University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
#2 Connecticut
@MemphisWBKB Hosting #2 UConn, Saturday
Feb 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball
The University of Memphis women's basketball team (11-11, 5-6 American) hosts #2 Connecticut (21-1, 11-0 American), Saturday, at 2:30 p.m. at FedExForum. Admission will be free for the women's game against the defending national champs.
Series History -- Tigers vs UConn
This is just the third meeting in the all-time series between Memphis and the defending national champs. UConn leads the overall series, 2-0, sweeping both games last season.
Memphis is 0-5 all-time versus teams ranked No. 2 in the country. All five of those previous meetings were against Tennessee. The Tigers are 19-77 all-time versus ranked teams.
Memphis last win over a ranked opponent was a 74-73 overtime win over No. 23 Rutgers last season in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
In Our Last Meeting
The Tigers struggled protecting the basketball in our last meeting with Connecticut, turning the ball over 26 times. Connecticut turned those 26 turnovers in to 26 points. The Huskies led 39-23 at the half in the game at the XL Center in Hartford, but UConn got 24 points in the paint in the second half to put the game well out of reach for the final 83-49 score.
Breigha Wilder-Cochran led the Tigers in the game at UConn, finishing with 12 points, while Asianna Fuqua-Bey finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
That last meeting at UConn was the first of back-to-back games against top five ranked opponents for Memphis last year. After playing at UConn, the Tigers then stayed on the road and played at No. 5 Louisville.
Hearn 12 Shy of 16th All-Time at Memphis
Ariel Hearn is 12 points shy of moving to a tie for 16th all-time on the Memphis scoring charts. Entering Saturday's game, she has 1,357 career points. She is trying to get to 1,369 career points, where fellow Memphis native Paris Leonard (2005-09) sits 16th all-time in scoring.
If Hearn can move to the Tiger top 15 in scoring (70 points away), she will become just the third player in the Tigers' top 15 to play under Melissa McFerrin at Memphis. Nicole Dickson (10th with 1,656 points) and Brittany Carter (14th with 1,437 points) are the two Tigers currently in the top 15 who have played for McFerrin in her first seven years at Memphis.
Hearn already ranks seventh in school history with 147 career three-point field goals made. Her 51 triples already this year is just two away from a single season top 10 mark. She just missed a single season school record last year, knocking down 69 threes.
Memphis in Two-Game Skid
Memphis missed a chance against second-place USF in the Tigers' last home game, falling 57-53, in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
It was the worst time to start a skid in the Tigers' schedule with a road game at fourth-place Temple and Saturday's home game against UConn looming on the slate.
Memphis has not lost three straight games since suffering a four-game setback that included losses at Illinois, against Minnesota, at Southern Illinois and against UALR. Of those four teams, both Illinois and Southern Illinois have suffered injuries that have dropped their overall RPI, but both Minnesota and UALR are projected as NCAA tournament teams.
The Tigers need to quickly right the ship, as four of their last seven games are against teams currently above them in the league standings and two of those being road games (at Tulane and at Connecticut).
Change of Role for Hearn
In the early part of the conference schedule, the Tigers utilized Ariel Hearn mostly at the two-guard spot. The hand injury suffered by Breigha Wilder-Cochran in the first game with USF changed that. Memphis started freshman Amber Holmes in the next game (a win vs. East Carolina), but in the three games that Wilder-Cochran missed, Hearn ran the point for the Tigers.
Even with Wilder-Cochran back in the lineup, Hearn has spent a lot of time at the point. In the last seven games, she has handed out six or more assists in three games and is averaging 34.8 minutes a game in that same stretch.
Finding Second and Third and Fourth Scorers
In 13 of Memphis' 22 games, the Tigers' leading scorer has been Ariel Hearn. Finding consistent scorers to help pull defensive attention away from her has been the Tigers' challenge as of late. In the loss at Temple, Hearn was the Tigers' only double-digit scorer.
Two other Tigers finished with nine points in the game, and both are good candidates to help offset the scoring load. Brianna Wright finished with nine points on 4-for-8 shooting and is averaging 8.5 points per game in the last four games (where the Tigers are 2-2). Mooriah Rowser also added nine points off the bench, including her first three since the Dec. 31st game at USF, and is averaging 9.8 points per game in the last four contests. Her 16 points in the win at Cincinnati was the conference slate for Memphis and her consistency at the free-throw line has helped, as she is 8-for-8 over the last 3 games.
Memphis is 2-4 when just one player scores double-digits and is 2-0 when four players score in doubles.
Beyond the Arc
In the Tigers' first two games of the season, five different players (Hearn, Rowser, Williams, Creighton and Wilder-Cochran) landed a three-point field goal. So imagine the Tiger coaching staff's surprise when at game #22 on the season, just two players had double-digit three-point field goals made (Hearn with 51 and Elmore with 10).
Six seems to be Memphis' magic number from beyond the arc. In games where Memphis has hit six triples as a squad, they are 5-2. The two losses in there? Minnesota and USF, both projected NCAA tournament teams in the latest ESPN Bracketology.
