Tulsa vs. USF Preview

Saturday, February 16 ~ 12:00 pm Central ~ Yuengling Center ~ Tampa, Fla.

Game Notes: Tulsa

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

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Video: Watch Live

Live Stats: Click Here

Rosters: Tulsa ~ USF

2018-19 Season Stats: Tulsa ~ USF

Tulsa Facebook: TulsaHurricane ~ TulsaWBasketball

Tulsa Twitter: TulsaHurricane ~ TUWBasketball

Tulsa Instagram: TulsaHurricanePics ~ TulsaWBB

The Coaches
Tulsa: Matilda Mossman (Western Kentucky, 1979), 8th Year
Career Record: 250-228 (16 years)
Record at Tulsa: 103-135 (8 years)

USF: Jose Fernandez (FIU, 1994), 19th Year
Career Record: 347-255 (19 years)
Record at USF: same

Tulsa's Probable Starters
G          10       Alexis Gaulden, 5-8, Jr., Broken Arrow, Okla., 12.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg
G          11       Maddie Bittle, 5-8, Fr., Bixby, Okla., 5.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg
G          21       Rebecca Lescay, 5-8, So., Plano, Texas, 6.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg
F          32       Desiree Lewis, 5-10, Fr., Converse, Texas, 6.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg
F          33       Crystal Polk, 6-2, Sr., Lawton, Okla., 13.2 ppg, 7.6 rpg

USF's Probable Starters
G          0          Enna Pehadzic, 5-9, So., Horsens, Denmark, 10.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg
G          3          Sydni Harvey, 5-10, Fr., Nashville, Tenn., 12.3 ppg, 2.5 rpg
G          14       Luize Septe, 5-11, Fr., Ventspils, Latvia, 4.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg
C          21       Shae Leverett, 6-2, So., Rincon, Ga., 7.0 ppg, 7.5 rpg
F          23       Tamara Henshaw, 6-1, Jr., Palm Coast, Fla., 5.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg

In the Last Game

Morgan Brady, Crystal Polk and Rebecca Lescay all finished in double figures to lead Tulsa to a 72-67 win over Tulane
Polk had her ninth career double-double with 20-points and tied her career-high with 14 rebounds, while Brady had a team-leading 21 points, and Rebecca Lescay tied her career-high with 14 points.
Alexis Gaulden added eight points, six assists and four steals, while Lescay also tallied four steals.
The Hurricane hit 19-of-24 attempts from the line, while the Green Wave was 9-of-16.
There were 10 tied scores and 17 lead changes in the tightly-contested game, but Tulsa led for 25:45 of the game, including the final 8:22 off the clock.

Facing USF

USF has a 12-12 overall record, including a 3-7 mark in league play
The Bulls have won just three of their last 13 contests
Kitija Laksa, USF's leading scorer, played in just three games before suffering a season-ending injury, while Laura Ferreira has played in just one contest
Sydni Harvey averages the most points per game of their eligible players with 12.3 points per game, while Enna Pehadzic posts 10.2 ppg
USF has won all five previous meetings with the Golden Hurricane

Good Start

Tulsa's 9-7 start (now 11-12) marked the first winning record after 16 games since starting 9-7 in the 2013-14 season
TU started 3-0 in league play. The last time they started out 3-0 was during the 2007-08 season.
The Golden Hurricane already has eight wins at home this season. The last time Tulsa had six or more wins at home in a season was during the 2013-14 season when TU had nine victories in the Reynolds Center.
TU reached 10-wins with seven regular season games remaining, which equaled the win total for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons

Back-to-Back-to-Back

Freshman Desiree Lewis hit back-to-back-to-back double-doubles against Wichita State (12p, 10r), Memphis (10p, 12r) and ECU (16p, 13r)
Lewis is just the sixth player in school history to reach this milestone, and just the third to do it in her freshman year, but it marks the 16th time it has happened.
Lewis has had a double-double in 3-of-5 conference games so far this season

An Accurate Shot

Crystal Polk is in fifth place with a .495 (319-645) field goal percentage in her career
Kendrian Elliott is in 10th place with a .474 (173-365) field goal percentage in her career

Knocking Down Three's

Alexis Gaulden has knocked down 126 three-pointers in her career, which ranks eighth in school history
Gaulden needs six more to tie Kasie Pittman (1996-2000) who has 132 in seventh place

Mossman Has 250 Career Wins

Matilda Mossman has collected 250 career victories
She has 67 wins at Arkansas, 80 wins at Kansas State and currently 103 wins at TU
Mossman has the most wins by a TU women's basketball coach
Mossman earned her 100th career win at TU in a 46-39 win over Memphis on January 9, 2019

Twelve 2018 Postseason Teams Highlight 2018-19 Schedule

TU will take on 12 postseason teams from the 2017-18 season this year
NCAA Tournament teams include American, Arizona State, Belmont, Little Rock, UConn and USF
WNIT teams include Alabama, Cincinnati, Houston, Saint Louis, Stephen F. Austin and UCF

Freshmen Made Marks

Morgan Brady and Rebecca Lescay concluded their freshmen season's on the Tulsa Freshman Single-Season Records list
Brady ranked second in free throw percentage (.824)
Lescay ranked fifth in games played (31)

Tulsa Picked 12th in The American Preseason Coaches' Poll

In the American Athletic Conference coaches' poll, Tulsa was picked to finish 12th by the league's coaches
Tulsa finished tied for 11th in the league in 2017-18

The 2019 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 through 2020
The 2019 championship will mark the sixth consecutive year the tournament has been played at the Uncasville, Conn. arena
The 2019 tournament is set for March 8-11

Tulsa in The American Championship

TU has a 3-4 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, 2017 and 2018

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.

Tulsa vs. USF Preview

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Maddie Bittle

Morgan Brady

Kendrian Elliott

Alexis Gaulden

Rebecca Lescay

Desiree Lewis

Crystal Polk

Tulsa vs. USF Preview

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Maddie Bittle

Morgan Brady

Kendrian Elliott

Alexis Gaulden

Rebecca Lescay

Desiree Lewis

Crystal Polk

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