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Women's Basketball Heads on the Road for Final Two Regular Season Games
Golden Eagles take on Houston before travelling to league-leading TCU
Feb. 21, 2002 After a January in which the Golden Eagles were 6-1 and moved up to the top of the C-USA standings, Marquette is in a different situation halfway through February. The Golden Eagles are just 1-4 in the month and face two of the top three teams in the Conference USA standings to finish out the month and the regular season. Conference tournament positioning is on the line for both Marquette and its opponents as the season ends. The Golden Eagles have an outside shot at first-round bye, but need two victories. MU opens the weekend at Houston on Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. The Eagles meet TCU in the season finale on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m. With two wins, Marquette will still need help to earn the no. 4 seed at the Conference USA Tournament, scheduled for March 1-4 in Chicago. However, MU could end the season as low as the eighth seed. Scouting Houston After what seemed to be a slow start (9-5), Houston has quietly drug itself back into the Conference USA standings. The Cougars have won 10 of their last 11 to move to 9-3 in C-USA play and sit third heading into the final weekend. The Cougars have improved in the standings thanks, essentially, to the play of sophomore guard Chandi Jones. The C-USA Freshman of the Year last season, is making her first stretch run after suffering a season-ending injury last year. Jones has led Houston in scoring in each of the last 10 games, scoring no less than 19 in that span. She also has three 30+ games in that frame, with 37 points against Saint Louis and 35 against Memphis in her last two outings. She averages 22.4 per game at this point in the season. Jones is part of a high scoring Houston attack which puts up 70.2 points per game. Shondra Bush adds 10.8 per game and Valerie Muoneke contributes 10.8 per game. The Cougars hit 40.3 percent of their shots and put up 64 shots a game.
Possible Starters Scouting TCU TCU is in search of its second different conference crown in as many years. Winners last year of the Western Athletic Conference, the Horned Frogs are one win away from claiming the C-USA regular season title and the no. 1 seed in the C-USA Tournament. The 20-5 Frogs are certainly a far cry from the days with Fran Garmon and Shell Robinson as coach. After a stretch of three wins in two seasons, the situation changed at TCU and the Horned Frogs are now amongst the teams expected to receive an NCAA bid. The Horned Frogs are led by junior college transfer Kati Safaritova. The Slovakian averages 13.4 points per game and has upped her average to 13.9 in conference play. She is accurate from all parts of the floor, hitting an astonishing 51.7 percent from the field, with a 37.5 percent from behind the three point arc. Sandora Irvin is also a force for TCU, averaging just shy of a double double with 11.4 points per game and a 9.2 boards per game average.
Possible Starters Mitchell Becomes MU Basketball's All-Time Winningest Coach With a 65-44 win over Tulane on Jan 27, 2002, head coach Terri Mitchell surpassed Tat Shiely with the most wins ever for a Marquette women's basketball coach. Mitchell set the mark in her 167th game. In her basketball career, Shiely was 111-148 (259 games). Mitchell became the fastest MU women's basketball coach to reach 100 wins, with an 88-50 victory over Alaska Anchorage earlier in the season. Shiely is the only other MU women's basketball coach to have won 100 games. She won her 100th game in her 217th career contest. Mitchell became the seventh MU coach in the five team sports to reach 100 wins. Mitchell joined men's basketball coaches Bill Chandler (193-198), Al McGuire (295-80), Hank Raymonds (126-50) and Mike Deane (100-55), men's soccer coach Steve Adlard (106-80-17, current), as well as Shiely who won 380 times in volleyball and 111 times in women's basketball. Mitchell is also the winningest coach in terms of percentage. Including this season, Marquette has won 67.1 percent of its games in which Mitchell has been the head coach. MU Seventh in the Nation in Field Goal Percentage Defense Marquette is known for its defensive ability. Currently, the Golden Eagles are allowing just 59.7 points per game and have surrendured more than 70 points just once in regulation all season (East Carolina scored 70 points in an overtime game against Marquette). Marquette has kept it's opponents shooting percentages down, allowing the opposition to shoot just 35.0 percent. only three times this season has a team shot better than its percentage coming into the game. Against Colorado State, MU held the Rams to its lowest shooting percentage of the season, 27.7. The Golden Eagles held South Florida, an 86 points per game team, to 54 points. MU also put the clamps on the UAB offense, allowing the Blazers to shoot just 22.6 percent. Marquette performed one of its best defensive efforts against Tulane, holding the Green Wave 28 points below their average and 23 percentage points below their season field goal percentage. Through games of Feb. 10, Marquette was seventh in the nation in field goal percentage defense and 20th in points per game allowed. Everybody