Tigers Women's Basketball Hosts Tulane Sunday

Sunday, January 3

Memphis, Tenn.

4 pm CT

University of Memphis

Tulane

Tickets

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Jan 01, 2016 | Women's Basketball

AAC home opener begins stretch of playing four games in seven days.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – On Sunday, "it" begins for the University of Memphis women's basketball squad.

The "it" is a stretch of playing four games in seven days that starts with the Tigers hosting Tulane in their American Athletic Conference home opener at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse at 4 p.m. (CT) Sunday. ESPNU is televising the Tigers-Green Wave match-up.

The reason for the NBA/WNBA-like schedule to start the 2015-16 conference slate is how the December calendar fell in 2015. At the annual spring meeting last May, the American Athletic Conference presented the league's coaches a conference schedule that started Dec. 27. The coaches, though, voted to move the league start date back to Dec. 30, but, in doing so, the small shift compressed the front end of many teams' conference slates.

Following Sunday's game against Tulane, Memphis hosts Houston Tuesday, Jan. 5 and then travels to Cincinnati for a Thursday, Jan. 7 contest. The Tigers wrap up their "four-games-in-seven-days" stretch Jan. 10 with a home game against Tulsa.

After this week, Memphis' conference schedule returns to normal with two games most weeks the remainder of the regular season. The Tigers have two weeks with only one game as a result of bye dates in the schedule.

TV: ESPNU
Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: ESPN3.com/WatchESPN
Live Stats: memphis.statbroadcast.com
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• Tiger Nation, a Happy New Year welcome to 2016! And, first games of the New Year have been good to the Tigers in the Melissa McFerrin era. In the previous seven seasons under McFerrin, Memphis has a 5-2 record in its first game played in the New Year. Last season, Memphis posted a 60-57 home overtime victory over East Carolina Jan. 4, 2015. In their first game of the 2012 calendar year (2011-12 season), the Tigers defeated Tulane 61-59 at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse Jan 5, 2012.

• Sunday's game is the Tigers' American Athletic Conference home opener. In the Melissa McFerrin era, Memphis has a 4-3 record in league home openers. The Tigers last won a conference home opener in the 2012-13 campaign, a 66-56 victory over East Carolina at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. In 2011-12, Memphis hosted the Green Wave in its league (then Conference USA) home opener, and the Tigers posted a 61-59 win over Tulane.

• Sunday's game is the Tigers' first home contest on television/web this season, this time on ESPNU. Overall, Memphis plays a school-record 14 games on television or web in 2015-16. The Tigers already played two games on ESPN3.com/WatchESPN and one on the Big Ten Network Plus (BTN Plus). Memphis still has four games set for ESPN3.com/WatchESPN, one for ESPNU and five for the American Digital Network (ADN).

• Memphis holds a 23-18 all-time series lead, but the Green Wave has won the last three encounters. Tulane posted a 75-65 win over the Tigers in the last meeting in New Orleans, La., Feb. 21, 2015. Memphis' last win in the series was a 61-59 victory at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse Jan. 5, 2012. The Tigers hold an 11-8 series edge over Tulane in games played in Memphis.

• Two milestones could be reached in Sunday's game. Senior Ariel Hearn could make her 100^th career start. If she starts Sunday's game, Hearn will become only the seventh player with 100 starts in the program's history. Senior Asianna Fuqua-Bey needs only one rebound to move into the top-10 on the Tigers all-time rebounding chart. She has 685 career boards, and with her first rebound, would tie LaTonya Johnson for the No. 10 spot (686 rebounds).

Scouting Tulane
The Green Wave bring a 10-3 overall record and a 1-0 league mark into Sunday's American Athletic Conference match-up. Tulane is on a seven-game win streak entering Sunday's game. The Green Wave won their conference opener with a 70-48 victory over Houston Dec. 30. The Green Wave have played only two true road games and have a 1-1 record in those contests. Tulane won its last road game, a 61-59 victory over Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.

Tulane returns only two starters and six letterwinners from the 2014-15 team. Sophomore guard Kolby Morgan is the Green Wave's leading scoring at 16.3 ppg. Junior guard Leslie Vorpahl is the team's second-leading scorer at 11.3 ppg. Senior forward Tierra Jones leads Tulane on the glass with a 6.1 rebounding average. Vorpahl leads the team in assists (71 total; 5.5 apg), and Morgan is tops on the team in steals (28 total; 2.2 spg). Tulane has three players — Vorpahl (44.8 percent), Taylor Emery (40 percent) and Morgan (38.6 percent) — that shoot 38 percent or better from the three-point arc.

Tulane is shooting 44.2 percent from the floor, 35 percent from the three-point arc and 68.9 percent from the free throw line. The Green Wave are out-rebounding their opponents by an average margin of +0.9 boards per game (37.1-36.2).