior forward Susan Moran had 19 points to go along with 10 rebounds. 'If Zampella is their heart, then Moran is their soul,' Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. 'You look at those two players, and they are just so tough. St. Joe's has a really fine team. Stephanie (Gaitley, the coach) does a fine job with them, and they are going to beat a lot of people.' Up next for the Hawks: at Rutgers on Dec. 21. |
| 10. | Rice | All three of Rice's top scorers are newcomer guards: freshman Kate Bechler (12 points a game), freshman Lindsey Maynard (10) and junior transfer Jennifer Rigg (10). In her first career start Dec. 6, Bechler had 25 points, eight rebounds, five assists and a steal in an 85-63 win over Grambling State. |
| 11. | Nevada-Las Vegas | Senior forward Brooke Ingalls is spending the morning with a fifth-grade class at Bartlett Elementary School in Henderson, Nev. The UNLV sports-marketing department's Adopt-a-Rebel program links athletes from the university's 16 varsity sports with area elementary classes. Students are provided with biographical information, news articles, game summaries and statistics on their 'adopted' players. In her visit with the Bartlett Elementary fifth-graders today, Ingalls is updating the class on the Lady Rebels' season, answering questions, participating in learning exercises, taking photographs with the students and signing autographs. |
| 12. | George Washington | Senior frontcourter Petra Dubovcova didn't play because of a knee sprain, and then three starters and a reserve fouled out of GW's 71-55 loss to unranked Seton Hall on Dec. 10. |
| 13. | Kent State | Kate Miller, who averaged 17 points per game for the 1999-2000 American University Eagles, transferred to Kent with only one year of eligibility remaining. She'll play her senior season in 2001-02. She also reportedly considered New Mexico and Colorado State. |
| 14. | St. Francis (Pennsylvania) | The Red Flash has won the last five Northeast Conference tournament titles and three of the last five regular-season crowns, but St. Francis opened this season with five straight losses. The defeats included margins of 28 points against Duquesne, 36 against George Mason and 53 against Virginia. But in its league season opener, St. Francis broke the losing streak, 80-73, at home against Robert Morris on Dec. 9. The Red Flash is redefining itself without Jess Zinobile, the Northeast Conference's all-time scorer and rebounder who finished her career last spring. The new top gun is senior Beth Barnabei, a nine-a-game scorer in 1999-2000 who's logging 17 per night this season. |
| 15. | Delaware | Danielle Leyfert sprained an anterior cruciate ligament and wears a knee brace, but she doesn't plan on missing any game action in this, her senior, season because of the injury. The forward is averaging nine points, five rebounds and two assists per game. |
| 16. | Bucknell | Desire Almind had two 25-point games in the first four of her collegiate career, reached a career high with 26 in the Bison's 79-66 win over Harvard on Dec. 9, has already earned three Patriot League rookie-of-the-week honors and was named Subway Athlete of the Month for November by the Subway fast-food restaurant in Lewisburg, Pa. The 6-0 freshman swing player is averaging 18 points and five rebounds a game. |
| Seed | Team | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Georgia | Georgia's roster would feature only three active frontcourters 6-0 or taller if not for the preseason addition of two walk-ons, 6-1 freshman Beth Henson and 6-0 senior Amy King. Henson played for four Florida state-tournament teams at Gainesville High School (the Red Elephants). King has an even more impressive pedigree. After starring at LaGrange High School in Georgia, King went on to play for two seasons at Division I Furman University in South Carolina. Landers and his staff had become acquainted with King through Georgia's summer camps for high-school teams and, before her senior season at LaGrange in 1996-97, tipped Furman off to King's availability. Furman assistant coach Adrienne Shuler had played at Georgia. King averaged seven points and three rebounds in her two seasons at Furman (she scored 21 against Clemson as a Furman freshman, in 1997-98) but transferred to her home-state university in fall 1999. Her intramural basketball coach, one of Landers's former managers, heard of her former boss's need for post depth and called to recommend King. Landers was immediately interested in adding King to the varsity squad. |
| 2. | Duke | Freshman guard Alana Beard is already a three-time ACC rookie-of-the-week honoree. Her averages of 16 points, four steals and four assists lead the Blue Devils. Freshman center Iciss Tillis is also in coach Gail Goestenkors' starting five, and, of Duke's top nine scorers, six are freshmen or sophomores. |
