University of Massachusets Athletics
Women's Basketball Game Notes
November 22, 2000 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2000
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THIS WEEK'S ACTION The University of Massachusetts (1-1/0-0 Atlantic 10 Conference) hosts the College of the Holy Cross (1-2/0-0 Patriot League) Sunday, November 26, at 2:00 p.m and then, two days later, Dartmouth College (0-2/0-0 Ivy League) at 7:00 p.m. in the Mullins Center.
HEAD COACH JOANIE O'BRIEN Joanie O'Brien is in her 10th season at the helm of the UMass women's basketball program. The all-time winningest coach in UMass history, O'Brien has compiled a 136-125 (.521) record in those years. The 1994-95 Atlantic 10 Coach-of-the-Year, O'Brien has led the UMass women's basketball program to new heights during her tenure. The architect of the school's only 20-win season, O'Brien has directed the Minutewomen to their only two NCAA Tournament appearances (1996 & 98). A 1986 graduate of Penn State, O'Brien was a four-year letterwinner for the Lady Lions, playing for the highly successful Rene Portland. O'Brien was a part of the Lady Lion program that captured four consecutive Atlantic 10 titles and made four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. O'Brien joins former UMass men's coaches Kid Gore (119), Jack Leaman (231 - 217 men's wins, 14 women's wins) and John Calipari (193) in the UMass basketball century club. She trails only Leaman and Calipari in the victory column.
THE GEORGIA RECAP Kelly Miller scored 27 points as fifth-ranked Georgia overcame a sluggish start to beat UMass 71-63 last Sunday (Nov. 19). The Lady Dogs scored only one basket in the first eight minutes, shot 26 percent in the first half and led by only one with 12 minutes to play. But Georgia (1-1) picked up the offensive intensity and effectiveness in the second half. UMass (1-1) was led by Jennifer Butler (Brooklyn, N.Y.) with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Kathy Coyner (Belpre, Ohio) scored 15. Christi Thomas came off the bench for Georgia to score 17 points. Kelly Miller's twin, Coco Miller, scored 16. Georgia hit only one of its first 12 field-goal attempts, a put-back by Tiaunna Briggans. UMass was not much more effective and led only 8-2 with 11:28 to go in the first half after Cleo Foster's (Toronto, Ontario) free throw. Georgia's pressing defense enabled the Lady Dogs to take their first lead of the game on a 3-point play by Thomas and a 3-point goal by Kelly Miller. The six points during a 26-second span gave Georgia a 15-10 lead. The Lady Dogs picked up the pace in the second half as Kelly Miller hit a 3-pointer and a layup in the first minute. Thomas' two free throws at 18:32 gave Georgia a 31-24 lead. But the Minutewomen twice cut the margin to one point, the last time at 12:06 on a short jumper by Amber Sneed (Cincinnti, Ohio). Thomas countered with a 3-point play and a 3-point field goal, stretching the lead to 49-42 with 11:36 to go. UMass closed to 63-59 on a layup by Siiri Liivandi (Rapla, Estonia) with 2:43 to go, but Kelly Miller's 3-point play with 1:51 to go effectively clinched the victory, putting Georgia up 66-59.
SMITH OUT FOR THE SEASON Junior forward/center Nekole Smith (Ann Arbor, Mich.) dislocated her left knee during practice on November 4th and will be out of the Minutewomen's lineup for the season. The injury occurred when Smith, a 6-2 junior, made a jump stop. As a sophomore Smith saw action in every game, finishing second in scoring and rebounding with nine points and 5.9 rebounds per game. As a freshman, she played in all 30 games for UMass, finishing as the team's third leading scorer, with 9.2 points per game, while leading the team with 17 blocks en route to being named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team.
BUTLER NAMED A-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK Jennifer Butler was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Player-of-the-Week as announced by the conference office on November 19. Butler led UMass in scoring and rebounding while recording her first career triple-double in the Minutewomen's season opening 64-48 win over Charlotte on November 17. Butler scored a career-high 19 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had a school record 10 steals in the game.
SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS Holy Cross lost its first two games of the season to Fairfield (58-63) and Siena (68-82) before getting its first win against New Hampshire (87-60) Tuesday (Nov. 21) night. Junior guard Jeanette Paukert (13.3), junior forward Elisa Zawadzkas (12.0) and sophomore center Katie O'Keefe (11.3) are all averaging double-digits for the Crusaders. Monkia Rothemich leads the team defensively with 6.3 rebounds per game while Zawadzkas and O'Keefe are second and third, respectively, averaging 5.3 and 5.0 rebounds per game. As a team, Holy Cross is shooting 40.4 percent while allowing its opponents to shoot 52.3 percent. It is also being outrebounded by an average of 7.3 boards per game.
SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN Dartmouth has lost its first two games of its season, falling to Siena (58-80) and Vermont (52-72). Senior guard Sherryta Freeman leads Dartmouth with 16 points per game followed by sophomore forward Katie Skelly with nine.
UMASS VERSUS HOLY CROSS & DARTMOUTH Holy Cross holds a 6-4 series advantage over UMass, including a 78-65 win in the two team's last meeting on November 23 of last season. Kathy Coyner had 14 points in that game while Jennifer Butler had 15 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. Dartmouth won the last meeting, 72-70, on December 11, 1998, to tie the series at eight games apiece in that series. Coyner had six points and eight boards to lead all returnees.
TEAM CAPTAINS SELECTED Kathy Coyner and Nekole Smith were selected to serve as co-captains this season. It is Coyner's second season serving as a co-captain.
MINUTEWOMEN TO FACE THREE TEAMS RANKED IN THE TOP 15 THIS SEASON Not only does UMass have eight teams on its schedule that participated in the NCAA Tournament last season (Georgia, Dartmouth, Stanford, Rutgers, St. Peter's, St. Joseph's, Xavier and George Washington), it had three ranked in the top 15 of the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Preseason Poll. Georgia was ranked third while Rutgers and Stanford were seventh and 14th, respectively. In the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll, Georgia was also third followed by Rutgers in eighth and Stanford in 11th. UMass' strength of schedule ranked it 121 out of 315 Division I schools in the WBCA/Summerville RPI.
ATLANTIC 10 COACHES PREDICT UMASS TO FINISH FOURTH The Minutewomen were picked to finish fourth this season in the Atlantic 10 Conference preseason poll as voted on by the A-10 head coaches. Defending A-10 champion Xavier was selected as the preseason favorite to win the regular season. Xavier took nine first place votes, followed by George Washington, which garnered two first place votes. St. Joseph's, UMass and Dayton round out the top five. La Salle University was tabbed sixth, followed by Temple and St. Bonaventure in seventh and eighth, respectively. Duquesne and Fordham tied for ninth and Rhode Island was picked eleventh.
BUTLER AND COYNER GARNER PRESEASON ALL-ATLANTIC 10 HONORS Jennifer Butler and Kathy Coyner, for the second straight year, were selected to the preseason all-conference third team. Butler led the team, and finished 18th nationally, with 10.5 rebounds per game and finished third among her teammates with 8.9 points per game en route to being selected to the 1999-2000 all-Rookie Team. Coyner averaged a team-leading 5.7 assists per game while scoring 8.1 points per contest to finish fourth in scoring. She also led the Minutewomen from the line, shooting .790 (64-81) in 26 games.
BUTLER OFF AND RUNNING Jennifer Butler recorded the first triple-double of her career against Charlotte in the season opener on November 17. The closest she had come to recording a triple-double last season was at Virginia Tech (Feb. 13) when she scored 11, pulled down 13 rebounds and had five steals. She recorded a double-double at #5 Georgia with 19 points and 13 rebound two days later. Butler has 11 career double-doubles, including 10 during her freshman campaign.
THE STARTING LINEUPS Starters Record Coyner, Pegues, Sneed, Nehls, Butler 1-1
BUTLER A THIEF? Jennifer Butler's 10 steals against the Charlotte 49ers (Nov. 17) surpassed the previous record of nine shared by Rebecca Kucks (vs. Yale on Jan. 14, 1983), Tara Lewis (vs. UConn on Dec. 27, 1985) and Wendy Ward (vs. UConn on Nov. 28, 1982).
FROM THE FLOOR In the Minutewomen's season opener this year, they shot just 33.3 percent but still earned a 64-48 win over Charlotte (Nov. 17). In their second game, an eight point loss at #5 Georgia, UMass shot a respectable 42.9 percent. The Minutewomen shot just 38.5 percent from the field last year, their lowest since 1991-92 (34.9 percent). In games where the Minutewomen shot 40 percent or above, UMass turned in a 12-2 record. UMass won three games in which it shot less than 40 percent.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING Jennifer Butler, who pulled down 10.5 rebounds per game last season, finished her freshman campaign as the nation's 18th best rebounder. Butler's 25 rebounds against William & Mary (Dec. 29) tied for the A-10's single best rebounding performance of the season. Point guard Kathy Coyner ended her junior season averaging 5.8 assists per game, ranking her 27th nationally. The Minutewomen finished 15th in field goal percentage defense (.366), 17th in rebounding margin (+6.6) and 18th in scoring defense (57.9).
