Tigers Women's Basketball To Play At Tulsa Saturday

Saturday, January 23

Tulsa, Okla.

2 pm CT

University of Memphis

Tulsa

Tickets

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Tigers Women's Basketball To Play At Tulsa Saturday

Jan 22, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Memphis, Tulsa meet for the second time this season.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – This college basketball scenario is a familiar one: Unranked team upsets a ranked opponent. The next game the unranked team suffers a hangover and is unable to put together consecutive victories.

That's what the University of Memphis women's basketball squad (10-9, 4-4 The American) is guarding against when it travels to Tulsa, Okla., Saturday to face the Golden Hurricane (7-12, 4-4 The American) in an American Athletic Conference match-up. The Tigers face Tulsa in the first game after their thrilling 88-87 overtime victory over No. 15 nationally-ranked USF Jan. 20.

But, if history is any indicator, then Memphis may hold its own against the Golden Hurricane Saturday. In the last 25 seasons dating back to 1990-91, the Tigers have a 6-4 record in their first game after defeating a nationally-ranked team. To take it further, two of the four losses were to another – or second-straight – nationally-ranked team.

Under head coach Melissa McFerrin, Memphis is 1-0 in this scenario. In 2013-14, the Tigers upset No. 23 Rutgers 75-74 in overtime and followed that victory with a home win over Houston.

Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: tulsahurricane.com/watch
Live Stats: sidearmstats.com/tulsa/wbball
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• Tulsa leads the all-time series 7-6 and broke the series tie with a 65-59 victory in the teams' last meeting in Memphis Jan. 10. The Golden Hurricane have won four straight in the series. The Tigers' last win in the series was a 66-64 victory at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse in 2011-12. Memphis' last victory in Tulsa was back in the 2010-11 campaign, a 74-58 win at the Reynolds Center.

• The Memphis-Tulsa series has had some close calls in recent meetings. In the last eight encounters, the average margin of victory is 7.3 points. Of those eight games, five were decided by single digits. The Tigers and Golden Hurricane have split the last eight encounters.

• On Saturday, Memphis and Tulsa play their ninth game of the American Athletic Conference season. The Tigers and Golden Hurricane are the league's only two schools to play nine games to date. The two teams have played the most league games as a result of the front-end compressed conference schedule and no bye dates yet.

• Saturday's game features a pair of players that scored 33 points Wednesday. Memphis' Ariel Hearn and Tulsa's Ashley Clark each scored a career-high 33 points in league action Jan. 20. Hearn netted her career-high 33 points in the Tigers' 88-87 overtime upset win over No. 15 USF. Hearn also played every minute of the contest, setting a career high with 45 minutes played. For Tulsa, Clark scored her 33 points in the Golden Hurricane's 79-62 victory over Houston.

• When she gets the starting nod Saturday, senior Asianna Fuqua-Bey will record her 100^th career start. Fuqua-Bey will become only the eighth player in program history with 100 or more starts. Ariel Hearn recorded her 100^th career start earlier this season. Fuqua-Bey and Hearn are the second duo to reach 100 starts for a career in the same season since Kitty Allen and Heather Newlon did so in 1997.

Scouting Tulsa
The Golden Hurricane enter Saturday's American Athletic Conference match-up with a 7-12 overall record and a 4-4 league mark. Saturday's contest begins a short two-game homestand for Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane host No. 1 Connecticut Jan. 27. Tulsa has a 3-6 home record this season. The Golden Hurricane dropped their last two home contests, falling to Cincinnati and Tulane. Tulsa's last win at the Reynolds Center was back on Jan. 2, a narrow 56-54 victory over SMU.

The Golden Hurricane return three starters and eight letterwinners from their 2014-15 team. Ashley Clark (13.2 ppg) and Kelsee Grovey (10.0 ppg) both average double figures for Tulsa. Clark also is the squad's leading rebounder at 6.1 rpg. Erika Wakefield leads the Golden Hurricane with 63 assists (3.3 apg). Grovey is Tulsa's top three-point threat, taking 111 three-point attempts and hitting 32.4 percent from the arc.

Tulsa is shooting 39.4 percent from the floor, 29.9 percent from the three-point arc and 63.1 percent from the free throw line. Opponents are out-rebounding the Golden Hurricane by an average margin of +2.0 boards per game (38.6-40.6).