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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Women's Basketball Notes
12/9/2003 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2003
SALT LAKE CITY -
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COMING UP:
The No. 21/22 Utah women's basketball team (5-2) hosts Washington State (4-2) at 3 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 13.
A QUICK LOOK AT UTAH:
The Utes lost by eight points - 73-65 - to No. 16/17 Oklahoma last Sunday. Both teams shot 47 percent from the field on the game, but Oklahoma hit 9-of-22 three-pointers, while Utah made just 2-of-14 (14 percent), a season low. The Sooners also out-rebounded Utah 36-30. Sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith led Utah with 18 points. Senior Mandie Little added 16, while sophomore Shona Thorburn and senior Kelsy Stireman added 12 and 10, respectively. Senior Carley Marshall finished with nine points as all 65 of the Utes' points came from starters.
On the season, Utah is led by Smith, who averages 17.4 points and 6.3 rebounds, and Thorburn, who adds 12.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists. As a team, the Utes are shooting 48 percent from the field and out-rebounding opponents 33.7 to 30.9.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Lindsey Egeland led a trio of Cougars who scored in double-digits with 14 points as Washington State captured a 56-49 win over Utah Valley State last Saturday. Jessica Perry added 12 points and nine rebounds and Adriane Ferguson recorded 10 points off the bench. UVSC out-rebounded WSU for the game 42-41 but the Cougars held the advantage on the boards in the second half 24-15.
The Cougars are led this season by Bianca McCall, who averages 11.0 points and 6.3 rebounds. Kate Benz and Perry add 8.0 points apiece.
SERIES SHORTS:
Utah leads the all-time series with the Cougars 8-1. The last time the two teams met, on Dec. 21, 2002, Utah won 85-50 in Pullman, Wash. The Utes are 3-0 at home, 4-0 away and 1-1 at a neutral site vs. Washington State.
ESPN/USA TODAY POLL DEC. 9, 2003
Rk. School 03-04 Total Last (first-place votes) Record Points Week1. Connecticut (40) 6-0 1000 1 2. Tennessee 3-0 950 3 3. Texas Tech 9-0 878 5 4. Duke 5-1 869 4 5. Stanford 5-0 803 6 6. Texas 7-1 802 2 7. Penn State 5-1 775 8 8. Minnesota 7-0 744 7 9. Georgia 5-1 658 9 10. Purdue 6-1 634 10 11. Kansas State 5-2 531 13 12. Louisiana Tech 3-1 528 11 13. Ohio State 4-0 519 14 14. Colorado 6-1 420 15 15. North Carolina 6-1 402 12 16. Oklahoma 6-0 376 17 17. UC-Santa Barbara 4-1 373 16 18. Virginia Tech 6-0 336 19 19. TCU 5-0 287 18 20. Boston College 7-0 193 24 21. LSU 3-2 176 2122. Utah 5-2 93 23 23. Washington 5-0 90 NR 24. Oregon 6-1 89 20 25. Rutgers 3-3 65 22
Others receiving votes: Arizona 61; DePaul 50; Michigan State 44; Auburn 41; Vanderbilt 35; Baylor 29; Houston 28; Clemson 27; Old Dominion 23; Southern Mississippi 15; Cincinnati 11; Villanova 11; Wisconsin-Green Bay 6; Marshall 4; Arkansas State 3; Colorado State 3; Montana 3; Notre Dame 3; Virginia 3; Arizona State 2; Harvard 2; Arkansas 1; California 1; Creighton 1; Georgia Tech 1; Pepperdine 1.
