University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
Tulane
@MemphisWBKB On the Road at Tulane Saturday
Feb 19, 2015 | Women's Basketball
The University of Memphis women's basketball team (13-12, 7-7 American) will take a two-game winning streak on the road to Tulane (19-7, 10-5), Saturday, at 2 p.m.
Series History -- Tigers vs Tulane
This is the 41st meeting between Memphis and Tulane, but will be the first since the 2012-13 season, as the two teams were in different conferences last year and did not play one another.
Memphis leads the all-time series, 23-17, but has lost the last two meetings with Tulane, including a 72-62 loss in the Tigers' last trip to New Orleans.
Memphis is 10-9 all-time in games played in New Orleans and last won a game at Tulane in the 2007-08 season.
The Last Time We Met: Tulane
There are just two Tigers left on the roster from Memphis' last game against Tulane. Juniors Asianna Fuqua-Bey and Ariel Hearn are the lone two Tigers who played in the last meeting in Devlin Fieldhouse.
Nicole Dickson scored 31 points on 12-for-24 shooting in the last meeting off the bench. Both Fuqua-Bey and Hearn started for the Tigers. Fuqua-Bey finished with seven points and seven rebounds, while Hearn finished with seven points and five assists while shooting 2-for-12 from the field while battling first half foul trouble.
The Tigers trailed 25-24 at the half, but were out-scored 47-38 in the second half in the 72-62 loss.
Hearn Approaching 15 All-Time at Memphis
Ariel Hearn needs 29 more points to move in to the top 15 all-time at Memphis in scoring heading in to Saturday's game at Tulane.
She enters Saturday's game with 1,398 career points. She is eying Shannon Hamp's (1999-2003) mark of 1,429 points that currently sits 15th on the career scoring list.
If Hearn can get to the 1,500 career point mark this year, she will be in the top 13 at the school in scoring (1,510 is currently 12th). In her third season as a Tiger, Hearn is currently 258 points from moving to the career top 10 at Memphis. Former teammate Nicole Dickson (who scored 31 points in the Tigers' last game at Tulane) is currently 10th in Memphis history with 1,656 career points.
Career Night for Creighton vs UCF
Freshman forward Cheyenne Creighton got the Memphis bench powered up early in the win over UCF, Wednesday night.
Creighton played a career-high 31 minutes, which was much-needed for the Tigers as junior forward Asianna Fuqua-Bey played just three minutes in the opening half due to foul trouble and finished with just 14 minutes in the game and four fouls.
Creighton posted a career-best 12 points on 6-for-13 shooting, adding four rebounds, one assist and a block. Behind her effort off the bench, the Tiger bench out-scored UCF, 27-4.
Better Bench Output Part of Win Streak
The two Memphis wins have coincided with some more consistent scoring off the bench.
In the win at Houston, it was Courtney Powell stepping in to relieve a post corps that was battling foul trouble. Powell finished with seven points and five rebounds in 24 minutes. Wednesday, it was Cheyenne Creighton's career-best 12 points that got the bench started. Memphis also got solid contributions from Brea Elmore (7 points), Amber Holmes (two assists, one steal and two points in 18 minutes) and Powell again (six points, four rebounds).
Memphis is 9-2 when the Tiger bench out-scores its counterparts.
Williams Doubles up Against UCF
Sophomore guard Taylor Williams played a career-best 38 minutes in the win over UCF. The Kansas City native finished with 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting, adding career bests in free throws made (5) and attempted (6). The sophomore just missed a double-double, finishing with 7 rebounds. She also added 2 blocks and 3 steals, both career bests, in the win over the Knights.
Tigers Secure Sweep
With the win over UCF, the Tigers swept a third conference opponent. Memphis has swept the series with UCF for two straight seasons now. Memphis also swept the series with Cincinnati and Houston.
Memphis has two opponents on its schedule it only faces once a season, and in a schedule glitch, hasn't faced either one yet -- Tulane and SMU.
Saturday's meeting with Tulane will be the only one this year with the Green Wave (barring conference tournament play) and Memphis closes its regular season slate against SMU on Mar. 2nd.
Memphis will have to try to fight off being swept in its other two remaining season games. Memphis lost at Tulsa back in January, then lost to visiting UConn. Memphis hosts Tulsa, Tuesday, then travels to #1 UConn next Saturday.
Wilder-Cochran Misses Time to Injury
Sophomore point guard Breigha Wilder-Cochran has had a tough season. The returning point guard suffered an injury in the first practice of the fall and missed a lot of preseason work, then suffered a hand injury in the loss at USF on New Year's Eve and missed the next three games.
In the loss at Temple on Feb. 4th, she was tracking down her own missed field goal and collided with an Owl and suffered another injury. She has missed the last three games heading in to Saturday's game at Tulane.