| 3. | Stanford | It's as though the Cardinal is already deep into the NCAA tournament. Here are the next three games: at Tennessee on Dec. 17, at Purdue on Dec. 19 and at Oklahoma on Dec. 27. |
| 4. | Oklahoma | In the Nov. 22 loss to Georgia, in the first round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Madison, Wisc., the Bulldogs' 6-4 center, Tawana McDonald, had 16 points and 17 rebounds. In the Nov. 24 loss to homestanding Wisconsin, in the consolation round, the Badgers' 6-4 center, Nina Smith, had 20 points and eight rebounds. Jessie Stomski, Wisconsin's 6-3 power forward, had 23 points and 15 rebounds. Oklahoma coach Sheri Coale's most frequent starting five in the early going of this season has been a three-guard set of 6-0 Stacey Dales, 5-7 Sunny Hardeman and 5-9 LaNeishea Caufield, with 6-1 Caton Hill and 6-1 Jadrea Seeley on the frontline. Oklahoma's busiest reserves have been 5-9 Rosalind Ross and 6-2 Jamie Talbert. |
| 5. | Oregon | On a two-game losing streak for only the fourth time in the last five seasons. 'We feel good about the effort,' Coach Jody Runge said after a 79-75 loss at Texas Tech on Dec. 13, 'but we need to finish this trip with a win.' The Ducks play at tough Utah on Dec. 16. |
| 6. | Wisconsin | The Badger media guide lists the players' suggestions for their autobiography titles. Here are some of the more tell-tale titles: 'Moore to Come 2000,' by junior guard Tamara Moore; 'Bird, Basketball & Books,' by senior center Krista Bird; 'Sunshine on a Rainy Day,' by junior center Sarah Jirovec; 'LaTonya X,' by senior swing player LaTonya Sims, and 'Much Ado About Something,' by senior guard Judy Ebeling. |
| 7. | Utah | Halfway to the best start in school history -- the 1997-98 Utes opened 16-0. |
| 8. | Indiana | Sophomore swing player Jill Hartman's great uncle, Kenneth Shaw, is president of Syracuse University. |
| 9. | St. Mary's | St. Mary's drew a record crowd for its season opener Nov. 17 and treated the 2,732 in McKeon Pavilion to a 74-63 upset of 12th-ranked Stanford. The Dosty twins, Jerkisha and Jermisha, combined for 37 points and 28 rebounds. The Cardinal never led, and it was 13-2 just 3:34 into the game. |
| 10. | Virginia Tech | Senior small forward Tere Williams is one of the country's best shooters: 57 percent from the field and 72 percent from the free-throw line for an average of more than 14 points a game over her career so far. |
| 11. | Baylor | Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's Lady Bears could enter the new year and Big 12 Conference play at 11-0. Baylor, currently 7-0, has four home games remaining in 2000 -- all against teams that failed to advance to last spring's NCAA tournament. |
| 12. | UC Santa Barbara | After three straight losses, the Gauchos rallied to win the Arizona State tournament. Sophomore point guard Debby Caine had nine assists in the win over Kent State and 10 in the championship game against the tournament host. |
| 13. | North Carolina-Greensboro | Lynne Agee's next victory will be her 400th as coach of the Spartans. That'll make her the 16th Division I coach to reach the milestone at one school. (UConn's Geno Auriemma became the 15th on Dec. 10; on Nov. 28, Villanova's Harry Perretta became the 14th.) Agee's next chance will be a toughie: Dec. 16 at Clemson. The 20th-year UNC-G coach is 2-13 all-time against the Atlantic Coast Conference, though her teams are on a roll against the bigger schools. Last season, the Spartans upset Clemson in Greensboro, and, in 1998-99, UNC-G beat Maryland. |
| 14. | Fairfield | The Stags include the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's preseason player of the year, senior center Gail Strumpf, and two other all-league picks, senior guard Holli Tapley and sophomore swing player Shrene Isidora. But the star of Fairfield's 92-73 win over Harvard on Dec. 2 was junior guard Megan Light, who tallied 14 points and 11 assists. Light is the all-time top career scorer at Gloucester City High School in Gloucester, N.J. Her sister Molly Anne is a sophomore guard with the Stags. |
| 15. | Howard | Andrea Gardner recorded 22 rebounds and 14 points in the Bison's 85-72 win at Norfolk State on Dec. 6, Howard's last game of 2000. The Bison (3-2 overall and 2-0 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) lead the league, and Gardner is leading the MEAC in rebounding, at 16 per game. She's also averaging 18 points per, fifth-best in the league. Gardner, a 6-3 sophomore center, would've been home for the holidays even if Howard hadn't gone on break until the new year. She's the only player on the Bison roster who hails from Washington, D.C., where the university was established in the wake of the Civil War. Funding was originally provided by the Freedman's Bureau. Final approval of the first Howard U. charter was given by President Andrew Johnson, in March 1867. |