Plays, Everybody Contributes In Marquette's matchup with Tulane, 11 of the 12 players saw time on the floor and all 11 of those had at least one point and one rebound. In fact, 10 of the 11 players on the floor had at least two points and two rebounds. This is not a rare occurrence this season for Marquette. Against Saint Louis and UAB, all 12 Golden Eagles had at at least one rebound. Against Wisconsin, all nine players who took the floor had at least one rebound. Of those nine, only Kyle Bogott didn't have a point against the Badgers. Five other times this season has 11 of the 12 players grabbed at least one rebound. Klug Becomes Marquette's Playmaker Junior center Rachel Klug (Cedar Grove, Wis.) has stepped up her play in the 2001-02 season. A career 2.4 points per game scorer heading into the year, Klug has upped her average from a year ago from 3.1 to 13.0, tops on the team. Klug has scored in double figures 17 times this season, tossing in a career high 23 against Dayton and 20 or more three other times. Klug has led Marquette in scoring 15 times this season. Johnson On Her Mark Senior guard Kristi Johnson (Holmen, Wis.) proved why she is a team leader and has been asked to start in every contest of her career (112). Johnson had four three pointers against Arkansas State to add to her significant career totals. She currently has 158 three pointers made, trailing Kristen Maskala for second (160). She tied a career high against South Florida with eight assists and currently has 333 career assists. She is in eight all time at MU and trails Maskala for eighth (340). The Schwerman-ator Sophomore guard Kelly Schwerman (Waukesha, Wis.) came off the bench to score a career high 15 points in victory over South Florida. Against East Carolina, she tossed in 12 points, marking the fifth time this season that Schwerman has scored 10 or more points and MU has won. She has also scored 13 against Arkansas State, 11 against Alaska Anchorage and 10 against Wis.-Milwaukee. She scored 13 against Louisville, but that came in a losing effort, marking the only time that she has topped double figures and MU has lost. However, she started against Louisville, keeping her record at 5-0 when she scores 10 or more points off the bench. She is third on the team in scoring with 7.0 points per game. All's Well for Alsdurf Freshman guard Katie Alsdurf (Forest Lake, Minn.) is no stranger to the Marquette offense. She has attempted more shots (224) than everyone on the team except Rachel Klug. She is second to Klug on the squad in scoring at 8.0. Alsdurf set a career high with 19 points against Dayton on Dec. 12. She has been in double figures in scoring nine times on the year, leading the team in scoring with 11 against Charlotte. She came off the bench for 13 points against East Carolina. Gales Makes Difference in Starting Lineup Junior guard Rashida Gales (Burnsville, Minn.) worked her way into the starting lineup after a 15 point performance against Saint Mary's. In her four starts after the game against the Gaels, she scored at least 10 points, with that string ending with four points against Saint Louis. Against the Billikens, however, Gales set a career high with five assists. She returned to the double figure mark with 12 points each against Memphis and Southern Miss. Gales has upped her average to 6.8 points per game after a slow start to her season. She missed the first two games of the year rehabilitating from a knee injury. By her recent play, Gales has shown no lingering effects of the early season injury. Keeping it Close Marquette has a penchant for making games tight this season. On five occasions this year has an MU game gone down to the final shot. Despite leading by as many as 16 against Arkansas State, MU held on to win by three. ASU had the ball with two seconds left for a desperation heave to tie. Against Wis.-Milwaukee, the game went down to several shots for UWM at the end of regulation and overtime. MU prevailed in that one, 67-65. Marquette couldn't make last-second shots in games against both Michigan State and Wisconsin, losing by two and one respectively. The Golden Eagles won by four points in two other games, but both Saint Mary's and Colorado State had opportunities to tie within the game's final minute. Conversely, MU had the ball down two to DePaul with under 20 seconds to go, but could not get off a shot to potentially tie the game. Against East Carolina, teams traded baskets down the stretch before a missed and made free throw by ECU's Samantha Pankey sent the game to overtime. Marquette eventually won, 78-70. Hot Start With a 6-1 start, Marquette got off to its best start in conference play since the 1999-2000 season. Marquette won its first six in Conference USA play that year before losing game seven to sit at 6-1. The Golden Eagles then won eight in a row before losing last game of the C-USA season to finish at 14-2. From the Pine Against Saint Louis and Memphis, MU received 77 points from the bench (44 vs. SLU and 33 vs. Memphis) to continue the fine play from the non starters. In all this season MU's bench has been extremely productive, also scoring as many as 48 against Alaska Anchorage, 36 against Dayton, 26 in the South Florida contest, 25 against Michigan, and three others with 23 or more. MU's smallest bench outing was 10 points against Wisconsin, however