MONROE, La. - The ULM women's basketball team
begins the 2010 Sun Belt Tournament with the opening game on Saturday morning
at 9:45 a.m. against Denver. The tournament takes place in Hot Springs, Ark., with
all the contests being played inside Summit Arena.
ULM
(10-18) enters the tournament with a season-ending 63-58 victory over North
Texas on Senior Day last Saturday. Seniors Jesse Carrier and Shannon Davis
combined to score eight points, to go along with 13 rebounds in their last
outing inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum. Senior Ashley Wallis was also honored, but
was unable to compete due to a knee injury. Sophomore Elizabeth Torres led the
way with a career-high-tying 18 points.
Carrier
leads the squad in scoring with a 10.9 points per game average and a team-best
51 triples. Sannisha Williams is also scoring in double-figures, 10.7 per game,
while grabbing a team-high 8.4 rebounds per game.
The
Warhawks are 1-2 all-time in the Sun Belt Tournament, including a 71-62 upset
victory over the defending champions Western Kentucky in last year's
tournament.
Denver
(17-12) comes into the matchup as the No. 4 seed in the tournament. The
Pioneers have won three games in a row and four of their last five played. In
their last outing they defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 76-63 last Saturday. In the
contest Kaetlyn Murdoch scored a game-high 24 points and blocked a game-best
six shots, while Ashly Robinson hauled in 12 rebounds.
Murdoch
finished the season ranked fifth in the nation and first in the Sun Belt in
field goal percentage (62.5). She also led the league and ranked 12th in the
nation in blocks (87, 3.0 per game). Britteni Rice and Brianna Culberson each
averaged 14.5 and 13.9 points per game, respectively. Murdoch and Rice were
also named to the Sun Belt Conference post-season teams.
This
will be the third matchup of the season between the two teams, with Denver
capturing the previous two meetings. On Dec. 21, Rice stole the show with a
buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 63-62 victory. The Pioneers also walked away
with a 62-56 win inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Jan. 17.