| 16. | Cornell | The Big Red hadn't won its Big Red Classic since 1997 before turning back Central Connecticut State in the semifinals and previously-unbeaten Bucknell in the championship on Dec. 1 and 2. Cornell bottomed 17 of 32 three-pointers during the tournament. Senior forward Jennifer Linker, an intern in basketball operations for the WNBA's New York Liberty last summer, hit all five of her long-range attempts. |
| Seed | Team | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Iowa State | Senior guard Sarah Robson eats ice cream daily -- claims she requires it for mere survival. |
| 2. | Purdue | Point guard Cherisse Graham left the Boilermakers on Nov. 29, six games into her freshman season. A first-team Parade All-American at Archbishop Carroll High School in the Philadelphia suburbs, Graham had decided to attend Purdue because 'everything seemed perfect for me.' And, from the outside, it appeared things were going well for Graham. She was averaging seven points, three rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes per game, and she had been productive in her most recent game -- 15 points and nine rebounds in a 68-53 win over South Carolina at the Torneo Cancun de Basquetbol in Cancun, Mexico. But Graham was behind another freshman, Erika Valek, on coach Kristy Curry's depth chart. In a university release annoucing Graham's intent to transfer, the 18-year-old Graham said, 'It is my choice to leave Purdue University because I feel that I am not in the right place, basketball-wise.' |
| 3. | Rutgers | Senior point guard Tasha Pointer, an avid chess player, in the 61-53, Dec. 6 home win over Virginia Tech: 21 points on eight-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds, six assists and one turnover in 40 minutes. |
| 4. | Auburn | Finally has taken the lead in the all-time series with Mercer. The Bears from the 7,000-student school in Macon, Ga., won the first nine meetings but are now on a 10-game loss streak in the rivalry with Auburn. The first two meetings came in 1971-72. Coached by Aletha Bond, Auburn went 10-2 that season -- its first of varsity women's hoops -- with the two losses coming against Mercer, 66-25 and 57-27. |
| 5. | Southwest Missouri State | Senior Jackie Stiles took part in an online chat at ESPN.com on Nov. 29, and it was a love-in -- highly-informed fans with aliases like 'bigBEARSfan,' 'BearsMan' and 'Biggest Jackie Stiles Fan' asking Stiles to recount the stories of her engagement (her boyfriend popped the question at a season-kickoff banquet attended by fans, teammates and U.S. Olympic basketball coach Nell Fortner), her hometown (Clafin, Kan. -- '600 people, no stoplight in the town ... we didn't have call waiting, so, when I got here and the phone beeped, I didn't know what to do') and her decision-making process in choosing a college (she considered UConn and Kansas State before settling on Southwest Missouri State because of its proximity to home, the Bears' interest in her from age 12 on and Cheryl Burnett's coaching style). |
| 6. | Virginia | Winner of four in a row beforehand, Wake Forest came into its Dec. 9 game with the Cavaliers hot and stayed that way through the first half. But Virginia rallied from three down at the break to win, 77-61, as they scored 13 points off seven turnovers in Wake's first nine possessions of the second half. During the span, sophomore forward Schuye LaRue had six points, three steals, a block, an assist and an offensive rebound which eventually led to a Cav three-pointer. 'We came out (in the second half) with the same energy level, but Virginia was much more intense,' Wake coach Charlene Curtis said. 'It put us back on our heels. They were able to spread us out a lot. Our turnovers seemed to really deflate us. We never really recovered.' |
| 7. | Mississippi State | Sophomore forward LaToya Thomas was limited to 14 points, 12 short of her average, in Mississippi State's 83-65 loss at Louisiana Tech on Dec. 7. The Lady Techsters' lead was only two when Thomas was whistled for her fourth foul, with 10:53 to play. 'We were in the ball game until Toya picked up her fourth foul,' Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning said. 'She was taken out of the game mentally, and she lost her fundamentals.' Thomas fouled out of the game five minutes later.. |