MU reserves played just 49 of 200 minutes. The Golden Eagle bench has accounted for 631 of Marquette's 1,553 points (40.6 percent). Four-Point Play Senior guard Kristi Johnson extended a nine point lead to 14 on one possession against Tulane. With 14:41 left in the contest, Johnson launched a three that scored and was fouled in the process by Kinya Lennix. The subsequent free throw gave Johnson a four-point play. But it was not Marquette's first of the season. Sophomore guard Kelly Schwerman was the beneficiary of a three-pointer and free throw against Michigan State at the 4:35 mark in the first half. Johnson's four-point play was the seventh in school history. No Player of the Week Honors Despite three two-win weekends and a fourth week in which MU knocked off nationally-ranked Colorado State, the Golden Eagles have not had a player named Conference USA Player-of-the-Week this season. While that may look like a snubbing by the league office, it is more a testament to the balance of the Marquette offensive attack and defensive presence. In wins over Southern Miss and Tulane, only one MU player averaged more than 10 points a game, Rachel Klug with 12.0. DePaul's Lenae Williams averaged 29.0 points per game to win the award. A similar outcome happened after wins over Memphis and Saint Louis when Chandi Jones of Houston and Tierra Lassiter of Southern Miss received the nod. In wins in the previous week over South Florida and UAB, Klug scored 15.0 points per game, but was overshadowed by a 21.3 per game weekend by Cincinnati's Valerie King. Lineup Alphabetically by Height In the first 12 games of the season, Marquette used five different starting lineups, providing mixed results. The most successful was that of Kristi Johnson, Katie Alsdurf, Crystal Weaver, Kristin Seffern and Rachel Klug. That quintet was 5-3. However, Marquette started the same five for the last eight games before the Charlotte game, defeating a top 25 team in Colorado State and went on a six game win streak. The lineup of Johnson, Rashida Gales, Alsdurf, Seffern and Klug is currently 7-2. Marquette has since Johnson, Gales, Weaver, Klug and Zawodny in its last three games, going 1-2. Most recently, MU started Johnson, Gales, Kelly Schwerman, Klug and Seffern against Louisville. Winning Streak A loss to DePaul on Feb. 3, ended Marquette's six game winning streak. The last time Marquette won six or more in a row was in the 1999-2000 season when the Golden Eagles had two such streaks. The string reached eight from Jan. 28-Feb. 20, 2000 and was at six earlier in the season from Nov. 26-Dec. 8, 1999. This is the 12th streak in school history of six or more wins. The longest win streak in school history came during the 1997-98 season when the team won 13 straight from Dec. 14, 1997-Jan. 25, 1998. Pouring on the Points Marquette scored 91 points against Dayton, its highest total since a Feb. 3, 2000, win over Southern Miss, 95-86. Marquette also scored 88 against Alaska Anchorage on Nov. 21, 2001. Last season, Marquette scored only 80 or more points once in a double overtime loss to Colorado State, 83-82. The Golden Eagles have eclipsed the 70 mark four times this season. That occurred three times for Marquette last season, with two coming in overtime games. Double Time Marquette is 4-0 this season when four or more players score double figures. Against Alaska Anchorage, five players hit for at least 11 points. Starters Rachel Klug and Katie Alsdurf each scored 12. Lesley Juedes, Kelly Schwerman and Kylee Bogott each scored 11 off the bench. Against South Florida, Schwerman led the way with 15 off the bench, Alsdurf scored 14, Klug added 11 and Rashida Gales scored 10. MU beat Memphis, 77-61, with 12 points from Gales and Sarah Zawodny, 11 from Alsdurf and 10 from Kristi Johnson. The Golden Eagles toppled East Carolina, 78-70, thanks to 22 from Klug, 13 each from Zawodny and Alsdurf and 12 from Schwerman. Rebounding is the Key Marquette set a season high with 50 rebounds against La Salle, with 21 offensive boards. In part, rebounding was a big key to the MU win. Rachel Klug set an MU individual season high with 13 boards. MU has had a 17 rebound advantage (against South Florida and La Salle), a 15 board advantage (against Dayton) and a 13 rebound advantage (against DePaul) this season. The Golden Eagles outrebounded UAB by six boards. While that figure is on par with MU's season average, it is impressive when considering that UAB held a +16 rebound advantage coming into the game. Marquette has been outrebounded just three times this year. MU holds a 4.5 per game rebound advantage and is 13-5 when outrebounding its opponents. Taking Everything that is Free Marquette has made the most of its opportunties from the free throw line this season. The Golden Eagles are second in the conference in percentage at 71.5 and have not shot below 70 percent in eight games of their last nine games. MU is 7-4 when shooting 70 percent or better. Kelly Schwerman leads the team and is second in the conference in free throw percentage at 86.9. Tough Schedule for the Golden Eagles Marquette currently owns the nation's 49th toughest schedule, according to CollegeRPI.com. After the non-conference season, MU's schedule was ranked 19th. Currently, MU's non-conference opponents own a 199-119 (62.6 pct.) record with an average