AP TOP 25 POLL DEC. 8, 2003
Rk. School 03-04 Total Last (first-place votes) Record Points Week1. Connecticut (47) 6-0 1175 1 2. Tennessee 3-0 1111 3 3. Duke 5-1 1054 4 4. Texas Tech 8-1 1022 5 5. Texas 7-1 951 2 6. Stanford 5-0 943 6 7. Penn State 5-1 936 8 8. Purdue 6-1 846 7 9. Minnesota 7-0 813 9 10. Georgia 5-1 734 11 11. Kansas State 5-2 638 12 12. Louisiana Tech 3-1 619 10 13. Ohio State 4-0 578 14 14. Oklahoma 6-0 499 16 15. UC-Santa Barbara 4-1 483 15 16. North Carolina 6-1 461 13 17. Colorado 6-1 438 17 18. LSU 3-2 356 18 19. Texas Christian 5-0 323 21 20. Virginia Tech 6-0 275 2321. Utah 5-2 192 19 22. Oregon 6-1 140 20 23. Boston College 7-0 122 NR 24. Auburn 6-2 114 25 25. Michigan State 5-1 74 24
Others receiving votes: Washington 63, Rutgers 56, Old Dominion 52, Baylor 39, DePaul 37, Vanderbilt 36, Arizona 32, Villanova 26, Notre Dame 9, Clemson 8, South Carolina 5, Virginia 5, Cincinnati 3, Richmond 2, Southwest Missouri State 2, Wisconsin-Green Bay 2.
MWC STANDINGS
W L Pct.UNLV 4 1 .800UTAH 5 2 .714 New Mexico 5 2 .714 BYU 4 2 .667 San Diego State 3 2 .600 Colorado State 3 3 .500 Wyoming 0 4 .000 Air Force 0 6 .000
MWC LEADERS:
As a team, the Utes rank in the top half of nearly every statistical category. Utah leads the conference in field goal percentage (.483), three-point field goal percentage (.411), rebounding defense (30.9), three-point field goal average (7.3) and assists (16.4), and ranks second in scoring (70.3), turnover margin (+3.4) and assist/turnover ratio (1.28), and third in scoring defense (57.4), scoring margin (+12.9), free throw percentage (.711) and steals (8.9).
Individually, sophomore Kim Smith ranks second in field goal percentage (.566), third in scoring (17.4) and three-point field goal average (1.9), ninth in offensive rebounds (2.4), 10th in three-point field goal percentage (.481) and 12th in rebounding (6.3). Sophomore Shona Thorburn ranks second in assists (4.6), third in three-point field goal average (1.9), sixth in defensive rebounds (5.3), eighth in assist/turnover ratio (2.7), 10th in rebounding (6.7), 11th in scoring (12.9) and 12th in three-point field goal percentage (.448). Senior Kelsy Stireman ranks second in steals (2.6) and eighth in assists (3.3), while senior Carley Marshall is eighth in field goal percentage (.490) and 10th in free throw percentage (.833). Sophomore Julie Wood is tied for first in free throw percentage (1.000), and second in both three-point field goal percentage (.625) and three-point field goal average (2.1). Senior Mandie Little leads the league in field goal percentage (.605), while senior Kim Hemenway is tied for first in free throw percentage (1.000), tied for fifth in three-point field goal percentage (.500) and tied for ninth in assist/turnover ratio (2.0). Junior Lana Sitterud is also tied for ninth in assist/turnover ratio (2.0).
RANKED VS. UNRANKED:
Utah is 0-2 vs. ranked teams and 5-0 vs. unranked teams this season. In its five wins, Utah has shot 52 percent from the field and 54 percent from three-point range. In its two losses, the Utes have combined for 46-of-114 (40 percent) from the field and just 7-of-42 (17 percent) from downtown.
UTES PICKED TO WIN MOUNTAIN WEST:
The Utah women's basketball team was selected as the unanimous favorite by the league's head coaches and select media to win the 2003-04 Mountain West Conference crown. The Utes received all possible first-place votes to repeat as MWC regular-season champions (coaches cannot vote for their own team). Brigham Young picked up the other first-place vote and edged New Mexico by one point to place second. Colorado State followed the Lobos at fourth place, with UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming and Air Force rounding out the poll.