| 8. | Arizona | Freshman forward Veranda James wears 22 as her jersey number because it's the number her aunt, Vera James, wore for UCLA's basketball team in the early 1980s -- and because it's Shaquille O'Neal's shoe size. |
| 9. | Memphis | Next up for Memphis is a cross-state trip to Knoxville to face UT on Dec. 15. The Tigers are 1-23 all-time against the Vols, with the only victory coming at home near the end of the 1978-79 season, 79-75. Coach Mary Lou Johns' team that season featured four of the top eight scorers in program history to date: No. 1 Betty Booker, a junior guard; No. 4 Linda Street, a junior forward; No. 7 Linda McKinnie, a sophomore forward, and No. 8 Kim Duppins, a freshman forward. |
| 10. | Colorado State | Was outrebounded by 18, shot 29 percent in the second half and lost its leading scorer in the game, sophomore forward Ashley Augspurger, to personal fouls. Still held on to turn back Colorado, 72-70, on Dec. 6. |
| 11. | Ohio State | The 7-0 start includes seven wins by double-digit margins and five by spreads of 24 or more points. The victims: Bowling Green State, Cleveland State, Long Beach State, Rhode Island, Seton Hall, Valparaiso and Wisconsin-Green Bay. |
| 12. | Montana | Montana's 23-game, 15-year win streak against Idaho ended on Nov. 30, 73-68. Then the Lady Griz were in a struggle against Portland three days later. It was 59-55, Montana, with five minutes to go, but then the Lady Griz closed on a 15-0 run. Senior forward Linda Cummings, back after missing last season because of injury, finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. |
| 13. | Stephen F. Austin | Rosie Walker averaged 26 points a game in her first season with coach Sue Gunter's Ladyjacks, 1978-79, after leading Panola Junior College to National Junior College Athletic Association titles in '78 and '79. Walker was a two-time Kodak All-American for Stephen F. Austin, earned a spot on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and then starred for the Nebraska Wranglers in their 1981 Women's Professional Basketball League championship season. Next June, Walker will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. |
| 14. | Oral Roberts | Ankle, knee and arm injuries dominated the early part of Krista Ragan's career with the Golden Grizzlies, but the 5-7 guard is now one of the Mid-Continent Conference's most dangerous offensive threats. A 17-a-game scorer as a sophomore in 1999-2000, Ragan is up to 19 per game this season. That's third best in the league, and she's also contributing four assists and two steals per game. In a poll at the conference's Web site (www.mid-con.com), Ragan is the second-most-popular response, behind Youngstown State's Brianne Kennneally, to the question, 'Which women's basketball player is having the best season so far?' |
| 15. | Cleveland State | In a game marred by 55 fouls and 44 turnovers, Cleveland State watched a 16-point lead with 4:18 to play slip to five with 25 seconds remaining but withstood IUPUI's rally to win, 78-72, at home Dec. 9. Senior forward Mahogony Green, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference's preseason player of the year, was limited to 14 minutes of action because of foul trouble. 'If we would have played like this last year, we would have lost, said coach Duffy Burns, whose Vikings are a league-best 5-3 in only-non-conference play so far. Cleveland State was picked to finish fifth in the preseason MCC coaches poll. |
| 16. | Coastal Carolina | Alan LeForce was 47-38 in his three seasons as head coach at Coastal Carolina heading into this season. Before LeForce arrived, the Lady Chanticleers hadn't posted a winning season since joining Division I in 1986-87. LeForce is a former head coach of the men's programs at East Tennessee State and College of Charleston. His 1992 ETSU team upset Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament and then lost to eventual-champion Michigan by 12 points in the second. |
| Seed | Team | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tennessee | At Tennessee, four players have already received public punishment from Summitt. Unspecified violation of team rules was the culprit in each case. Sophomore Gwen Jackson was benched for an exhibition; juniors Shalon Pillow and Michelle Snow, for the regular-season opener against DePaul, and senior guard Semeka Randall, for the Maui Invitational. In a teleconference Nov. 15, Summitt said Randall had been the team's most consistent performer since the start of practice Oct. 14. And after a Dec. 6 win over Boston College, she said Randall 'led the way with her defensive intensity and leadership.' |