318 AND COUNTING Jennifer Butler reached her first rebounding milestone against Duquesne last season (Feb. 11). With her four rebounds in the first half, Butler became the school's all-time freshman leader in rebounding. Butler surpassed the previous record held by Nadine Jackson who pulled down 216 rebounds in 1980-81. Butler also broke the single-season record of 292 held by Julie Ready (1978-79) with her 294 rebounds. Her career total of 318 rebounds puts her 228 shy of entering the top 10 in that category.
BLOCK PARTY The Minutewomen proved to have two dominant shot blockers on the squad last year, as Caroline Nehls (32 blocks) and Jennifer Butler (25 swats) were imposing presence on the blocks. The two individual block totals surpassed 1989-99 team leader Nekole Smith and her 17 blocks. In the first two games this year, they have combined for the three UMass has totaled.
COYNER MOVING UP THE CHARTS With her nine assist performance against Xavier last season (Jan. 14), Kathy Coyner became only the sixth player in UMass history to reach the 300 assist plateau. Coyner, who ranks third all-time on the UMass assist chart, has 391 career assists. The all-time career record is held by Sabriya Mitchell who dished out 578 assists from 1994-98.
UMASS VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS UMass turned in a 2-2 record against ranked opponents during the 1999-2000 season. The Minutewomen faced three teams ranked in the Top 25 last year during the tough non-conference slate, turning in a 1-2 record. UMass fell to No. 18 Boston College (Nov. 27), 60-45, upset No. 22 Stanford (Dec. 12), 74-69, and fell to No. 12 Rutgers (Jan. 2), 66-52. The Minutewomen played against Rutgers without the services of starting point guard Kathy Coyner who was forced out of the lineup as a result of recovery from foot surgery. UMass defeated No. 25 George Washington (Feb. 17), 67-54, claiming the first match-up with a ranked Atlantic 10 opponent during the season.
ON THE BOARDS The Minutewomen consistently outrebounded their opposition during the 1999-00 season, holding a +6.6 advantage on the glass. UMass outrebounded its opponents in 23 of its 29 games. Only Boston College (43-35), Rutgers (34-30), La Salle (42-37) (Jan. 6), Dayton (38-34) (Jan. 16) and Virginia Tech (34-30 & 39-33) (Feb. 13 & Mar. 4) outrebounded UMass during the season. UMass and St. Joseph's both had 30 rebounds in the February 20th meeting. This season, the Minutewomen outrebounded both Charlotte (38-34) and Georgia (40-30).
DE-FENSE UMass held its first two opponents to eight field goals or less in a half. Here is a chart of those performances.
Date Opponent FG Half Result Nov. 17 Charlotte 7 1st & 2nd W, 64-48 Nov. 19 at Georgia 8 1st L, 63-71
UMASS INKS TWO IN EARLY SIGNING PERIOD Head coach Joanie O'Brien announced Thursday (Nov. 16) the signing of 5-5 guard Monique Govan (Chicago, Ill.) and 5-7 guard Katie Nelson (Ellicott City, Md.) to national letters of intent to play for the Minutewomen next fall. Govan averaged 3.9 points and 2.8 rebounds with 162 assists and 65 steals in 32 games for Dunbar High School as a junior. The co-captain and team MVP also earned all-section and all-Red Central Chicago Public League honors last year. Nelson averaged a career-best 13 points, five rebound, four assists and 3.5 steals per game as a junior at the McDonough School en route to first team all-IAAM League and Baltimore City/County honors. The four-year varsity letterwinner and two-time captain has helped McDonough accumulate a 59-17 record over her first three years, winning the Maryland State Championship twice. Nelson is also a four-year varsity letterwinner in soccer, earning all-state honors in the fall, as well as a three-year varsity letterwinner in softball.
FROM THE BENCH Jennifer Butler has 10 or more rebounds in her last six games dating back to February 24, 2000 against Fordham. She has totaled 10-plus boards in 18 games of her 30 career games ... Kathy Coyner has scored in each of her last 60 games and has had a rebound in 11 games ... Paige Harris (Rochester, Mich.) came off the bench to score her season-high 13 points against Charlotte (Nov. 17).
UP NEXT The Minutewomen head to San Francisco Wednesday (Nov. 29) for a pair of games at the University of San Francisco (Dec. 1) and #22 Stanford University (Dec. 3). The Stanford game will be televised live on Fox Sports Net starting at 4:00 p.m. EST.
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