Tulsa vs. ECU Preview

Saturday, March 2

Reynolds Center

1:00 pm

Tulsa

ECU

Tulsa vs. ECU Preview

2/28/2019 4:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Saturday, March 2 ~ 1:00 pm Central ~ Donald W. Reynolds Center ~ Tulsa, Okla.

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).

Promotions:
Senior Day - Come out and support Jasmine Butler, Crystal Polk and Tyjae' Scales as they play their final home game in the Reynolds Center!

Alumni Day - We will have some of our alumni out for a halftime basketball game!

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.

Video: Watch Live

Live Stats: Click Here

Rosters: Tulsa ~ ECU

2018-19 Season Stats: Tulsa ~ ECU

Tulsa Facebook: TulsaHurricane ~ TulsaWBasketball

Tulsa Twitter: TulsaHurricane ~ TUWBasketball

Tulsa Instagram: TulsaHurricanePics ~ TulsaWBB

The Coaches
Tulsa: Matilda Mossman (Western Kentucky, 1979), 8th Year
Career Record: 251-231 (16 years)
Record at Tulsa: 104-138 (8 years)

ECU: Nicole Mealing (Francis Marion 2010), 1^st Year as Acting Head Coach

Tulsa's Probable Starters
G          10       Alexis Gaulden, 5-8, Jr., Broken Arrow, Okla., 12.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg
G          21       Rebecca Lescay, 5-8, So., Plano, Texas, 6.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg
G          22       Morgan Brady, 5-7, So., Hensley, Ark., 8.9 ppg, 3.0 rpg
F          32       Desiree Lewis, 5-10, Fr., Converse, Texas, 5.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg
F          33       Crystal Polk, 6-2, Sr., Lawton, Okla., 13.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg

ECU's Probable Starters
G          1          Alex Frazier, Sr., Lawrenceville, Ga., 8.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg
G          2          Lashonda Monk, So., Greensboro, N.C., 12.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg
G          11       Raven Johnson, Jr., Lilburn, Ga., 12.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg
F          20       Desiree Corbin, Sr., Griffin, Ga., 2.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg
F          21       Salita Greene, Sr., Durham, N.C., 5.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg

In the Last Game

Crystal Polk, Rebecca Lescay and Alexis Gaulden all scored in double figures to lead Tulsa to a 64-61 win over Temple
Polk had a team-leading 16 points, followed by Lescay with 13 and Gaulden who had 12, 11 of which she scored in the first quarter.
Polk finished one rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards, and Kendrian Elliott added six rebounds. Lescay tallied a team-high five steals and four assists.
TU only used three players off the bench in the contest, which combined for 16 points and 16 rebounds.

Facing ECU

ECU has a 13-14 overall record, including a 4-10 mark in league play
The Pirates are on a three-game losing streak
Raven Johnson and Lashonda Monk both average 12.8 points per game
Johnson has a team-best 6.3 rebounds per game, Monk has 104 steals and 86 assists, and Destiny Campbell has 34 blocks
Tulsa earned a 75-55 win over ECU earlier this season to take an 11-10 edge in the all-time series

Good Start

Tulsa's 9-7 start (now 12-15) 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.

An Accurate Shot

Crystal Polk is in fifth place among the school's all-time best with a .494 (342-693) field goal percentage in her career
Morgan Brady and Alexis Gaulden rank among the program's best three-point field goal shooters, as Brady is third (.379) and Gaulden is 10th (.359)
Maddie Bittle ranks among the best in free throw percentage, coming in at 10th with a 80-percent clip

Knocking Down Three's

Alexis Gaulden has knocked down 135 three-pointers in her career, which ties Kadan Brady (2011-15) in sixth place on the school's all-time list
Gaulden needs seven more to tie Tatum Beer (2007-11), who is in fifth place with 142 three-pointers made

Double-Doubles

Crystal Polk ranks eighth in program history with nine double-doubles. She just needs one more to move into fourth-place, tied with Lila Osceola, Carla Morrow, Allison Curtin and Tiffani Couisnard.

Single Season Marks

Morgan Brady, Alexis Gaulden and Crystal Polk have all earned their way onto the Tulsa Single-Season Leaders list
Brady ranks second in three-point field goal percentage on the year, shooting at a 42.4-percent clip
Gaulden ranks fifth with 123 assists and ninth with 55 three-pointers made this season
Polk ranks 10th in double-doubles with six double-doubles on the year

Freshman Making Marks

Maddie Bittle is shooting 80-percent from the free throw line, making her the third-best freshman free throw shooter in school history

Mossman Has 251 Career Wins

Matilda Mossman has collected 251 career victories
She has 67 wins at Arkansas, 80 wins at Kansas State and currently 104 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

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
TU currently sits in sixth place in the league standings, a six-place jump from the predicted finish

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

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.