RPI of 80.5. MU has played just three teams in non-conference out of the top 100 in the RPI (not including Division II Alaska Anchorage). Conference USA is ranked eighth among all conferences. Marquette is ranked 79th in the RPI. TCU leads the conference at 29th. In all, 17 of MU's 27 opponents advanced to postseason play last year - 11 played in the NCAA Tournament and six went to the WNIT. On the schedule for 2001-02, Marquette meets defending champion Notre Dame. The Golden Eagles also meet with Iowa State, who advanced to the Elite Eight. Saint Mary's, Iowa, TCU, Michigan and Colorado State are MU's opponents this season who advanced to the second round last season. From Way Downtown Marquette hit 10 three pointers in its win over Arkansas State, setting a season high. Marquette had not hit more than six prior to its explosion against the Lady Indians. Against ASU, Marquette was 10-of-15 from behind the arc, the eighth best three-point shooting day in the nation this season. Hitting the three is a Marquette trait that usually leads to a victory. Marquette is 10-3 when outshooting its opponent from three and is 5-0 when shooting 45 percent or better. MU hit 46.7 percent of its three pointers in its recent win against South Florida and 44.4 percent against UAB. Rank and File Marquette has played four teams ranked in the top 25 this season, owning a 1-3 record. MU's 56-52 win over Colorado State on Jan. 2 marked the first time that the Golden Eagles have defeated a ranked team since a victory over 21st ranked Tulane on Feb. 5, 1999. Numbers Game The magic number for Marquette this season appears to be 65. The Golden Eagles are 13-0 when scoring 65 points or more. At 63 points, Marquette is 1-1. Another number Marquette likes to hit is the 45 percent shooting mark. Marquette is 8-0 when shooting 45 percent or better. The Golden Eagles are 9-1 at 42.4 percent or better. And, of course, it goes without saying that the Golden Eagles are successful when leading with five minutes to play. Marquette is 13-1 in that situation. Miscellaneous Notes ... Despite tying or outrebounding its opponents on all but two occasions, MU has just four double figure rebounding games by a player this season, a testament to the balance of rebounding on the team ... MU set a season high in shooting percentage against Dayton (57.4 percent) ... 10 minutes into the UD contest, Marquette was hitting at a 78.0 percent clip ... Conversely, MU set a season low against Notre Dame at 18.5 percent and was hitting 0.0 percent 12 minutes in ... MU had 21 offensive rebounds against La Salle, two short of its season high of 23 vs. Iowa ... Marquette grabbed a season-high 50 rebounds against the Explorers ... the last time MU had 50 boards was on Feb. 23, 2001, in a 67-31 win over Saint Louis ... Freshman guard Katie Alsdurf was scoreless for the first time in her career after not scoring against Colorado State; she did not score against Saint Louis ... Marquette was able to defeat South Florida despite shooting 46.7 percent from the line and setting a season-high 29 turnovers ... MU was advantageous on the boards against USF, grabbing 48, its second-highest total of the year ... against UAB, all 12 players had at least one rebound and 11 players scored; only Kristin Seffern, the leader in rebounds with 12, was scoreless ... MU also had all 12 players grab a rebound against Saint Louis ... Marquette can still get a first round bye in the upcoming C-USA tournament; if the Golden Eagles go 2-0, DePaul goes 0-2, Louisville loses to Cincinnati and Charlotte loses one of its final two, MU will be in fourth ... Marquette can also be as low as the eighth seed by losing twice, Charlotte defeating Southern Miss and Tulane winning twice. Hearing the Golden Eagles All Marquette women's basketball home games and select road games can be heard on the radio or at the Marquette athletics web site. WJYI 1340 AM will broadcast eight contests while WISN 1130 AM will carry seven contests. Play-by-play broadcaster Kent Sommerfeld and analyst Kareeda Chones, bring you all the action. The Terri Mitchell Show Saturdays on WISN 1130 AM, Kent Sommerfeld and Terri Mitchell bring you the Terri Mitchell Show. Each show will preview upcoming games, feature players and talk everything that is going on with MU basketball. The show is weekly at varying times. Upcoming Television Schedule Six of Marquette's regular season contests were broadcast on television this season. Marquette's home games against Memphis, Tulane and Cincinnati were carried by the C-USA Television Network, telecast locally on WMLW Ch. 41. The Golden Eagles' game against East Carolina was aired in Greenville, N.C., on WITN-TV. That game will also aired on WMLW. MU's Jan. 6 contest against DePaul was aired locally on WMLW Channel 41 as was the Jan. 13 contest against UAB. The Conference USA championship game is scheduled to air on ESPN2. Contacting Coach Mitchell Terri Mitchell will be available by phone on Mondays from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (CST) to discuss matchups for the current week. Contact women's basketball administrative assistant Monica Schwarz at (414) 288-5784 to make arrangements to speak with Mitchell during that time. For in person or radio interviews, contact assistant SID Blain Fowler at (414) 288-6980 for arrangements. |
