Tulsa vs. Cincinnati Preview – The American Championship Quarterfinals Today

Sunday, March 4

Uncasville, Conn.

7:30 pm

Tulsa

Cincinnati

Tulsa vs. Cincinnati Preview – The American Championship Quarterfinals Today

3/4/2018 7:43:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Sunday, March 4 ~ 7:30 pm Central ~ Mohegan Sun Arena ~ Uncasville, Conn.

Game Notes: Tulsa

Radio: TU's regular season games can be heard on 93.5 FM The Jet, KWTU 88.7 FM HD2, iHeart Radio App and online at TulsaHurricane.com. Brandon Hart calls play-by-play.

Live Audio: Listen Here

Live Video: Watch Live on ESPN3

Live Stats: Click Here

Rosters: Tulsa ~ Cincinnati

2017-18 Season Stats: Tulsa ~ Cincinnati

Tulsa Facebook: TulsaHurricane ~ TulsaWBasketball

Cincinnati Facebook: Go Bearcats WBB

Tulsa Twitter: TulsaHurricane ~ TUWBasketball

Cincinnati Twitter: Go Bearcats WBB

Tulsa Instagram: TulsaHurricanePics ~ TulsaWBB

The Coaches
Tulsa: Matilda Mossman (Western Kentucky, 1979), 7th Year
Career Record: 239-214 (15 years)
Record at Tulsa: 92-121 (7 years)

Cincinnati: Jamelle Elliott (UConn, 1996), 9th Year
Career Record: 112-160 (9 years)
Record at Cincinnati: same

Tulsa's Probable Starters
G          3          Erika Wakefield, 5-4, Sr-3L, Moore, Okla., 11.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg
G          10       Alexis Gaulden, 5-8, So-1L, Broken Arrow, Okla., 8.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg
G          12       Shug Dickson, 5-9, So-1L, St. Louis, Mo., 14.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg
G          21       Rebecca Lescay, 5-8, Fr-HS, Plano, Texas, 4.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg
F          33       Crystal Polk, 6-2, Jr-2L, Lawton, Okla., 8.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg

Cincinnati's Probable Starters
G          2          Nikira Goings, 5-8, Jr, Marietta, Ga., 11.7 ppg, 3.5 rpg
G          3          Ana Owens, 5-6, Sr, Indianapolis, Ind., 11.2 ppg, 3.2 rpg
G          11       Sam Rodgers, 5-11, So, Cincinnati, Ohio, 5.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg
F          21       Shanice Johnson, 6-0, Sr, Philadelphia, Pa., 10.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg
F          25       Chelsea Warren, 5-11, Jr, Red Oak, Texas, 0.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg

Facing Cincinnati

This is the eighth meeting between Tulsa and Cincinnati
The Golden Hurricane has a 5-2 lead in the all-time series
Both teams won on their own home court this season

Scouting Cincinnati

Cincinnati has a 18-11 overall record and a 10-6 mark in conference play
The Bearcats have won five of their last six contests
UC is led by four players that average double figures, including Nikira Goings (11.7), Ana Owens (11.2), Shanice Johnson (10.4) and Iimar'i Thomas (10.3)
Johnson and Thomas both have a team-leading 6.2 rebounds per game

The Last Game: Houston

Five Tulsa players scored in double figures and two had double-doubles as the 12th-seed Golden Hurricane captured a 98-72 upset win over 5th-seed Houston in the American Athletic Conference Championship First Round
Crystal Polk scored a career-high 28 points (her previous career high was 16 points twice this season) and pulled down 12 rebounds
Erika Wakefield registered 12 points and tied her career-best of 10 assists
Shug Dickson tallied 22 points, while Alexis Gaulden added 16.
Tulsa shot 56-percent from the field, including never less than 50-percent in any quarter, 47-percent from three-point range and 69-percent from the free throw line

In the Nation...

Tulsa is ... 71st in free throw percentage (73.4)
Tulsa is ... 89th in turnovers per game (14.4)
Tulsa is ... 93rd in fewest turnovers (433)
Tulsa is ... 98th in three-point field goal defense (30.3)

Tulsa Against Ranked Conference Foes This Season

Tulsa dropped a 78-60 decision to #1 UConn and a 71-57 loss to #23 USF
In those two games, TU trailed by single digits in the fourth quarter
The Hurricane has the smallest margin of loss to UConn this season and the fourth-best margin of loss (14 points) to USF in American Athletic Conference games
Tulsa dropped an 18-point loss to the Huskies, while UCF also lost by 18 (55-37)
UConn's average conference margin of victory is 47.3 points in league play
Besides Tulsa (18), only #7 Texas (4), #2 Notre Dame (9), Louisville (11), #5 UCLA (18) and UCF (18) have lost by less than 20 points to UConn this season
Tulsa's 60 points against UConn is the eighth most against them this season and second most in league play (only Cincinnati scored more with 65 points)