| 2. | Notre Dame | Notre Dame beat up on North Carolina, 78-55, on Dec. 5. Coach Muffet McGraw's plan to spread the offensive burden more evenly among the Irish appears to be working. Center Ruth Riley had 17 points, but three other starters scored at least 12 points, including guard Niele Ivey, who hit four of six three-point attempts en route to 18. |
| 3. | Louisiana Tech | The Lady Techsters' Sun Belt Conference coronation commences on New Year's eve, at Arkansas State. Louisiana Tech hasn't lost a regular-season league game since the 1997-98, and it has lost only nine Sun Belt regular-season games since joining the league for the 1991-92 campaign. |
| 4. | North Carolina State | The Wolfpack is 7-1, and sophomore center Kaayla Chones and point guard Terah James haven't even played yet. Both players are expected back from injuries before month's end. |
| 5. | Louisiana State | Sue Gunter is getting plenty out of her twin freshman forwards, Doneeka and Roneeka Hodges. Through eight games, each is averaging more than 25 minutes an outing. Doneeka has started twice and is averaging 10 points and three rebounds per; Roneeka, a five-time starter, has caught on even more quickly, averaging 11 points and six rebounds. Gunter has said she might never have coached freshmen so ready to contribute so much so early. |
| 6. | Texas | The 9-1 start is the best for Texas since 1989-90, the last season in which the Longhorns advanced to an NCAA regional. |
| 7. | Xavier | The first loss of the season came Dec. 12 at Cincinnati, 75-59. Senior guard Nicole Levandusky and senior forward Taru Tuukkanen each picked up fourth fouls early in the second half and were held to season-low point totals. Levandusky had two; Tuukkanen, six. Before the game, the two were averaging a combined 36 points per. |
| 8. | Alabama | In town for Illinois-Chicago's invitational tournament, the Tide had Thanksgiving dinner with the mom of former Alabama standout (and current Detroit Shock star) Dominique Canty. The Tide beat California and UIC over the next two days to claim the tournament championship. |
| 9. | North Carolina | Senior forward LaQuanda Barksdale had the first 10 points of the game and was up to 13 by halftime but couldn't return for the second 20 minutes of UNC's game with Maryland on Dec. 9 when her face and neck swelled because of an allergic reaction. Making up for her absence, sophomore point guard Coretta Brown finished with 27 points -- 'everyone had to step up,' Brown said -- and the Tar Heels improved to 4-3 on the season with an 87-69 victory. The other good news for UNC is that, while the cause of the allergic reaction remained a mystery, Barksdale responded well to on-site medical treatment and is expected back in Coach Sylvia Hatchell's starting five Dec. 16 for a home game with Winthrop. |
| 10. | Mississippi | Opponents are averaging 24 turnovers a game. |
| 11. | Alabama-Birmingham | Lost a seven-point halftime lead and then gave up 10 straight points in overtime in a 79-71 loss to Auburn on Dec. 6. |
| 12. | Creighton | Creighton broke a five-game losing streak against intrastate-rival Nebraska, 66-57, on Dec. 3. Must've been especially satisfying for Blue Jay senior guard Krissie Spanheimer, who tallied 14 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. 'Spanny' led Omaha's Marian High School Crusaders to a combined 44-4 record and appearances in the Nebraska state-championship game during her last two seasons there. |
| 13. | Cincinnati | Junior forward Laura Wilder never averaged even five rebounds a game back at Pickerington High School in Ohio, but she collected 22 in the Bearcats' 64-52 win over American on Dec. 8. It was the fourth-highest total ever posted by a UC player. |
| 14. | Georgia State | Leslie McElrath remains the Trans America Athletic Conference's best player. The 2000 TAAC player of the year had 29 points and 13 rebounds in a 75-72 win over tough Youngstown State on Nov. 24. As Georgia State improved to 2-0 in the league, McElrath tallied 31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in a Dec. 4 win over Troy State. She's averaging 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists. |
| 15. | Austin Peay State | The Lady Govs are being outrebounded by about four a game despite the Ohio Valley Conference-leading 10 rebounds a game averaged by 6-1 senior forward Jocelyn Duke. 'We can't stand and let the forwards do all the work,' coach Susie Gardner said. She starts three guards -- sophomores Brooke Armistead and Paige Smith and junior Kelly Chavez -- who combine to average about eight rebounds a game. |
| 16. | Alcorn State | Opened the season with five straight losses but opened Southwestern Athletic Conference play with a 66-62 win over Texas Southern. Part of the reason for the sluggish start: star senior center Cherea Wood's ankle injury. |
12/14/00