Women's Hoops Hosts SMU

Dec. 8, 2000

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TIPOFF INFORMATION
The No. 15/16-ranked Oklahoma women's basketball team (4-2) will host SMU (4-3) on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m. inside the Lloyd Noble Center. The game will be televised back to Dallas by KSTR-Channel 49 with Brian Jensen and Ira Terrell calling the action.

The game will also be broadcast live on KOMA-AM (1520) and on the Internet at www.soonersports.com. Ed Murray will provide the play-by-play and Jenny Bramer will be the color analyst for the women's basketball radio network.

At 7 p.m. the OU men's basketball team will tip off against North Texas.

OKLAHOMA (4-2)
OU is currently on a two-game winning streak after picking up an 86-45 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock Tuesday night. The Sooners also defeated then-13th-ranked Southwest Missouri State, 89-82, in Norman on Friday.

Since losing two games at the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge in Madison, Wis., OU is hitting 54.2 percent from the field and averaging 38.5 rebounds, compared to its 32.0 percent from the field and 36.5 rpg in the two defeats. In addition, former Ada High School teammates LaNeishea Caufield (Ada, Okla.) and Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) are averaging 19.0 points per game. Hill also is collecting 9.5 boards since her poor showing in Madison.

On the season, Oklahoma is led by junior point guard Stacey Dales (Brockville, Ontario) and Caufield. Dales is averaging 16.8 points while Caufield is at 16.7 ppg. The duo is pacing the Sooners in assists (7.3) and steals (5.5) per game, respectively, for the second consecutive year. Hill is contributing 9.5 points and a team-high 7.0 rebounds per game. Sophomore Jadrea Seeley (Bethel, Okla.) and junior Rosalind Ross (Milwaukee, Wis.) come off the bench for 9.0 ppg. Jen Cunningham (Kingston, Ontario) also provides a strong presence in the middle with 5.3 rebounds per game and she has seven block shots on the season.

As a team, OU is averaging 81.5 points and 40.0 rebounds to its opponents 70.5 points and 37.3 rebounds per game.

Oklahoma opened its season with victories over Tulsa, 80-49, and host Oral Roberts, 87-56, at the Bertha Teague Classic in Tulsa, Okla. OU then traveled to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge where OU lost to Georgia, 94-70, and host Wisconsin, 97-77. Dales was named to both all-tournament teams, while teammate Caufield was voted to the all-tournament team and was MVP of the Bertha Teague Classic.

SMU (4-3)
The Mustangs (4-3) had their two-game winning streak snapped Wednesday night against Tulane. The Green Waves handed SMU a 75-66 loss in Dallas. Prior to that SMU had defeated Boston, 63-56, and Southern Illinois, 86-80.

Senior forward D-dra Rucker leads the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game, followed by senior forward Katie Remkes 12.1 ppg and a team-high 10.0 rebounds per game. Directing the Mustangs offense is senior guard Anika Calvert. Calvert dishes out 3.4 assists per game, while Rucker averages 3.1 apg. As a team, SMU averages 68.6 ppg and 44.7 rpg.

SMU is returning three starters and nine letterwinners from a team that went 22-9 a year ago and finished first in the Western Athletic Conference with a 12-2 mark. The Mustangs ended their season with a second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament to Old Dominion, 96-76.

Head Coach Rhonda Rompola (SMU, 1983) is in her 10th year with the university and has turned the women's basketball program into a yearly contender for the WAC title. Rompola sports a 177-91 (a .660 winning percentage) career record with SMU.

SERIES RECORDS
This is the seventh meeting between the two teams. SMU holds a 4-2 advantage in the all-time series against the Sooners. The Mustangs captured a 91-82 win in Dallas in 1997 and took a 96-87 win back to Dallas in 1996. In 1994, the Sooners won, 99-72, in Dallas and OU won 82-73 in Norman in 1992, the first game of the series.

OKLAHOMA CONNECTION
SMU's guards Anika Calvert and Jackee' Brown are Oklahoma natives. Calvert, a starter, is a graduate of Union High School in Tulsa. She leads the Mustangs in assists per game with 3.4 and ranks sixth on the team in scoring with 7.0 ppg. She also averages 3.0 rebounds and shoots 30.2 percent from the field.