SMITH, THORBURN NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MWC:
Sophomore Kim Smith was tabbed as the MWC preseason Player of the Year and sophomore Shona Thorburn was also named to the preseason all-conference team. Smith earned Top Returning Player honors following a freshman campaign that saw her named MWC Player and Newcomer of the Year (a conference first), Kodak honorable mention All-America, and a Freshman All-American by both Full Court Press and womenscollegehoops.com. She is one of 35 players and just three sophomores nationally named to the Wade Trophy preseason watch list.
Thorburn, a second-team all-conference pick last year, ranked sixth in the league in scoring, averaging 14.7 points per game. She led Utah in assists (3.3 per game) and minutes played (36.5) last season.
SMITH RECOGNIZED BY ESPN:
Utah sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith was honored by espn.com as the sixth-best wing in the nation. Wings are classified as "those players who make that pull-up jumper seem easy and slash to the hoop better than just about anybody else."
Listed ahead of Smith were the nation's leading scorer last season, two of the best players in the SEC, the best player in the Pac-10 and one of the top athletes in the Big Ten (Chandi Jones of Houston, Seimone Augustus of LSU, Tan White of Mississippi State, Nicole Powell of Stanford and Shereka Wright of Purdue).
HOME SWEET HOME:
The Utes have now won 19 games in a row at home, dating back to the 2001-02 season. Last year, the Utes went a perfect 13-0 at home. It was the ninth time Utah recorded an undefeated home season in the program's 30 years of existence. The Utes' last home loss came on Jan. 31, 2002, when Utah fell 79-71 to UNLV.
DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE:
Utah led the nation in scoring defense last season, giving up just 50.6 points per game. It was the third time in four years that the Utes had been the top defensive team in the country. Utah held 13 opponents under 50 points, including three under 40 and one to just 22 points. The Utes only allowed seven opponents to 60 points or more on the year.
UTES ON THE RADIO:
All but three of Utah's games this season will be broadcast on KALL-700 AM in Salt Lake City. Anchoring the broadcast team is KALL-700 AM Sports Director Brad Stone. In his 14th year with the station, Stone is the host of the Ute men's basketball and football game broadcasts. Stone is also the host of the "Redzone," an hour-long show devoted to Ute sports that airs from 9-10 a.m. Monday-Friday.
Utah's 2003-04 road games will be called by Chris Tunis, who served as the president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1999-2001. Tunis has been selected as Utah Sportscaster of the Year seven times by his peers.
The three games that won't be on KALL are Dec. 16, Feb. 21 and March 6. However, those three games will be broadcast via the Internet at www.utahutes.com.
INTERNET AUDIO/VIDEO BROADCASTS:
All regular-season Utah women's basketball home games will be available to be seen and heard on the Internet. To get to the game broadcasts, go to http://155.99.112.235/wbball/ or go to the women's basketball page at www.utahutes.com and click on "Watch/Listen to Utah Home Games Live."
To watch/listen to the broadcasts, you are encouraged to a have high speed internet connection. You will also need to have QuickTime Player installed on your computer. QuickTime Player is free software available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. Although this is an Apple product, it can be loaded onto both Apple and PC machines.
UTES TO MAKE FIVE TELEVISION APPEARANCES:
Utah will make a school-record five regular-season appearances on television this season. ESPN2 will televise the New Mexico at Utah matchup on Jan. 25, along with the title game of the conference tournament. Fox Sports Net will regionally televise three regular-season contests, including Utah at Colorado State (Jan. 17), Utah at UNLV (Feb. 8) and BYU at Utah (Feb. 28). MWC women's basketball will make its debut on College Sports Television (CSTV) when New Mexico hosts Utah on Feb. 19. CSTV will also televise the MWC Tournament semifinal games on March 12.
UP NEXT:
The Utes travel to Corvalis, Ore., where they will face Oregon State at 7 p.m. (PDT) next Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Players Mentioned
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