Tulsa vs. Houston Preview

Saturday, February 10

Reynolds Center

2:00 pm

Tulsa

Houston

Buy Tickets

Tulsa vs. Houston Preview

2/9/2018 9:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Saturday, February 10 ~ 2:00 pm Central ~ Donald W. Reynolds Center ~ Tulsa, Okla.

Game Promotions: The Tulsa-Houston game is National Girls and Women in Sport Day. For more information click HERE

Tickets: Single game tickets are $5 general admission and season passes are $50. Tickets can be purchased ONLINE, at the Reynolds Center ticket office or by calling 918.631.GoTU (4688).

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 Video: Watch Live on TulsaHurricane.com/watch

Live Stats: Click Here

Rosters: Tulsa ~ Houston

2017-18 Season Stats: Tulsa ~ Houston

Tulsa Facebook: TulsaHurricane ~ TulsaWBasketball

Houston Facebook: Houston WBB

Tulsa Twitter: TulsaHurricane ~ TUWBasketball

Houston Twitter: Houston WBB

Tulsa Instagram: TulsaHurricanePics ~ TulsaWBB

Houston Instagram: Houston WBB

The Coaches
Tulsa: Matilda Mossman (Western Kentucky, 1979), 7th Year
Career Record: 237-211 (15 years)
Record at Tulsa: 90-118 (7 years)

Houston: Ronald Hughey (Limestone College, 2006), 4th Year
Career Record: 43-73 (4 years)
Record at Houston: same

Tulsa's Probable Starters
G          3          Erika Wakefield, 5-4, Sr-3L, Moore, Okla., 10.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg
G          12       Shug Dickson, 5-9, So-1L, St. Louis, Mo., 14.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg
G          21       Rebecca Lescay, 5-8, Fr-HS, Plano, Texas, 3.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg
G          22       Morgan Brady, 5-7, Fr-HS, Hensley, Ark., 4.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg
F          33       Crystal Polk, 6-2, Jr-2L, Lawton, Okla., 7.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg

Houston's Probable Starters
G          0          Angela Harris, 5-6, So-1L, Cypress, Texas, 13.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg
F          3          Dorian Branch, 5-10, So-1L, Dallas, Texas, 10.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg
G          4          Jasmyne Harris, 5-8, So-1L, Freeport, Texas, 20.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg
F          22       Myyah West, 6-0, Jr-TR, Prentiss, Miss., 5.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg
G          23       Serithia Hawkins, 5-11, Jr-2L, Moore, Okla., 12.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg

Facing Houston

This is the 24th meeting between Tulsa and Houston
The Golden Hurricane has a 15-8 lead in the all-time series
The Cougars won both meetings last season, including a 65-62 decision in the last meeting, which was in Tulsa

Scouting Houston

Houston is 19-6 on the season, including an 8-3 mark in The American
Four players average double-digit points, including Jasmyne Harris (20.6), Angela Harris (13.4), Serithia Hawkins (12.1) and Dorian Branch (10.8)
Dai'ja Thomas has a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game
Hawkins has a team-best 8.1 rebounds per game and 23 blocks
Angela Harris leads the Cougars with 93 assists and 74 steals

The Last Game: SMU

Morgan Brady scored a career-high 16 points, while Shug Dickson added 15 and Erika Wakefield tallied 13 points in a 74-70 loss to SMU
The biggest difference in shooting came at the free throw line, as Tulsa was 13-of-16 for 81-percent, while SMU, even though they shot just 67-percent, went to the line 15 times more than Tulsa (21-of-31)
The other biggest discrepancy was offensive rebounds, with SMU having a 21-7 lead
Crystal Polk pulled down a team-best eight rebounds, while Wakefield had seven assists and two steals, and Kendrian Elliott and Jasmine Butler each had two blocks

In the Nation...

Tulsa is ... 64th in turnovers per game (14.0)
Tulsa is ... 65th in three-point field goal defense (29.4)
Tulsa is ... 93rd in free throw percentage (72.6)
Tulsa is ... 97th in fewest turnovers (335)

Tulsa Against Ranked Conference Foes This Season

Tulsa has 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 second-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 45.3 points in league play
Besides Tulsa (18), only #7 Texas (4), #2 Notre Dame (9), #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 12 games, including seven times this season

Erika Wakefield on Tulsa's Career Charts

Erika Wakefield ranks sixth with 316 assists
She ranks ninth with 158 steals
She ranks 10th with 371 field goals made
She needs just 28 more points to become the 11th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark (she has 972 points)

An Accurate Shot

Crystal Polk currently ranks on the Tulsa Individual Career List
Polk sits in 10th place with a .477 (168-352) field goal percentage

Who's Starting?

Tulsa has used 17 different starting lineups this season
Only one lineup has been used three times

Mossman Has 237 Career Wins

Matilda Mossman has collected 237 career victories
She has 67 wins at Arkansas, 80 wins at Kansas State and currently 90 wins at TU

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 The American Championship

Tulsa has a 2-3 mark in American Athletic Conference Championship play
TU earned wins in the first round of the 2016 and 2017 tournaments
The Golden Hurricane lost matches in the quarterfinals in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

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.