Brown, who's played in all seven games and started two, has five assists and steals on the season. She averages 0.9 points and 1.0 rebound per game.

TOPPING THE CONFERENCE
Juniors Stacey Dales (Brockville, Ontario) and LaNeishea Caufield (Ada, Okla.) top the Big 12 Conference as the duo leads the league in assists (7.20) and steals (5.40) per game, respectively. In addition, Caufield ranks eighth in scoring and 13th in assists and offensive rebounds, while Dales ranks third in steals and assists/turnover ratio, seventh in scoring and 13th in defensive rebounds.

BRITT RETURNS TO THE COURT
Sophomore Emily Britt (Granbury, Texas) returned to the court against Arkansas-Little Rock Tuesday after suffering a sprained ankle in pregame drills vs. Oral Roberts in the second game of the season. The 6-0 forward had a career night with eight points and one blocked shot as she nailed four of five attempted field goals in 10 minutes of action. She also matched her personal best in defensive rebounds with three.

SELMON PROVES SHE'S WORTHY OF PT
Junior Shannon Selmon (Norman, Okla.) recorded her first points since Feb. 12, 2000, when she had six against Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday. She also pocketed two steals, grabbed two defensive rebounds and had an assist and blocked shot in 16 minutes of action.

SOONER SUBS PLAY A VITAL ROLE
Oklahoma reserves are contributing 34 percent of the teams total points compared to its opponents 17 percent. In four of the teams six games, the subs have contributed more than 30 percent, including 55 percent (42-of-77 points) against Wisconsin.

CHARITY POINTS
Junior LaNeishea Caufield (Ada, Okla.) has hit 23 of her last 24 attempted free throws (96 percent) after starting the season 2-for-6 at the Bertha Teague Classic. She currently has hit seven straight free throws and has been perfect at the charity stripe in two different games (8-for-8 vs. Wisconsin and 5-5 vs. Arkansas Little Rock) this season.

HARDEMAN'S ON THE VERGE
Senior guard Sunny Hardeman (Norman, Okla.) is just two assists shy of breaking into OU's all-time top-15 assists chart. Hardeman currently has 201 career assists.

DALES SECOND ALL-TIME IN ASSISTS
Junior guard Stacey Dales (Brockville, Ontario) has dished out 44 assists this season to claim the No. 2 spot on Oklahomas all-time assists list. She started the season ranked third with 340 assists. Dales needs 217 assists to become OU's all-time leader in this category.

She also needs only 158 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone.

Dales also ranks among the schools all-time best in three-pointers made and attempted, offensive and defensive rebounds, blocked shots and steals.

HILL PRODUCES SEVENTH CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Sophomore Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) scored a career-high 23 points and had 12 rebounds to register her first double-double of the season and seventh in her collegiate career.

CAUFIELD REACHES 1,000-POINT PLATEAU
Junior guard LaNeishea Caufield (Ada, Okla.) scored her 1,000th career point on a free throw at the 7:35 minute mark in the first half against Georgia on Nov. 22, in Madison, Wis., to surpass the 1,000-point milestone in her career. She joined the list of 14 other Sooner players who have scored at least 1,000 points. Caufield scored 457 points, including a career-high 32 against Missouri, as a freshman, followed by 506 points as a sophomore. She has scored in double digits 52 times and has had 20-plus performances in 20 games.

Caufield now has 1,063 career points to her credit. To become the schools all-time leading scorer, Caufield needs to average 21.5 points per game for the next two years (a total of 52 games).

OKLAHOMA SOONERS
Oklahoma returns four starters and 11 letter- winners from last year's 25-8 NCAA Sweet 16 team. In addition, the Sooners return 73.7 percent of their points, 79.6 percent of their rebounds, 91.1 of their assists and 88.5 percent of their steals.

Look for a more mature and experienced team to emerge this season. Head Coach Coale believes she has the right mixture of veterans and the added depth needed at each position to strengthen the Sooners' chances of going deeper into the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma will continue to play an up-tempo, fast break type of offense, while extending its defense and applying more full court pressure due to the added depth.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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