Dickson's Scoring

Shug Dickson's 33 points against Saint Louis (12-19-17) ranks third in school history for points scored in a single game by a player, as she ties the mark hit by Carla Morrow, Jillian Robbins (twice), Taleya Mayberry and Ashley Clark.
Dickson scored 20+ points in three-straight games in 2016-17, including 21 points (Temple), 21 points (#1 UConn) and 22 points (UCF), and in three-straight games in 2017-18, including 23 points (UCF), 21 points (USF) and 29 points (Temple)
Dickson was the first freshman in school history (dating back to the 1996-97 season) to score 20+ points in three-straight games
Dickson became the sixth player overall to reach this feat (Taleya Mayberry, Larrissa Williams, Jillian Robbins, Allison Curtin and Lila Osceola did it before her.)
Dickson has scored 20+ points in 14 games, including nine times this season

Erika Wakefield on Tulsa's Career Charts

Erika Wakefield ranks fifth with 174 steals
She ranks sixth with 343 assists
She ranks 10th with 402 field goals made
She ranks 10th with 226 free throws made
She ranks 11th with 1,064 points

1,000 Points

Erika Wakefield became just the 11th women's basketball player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark
She scored her 1,000th career point against ECU on Feb. 20, 2018
Lila Osceola (1996-98, 1999-2000), Kasie Pittman (1996-2000), Leela Farr (1997-2002), Carla Morrow (1998-2002), Megan Moody (2002-06), Jillian Robbins (2003-07), Larrissa Williams (2006-10), Taleya Mayberry (2009-13), Ashley Clark (2012-16) and Kelsee Grovey (2012-16) have all reached the 1,000-point mark in school history

An Accurate Shot

Crystal Polk currently ranks on the Tulsa Individual Career List
Polk sits in fifth place with a .505 (197-390) field goal percentage in her career
Polk sits in fourth place with a .559 (99-177) in field goal percentage on the season

Who's Starting?

Tulsa has used 19 different starting lineups this season
Only one lineup has been used four times

Mossman Has 239 Career Wins

Matilda Mossman has collected 239 career victories
She has 67 wins at Arkansas, 80 wins at Kansas State and currently 92 wins at TU
Mossman has the most wins by a TU women's basketball head coach

Tulsa in The American Championship

Tulsa has a 3-3 mark in American Athletic Conference Championship play
TU earned wins in the first round of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 tournaments
The Golden Hurricane lost matches in the quarterfinals in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Last Year's Freshmen Made Marks

Addison Richards and Kendrian Elliott concluded their freshmen season's on the Tulsa Freshman Single-Season Records list
Richards ranked second in three-point field goal percentage (.387) and third in games played (31)
Elliott finished second in blocks (24), rebounds (220) and field goal percentage (.497), and fourth in free throw percentage (.774).

Parker for Three

Tulsa's Ebony Parker knocked down an NJCAA Division I record 144 three-point shots during the 2015-16 season
In comparison, the most in a single season at Tulsa was 77 by Athena Pirpich (2000-01).

Eleven 2016-17 Postseason Teams Highlight 2017-18 Schedule

11 postseason teams highlight the 2017-18 Tulsa schedule
NCAA Tournament teams include Alaska Anchorage (Division II), Belmont, Temple, UConn and USF
WNIT participants were Little Rock, Saint Louis, SMU, South Dakota, Tulane and UCF.

Hurricane Picked Ninth in The American Preseason Coaches' Poll

In the American Athletic Conference coaches' poll, Tulsa was picked to finish ninth by the league's coaches
UConn, which has won four-straight American Athletic Conference Championships, was picked first
USF was selected to finish second and Temple was selected third
UCF, SMU, Tulane, Memphis, Cincinnati, Tulsa, Wichita State, Houston and ECU round out the poll

The 2018 American Athletic Conference Championship

The American Athletic Conference and Mohegan Sun Arena have agreed to a multi-year agreement for Mohegan Sun to host the Conference's Women's Basketball Championship from 2018 through 2020
The 2018 championship will mark the fifth consecutive year the tournament has been played at the Uncasville, Connecticut arena
The 2018 tournament is set for March 3-6

Tulsa in Postseason

Tulsa has made five postseason appearances
TU earned WNIT bids in 2004, 2005 and 2015
The Hurricane played in the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and 2013.
Tulsa lost in the first round in 2004 (Memphis), 2005 (Texas A&M) and 2013 (Stanford), but went 1-1 (W, North Carolina State; L, DePaul) in 2006 and 2015 (W, Missouri State; L, Eastern Michigan)
The Hurricane has a 2-5 overall mark in postseason play

A Hurricane in Tulsa?
The Origination of The University of Tulsa nickname - Golden Hurricane - was created in 1922. A new football coach, Howard Archer came to town and inherited a slew of nicknames dating back to 1895. In the past, Tulsa had been named "Kendallites," "Presbyterians," "Tigers," "Orange and Black," "Tulsans," and of course, "Yellow Jackets." The team started working out in the fall with a new nickname "Yellow Jackets" which was apparently due to the fact that the team was wearing new black and yellow uniforms. The team opened the season and it was apparent that Tulsa was going to have a great year, and trying to seize some publicity for his team, Archer wanted to find a new nickname quickly. After a remark was made in practice one day about "roaring through opponents," and because of their new jersey colors, he thought of "Golden Tornadoes." But a check showed that Georgia Tech already had chosen that tag in 1917. From the tornado, he evolved meteorologically to the hurricane. A few days before the team left for a game against Texas A&M, Archer asked the squad to vote on the name, and thus "Golden Hurricane" was born.