Game 27 - North Texas Game Notes (.pdf)

MOBILE, Ala. – With the regular season coming to a close, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team will look to improve its seeding in next month’s conference tournament when the Lady Jags close out the home portion of its 2012-13 schedule versus North Texas.  

If the Sun Belt Championships were to start today, South Alabama would enter play as the eighth seed and face Louisiana-Monroe, who currently holds the ninth seed.  A win versus the Mean Green or a loss by the Warhawks, will secure at least the eighth seed for USA. The Lady Jags still have an outside shot to climb as high as the sixth seed, but would need to win out and have both FAU and UNT lose their last three games.

Saturday’s game versus the Mean Green will also be the final game in the Mitchell Center for four Lady Jag seniors – Veronica Cherizol, Mansa El, Mary Nixon and Camille Reynolds.  Tip-off is set for 5:05 p.m.  The Jaguar seniors will be honored prior to the opening tip.

“This senior group has given a lot of themselves to this program,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said.  “They are high-quality people who I am certain will be very productive once they get their degrees from South Alabama.  They have been part of some significant wins during their time here.  It’s a good group of folks that will definitely be missed.”

During head coach Rick Pietri’s previous 12 “Senior Nights”, many of the seniors playing their final home have left the Mitchell Center with a good memory.  The Lady Jags holds a 9-3 record in those games and have won eight of the last 10.  Last season, USA completed a season-sweep of Western Kentucky with a dominant 70-33 victory over the Lady Toppers.  That group of seniors accounted for 45 of USA’s 70 points.

Live stats and live streaming of the contest between the Lady Jags and the Mean Green can be accessed at www.USAJaguars.com.  

South Alabama (14-12, 7-10 SBC) comes into Saturday’s game after falling at East Division leader Middle Tennessee (69-48) on Wednesday.  USA trailed by just seven at the break, but couldn’t overcome poor shooting as the Blue Raiders pulled away in the second half to take the 21-point victory.

Nixon - who had 13 points versus MTSU - enters the contest having recorded double figures in six of her last seven games.  The senior guard currently ranks 17th in the Sun Belt in scoring (11.5) and second in three-point shooting, knocking down 39.0 percent of her long-range attempts.  Nixon is also shooting 42.2 percent from the field.

El sits just outside of double figures with 9.2 points per outing.  

Freshman post player Brianna Wright continues her solid play, averaging 8.3 ppg and 5.3 rpg - third on the team in both categories.  Wright is also hitting 49.7 percent of her shots which ranks sixth-best in the league.  

Entering the game versus North Texas, junior forward Ronneka Robertson leads the team and is tied with Middle Tennessee’s Icelyn Elie for sixth in the Sun Belt in rebounding with 7.3 per outing.   She is also seventh in defensive rebounds with 4.8 per game and tied for tied for ninth in offensive rebounds with 2.5 and has posted six or more boards in 23 games.  

South Alabama continues to rank among the conference leaders in several categories.  USA leads the SBC in three-pointers per game (6.1), while also ranking second in scoring defense (54.8) and third in field-goal defense (.391), rebounding defense (35.7) and third three-point field-goal defense (27.4).

North Texas (10-17, 9-9 SBC) comes into action this weekend after falling at home on Wednesday to Florida Atlantic.  The Mean Green led by seven at the half, but were outscored by the Owls, 49-29 in the second half.  FAU shot 60 percent in the final stanza, while UNT shot 32.1 percent.  

The loss for the Mean Green was their fourth in their last five outings.  North Texas is 5-9 away from the Super Pit this season.  

As a team, North Texas ranks second in the Sun Belt in both three-point percentage and steals.  UNT is shooting 32 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 10.6 steals per game.  

The key player for the Mean Green in both those areas has been freshman guard Loryn Goodwin.  Goodwin leads the club with 63 treys this season - second most in the league - and a 38.9 three-point field-goal percentage, which ranks third in the SBC.  Goodwin also leads the conference in steals with 3.1 per contest.  She is also 23rd nationally in that same category.  Over the last 12 games, Goodwin has been the main offensive weapon for UNT as she is averaging 18.0 ppg and has scored 20 or more points five times.  Her 13.7 ppg average ranks 10th in the Sun Belt.

"An incredibly gifted offensive team,” Pietri noted of USA’s opponent on Saturday.  “They're great at the point guard positions, they're great at the off-guard position, in terms of offensive skill. (Loryn) Goodwin had back-to-back games a couple of weeks ago in which she had seven threes in each game. BreAnna Dawkins on the wing is a superior athlete and (Laura) McCoy is a great point guard. (Alexis) Hyder will probably be the freshman of the year in our league as their four player, just a big, strong kind who can face you up and post you up. And Sara Stanley, their five player, is a perfect fit for the group that they have. And then they bring a couple of good ones off the bench too. (They're) a very, very gifted offensive team and coach (Mike) Petersen runs some great stuff, some very creative stuff that works well with the pieces that he's got playing for him.

 "Defensively, they are going to press you and zone you, which is, for our league, a kind of step on the outside because this is a mostly a man-to-man primary league. So when you face them you're facing an entirely different type of defense which can put you off balance. When we went up there we couldn't make a shot. And you've got to be able to score with these guys with the amount of points they are capable of putting up.”

Along with Godwin, North Texas has several other offensive weapons as two other players are averaging double figures and two others sit just outside of double digits.  

Alexis Hyder - who is making a strong push for SBC Freshman of the Year honors - ranks 11th with 13.5 points per game and is fourth in rebounding with 8.2.  Hyder is also knocking down 49.3 percent of her shot attempts.

BreAnna Dawkins is averaging 10.4 ppg, while Laura McCoy and Sara Stanley are averaging 8.6 and 8.3, respectively.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

NOTES:  The meeting between South Alabama and North Texas will be the 22nd in the all-time series.  UNT holds a 14-7 advantage in the series, but the series is tied 5-5 in meetings in Mobile.  Under Rick Pietri, the Mean Green is 13-7 against USA.  South Alabama has won five of the last eight meetings in the series.  UNT snapped a two-game win streak by USA with a 67-47 win in Denton back in January.  The meeting will be just the second between Pietri and UNT head coach Mike Peterson will be the second between the two coaches.

-- USA --