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Utah Women's Basketball Game #10 - Loyola Marymount
12/15/2004 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2004
Game #10
University of Utah (7-2) vs. Loyola Marymount (4-4)
2 p.m. (PST) Saturday, Dec. 18, 2004 - Gersten Pavillion
Los Angeles, Calif.
Radio: Hot Ticket 700 AM
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Utah-Loyola Marymount Fast Breaks
> This is just the third meeting on the hardwood between Utah and Loyola Marymount in women's basketball.
> Loyola Marymount leads the series 2-0.
> LMU won the first meeting between the two teams 50-48 in Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 1992. A little more than seven years later, the Lions came to Salt Lake City and took a 64-58 victory on Jan. 2, 2000.
> Loyola Marymount is a member of the West Coast Conference. Utah faces another member of the WCC later this season, when the Utes travel to Spokane, Wash. to visit Gonzaga.
> Utah holds an all-time record of 19-6 against the West Coast Conference.
Utah Head Coach Elaine Elliott
University of Utah head women's basketball coach Elaine Elliott is in her 22nd season at the helm of the Ute program.
Elliott has a career record of 444-180. She is the winningest coach in Utah basketball history. Elliott has led the Utah women to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, eight regular-season conference titles, three divisional crowns and five conference tournament championships. Elliott has been regarded for years as one of the best women's basketball coaches in the country. She has the longest tenure of any coach in the Mountain West Conference.
In 21 years, Elliott has had an astounding 20 winning seasons. She has been named her conference's coach of the year eight different times. Elliott has coached 28 first-team all-conference players and six players of the year.
Elliott was named the John and Nellie Wooden National Coach of the Year following the 2000-01 season.
Loyola Marymount Head Coach Julie Wilhoit
Julie Wilhoit is in her 10th season as the head coach of the Loyola Marymount University women's basketball team. She has a record of 240-214 in 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach. She is 119-144 in her 10th season at LMU.
A recipient of the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year award three of the last five seasons, she steered the Lions to 74 wins in the last four years, including LMU's first ever WCC Championship, an appearance in the 2003-04 NCAA Tournament, and consecutive appearances in the WNIT Tournaments in 1999-00 and 2000-01. At home, Wilhoit's Lions are 51-14 in Gersten Pavilion over the last five years.
Wilhoit has also made head coaching stops at Pitt-Bradford and Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI).
Utah Update
Utah's Kim Smith was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week after averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds in the Utes' two victories last week. While the conference doesn't hand out the award, the MWC single-game performance of the week could have gone to the Utes' Lana Sitterud.
Sitterud scored a career-high 27 points and hit seven-of-eight three-pointers in Saturday's 85-72 win over then-No.23/25 TCU.
The two teams combined for 15 three-pointers in the first half, with Utah hitting eight and TCU seven. TCU led 38-37 at halftime.
While both teams continued to bomb away from behind the arc. Only Utah continued the torrid pace of the first half. The Utes were seven-of-10 in the second half.
Kim Smith scored a season-high 25, while Shona Thorburn tallied 12 points and 11 assists in the victory.
Scouting Loyola Marymount
Loyola Marymount is 4-4 on the season and coming off a 66-59 setback at Cal Poly. The Lions have lost their last two, also falling at Southern California, 77-56.
LMU is paced by Jacquelyn Woods, a 6-foot senior from Ashland, Ore. Woods scores 11.3 points and pulls down 5.8 rebounds per game. The Lions' other double-figure scorer is Bianca Ziemann, a junior guard from Huntington Beach, Calif. Ziemann is averaging 11.1 points per game.
Junior center Jevay Grooms, the tallest player on the roster at 6-3, is Loyola Marymount's top rebounder, grabbing 7.4 boards per contest. While she has come off the bench in four of the eight games, Amanda Decoud is the Lions' catalyst, dishing out nearly three assists per contest.
RPI Ramblings
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association keeps track of the projected RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) for every team in NCAA Division I women's basketball. The weekly report is compiled by Richie Summerville for the WBCA. This week's WBCA/Summerville RPI shows Utah in the No. 15 position.
The most recent RPI ranking also shows that Utah's schedule is considered to be tougher now than it was at the beginning of the season. Prior to the season, the WBCA/Summerville ranking had Utah's schedule as the 55th toughest in the nation. The same ranking now lists Utah's schedule at No. 50.
Dialing Long Distance
Utah was 15-of-21 from behind the three-point arc in Saturday's victory over TCU. The Utes set a new school record for three-pointers in a game (the old record was 13). Meanwhile, Lana Sitterud also tied the Huntsman Center record for three-pointers in a game with seven (Erin Gibbons also accomplished that feat for Utah back in 1999).
Utah is hitting an average of 7.0 three-pointers per contest. The Utes rank No. 2 in the MWC in that category and No. 18 nationally.
Smith Snags MWC Honor
Kim Smith's total number of Mountain West Conference Player of the Week awards now finally equals her total number of MWC Player of the Year honors.
For just the second time in her career, the two-time MWC Player of the Year, was named the league's player of the week on Monday. Smith averaged a double-double (24 points, 10 rebounds) and scored season-high totals in both of her outings last week. Her 23 points against Weber State was a season-high until two nights later, when she scored 25 against nationally-ranked TCU.
Against Weber State, Smith had a double-double by the end of the first half (11 points, 10 rebounds) and finished with 23 points and 14 boards. She followed that up with a 25-point performance, including five-of-five shooting from three-point range in the Utes' 85-72 win over TCU.
Directing the Sho(w)
Junior guard Shona Thorburn has reached double-digit assists in two of her last four games.
Thorburn dropped 11 dimes against Utah Valley State on Dec. 2 to set a career-high mark. She then dished out another 11 helpers in the Utes' 85-72 win over nationally-ranked TCU Saturday.
For the season, Thorburn is averaging 6.7 assists per contest. She currently ranks No. 2 in the MWC in assists per game and No. 10 in all of NCAA Division I women's basketball.
Thorburn has been a big part of the Utah offense through the first nine games. She has had a hand in 49 percent of Utah's 201 field goals. She has scored 38 of field goals on her own and assisted on 60 others. Thorburn has also been Utah's leading scorer in three contests this season.
The Captain Was Here
Senior guard and three-time team captain Lana Sitterud was in the zone Saturday against TCU. Sitterud converted on seven of her eight three-point attempts, tying a Jon M. Huntsman Center record for treys in a game in the building.
Her 27 points against TCU was a career high.
For the season, Sitterud is converting at a rate of .452 from behind the arc. That's good enough for No. 6 in the MWC and No. 38 in the nation.
Sitterud's seven treys against TCU is tied for the season-high in the Mountain West.
-UU-
Players Mentioned
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