Oklahoma Faces Texas

Feb. 26, 2001

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No. 7/8 Oklahoma (23-4, 14-1) at No. NR/22 Texas (19-10, 7-8)
* Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001 - 6:30 p.m. (Central time)
* Frank Erwin Center (capacity 16,175), Austin, Texas
* TV: Fox Sports Network
* Radio: KOMA-AM (1520)
Internet Radio: .HYPERLINK "http://www.SoonerSports.com"..www.SoonerSports.com.

The Game
The Oklahoma women's basketball team concludes its regular season schedule Wednesday, Feb. 28, against Red River rival Texas at 6:30 p.m. inside the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. The Sooners will attempt to become the first team in OU women's basketball history to go undefeated in conference road games. OU currently boasts an Big 12 road record of 7-0.

Oklahoma clinched the Big 12 Conference regular season title outright Saturday by defeating Bedlam rival Oklahoma State in overtime, 88-83, in front of 9,672 Sooner fans in Norman. This marks the second straight year that OU has won the league crown. Last season, the Sooners tied Iowa State and Texas Tech for top honors.

OU enters Wednesday's contest with the nation's fourth-longest winning streak of 14 games. OU also sports a 23-4 overall record and tops the Big 12 with an 14-1 mark. Texas stands at 19-10 overall and 7-8 in league action to rank seventh in the conference standings.

The game will be broadcast live by Fox Sports Network with Kevin Eschenfelder (play-by-play) and Elissa Walker-Campbell (color analyst) willing call the game. In addition, all of Oklahoma women's basketball games are broadcast on KOMA-AM (1520) radio station with Ed Murray (play-by-play) and Jenny Bramer (color analyst) on the headsets. This live broadcast also is available through OU's athletic department web site at www.SoonerSports.com.

Oklahoma is ranked seventh in the AP and eighth in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' polls while Texas dropped out of the AP poll and moved down to No. 22 in the coaches' poll this week.

Series Record OU vs. Texas
UT leads 11-5
Oklahoma heads to Austin Wednesday to attempt to win its second straight game in the Frank Erwin Center. The Sooners ended the Longhorns' 10-game home winning streak a year ago with a 76-73 victory. However, Texas eliminated the Sooners from the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, 71-68, last season.

Overall, Texas holds an all-time series advantage of 11-5, including a 6-1 mark in Austin. OU Head Coach Sherri Coale is 4-5 against Texas' Jody Conradt.

Earlier this season, OU also dealt Texas a 85-74 loss in Norman. In that win, five Sooners scored in double digits led by junior Jen Cunningham's career- and game- high 18 points. Caton Hill (17), LaNeishea Caufield (14), Stacey Dales (13) and Rosalind Ross (10) also scored 10 plus points. Cunningham and Hill grabbed 12 rebounds each for a double double. As a team, OU shot 48.3 percent to UT's 39.7 percent.

Oklahoma (23-4, 14-1 Big 12)
Oklahoma sports the nation's fourth best scoring average of 84.0 points per game. The Sooners are also ranked sixth in field goal percentage (48.9%) and fifth in three-point percentage (39.8%) plus 11th in the NCAA with the best won-lost percentage of 85.2 (23-4).

Three of Oklahoma's starters average double figures in scoring and the Sooners are led by two of the best players in the country. Junior All-America and Big 12 Player of the Year candidates LaNeishea Caufield (Ada, Okla.) and Stacey Dales (Brockville, Ontario) lead the team and rank among the NCAA best in scoring, steals and assists. Caufield tops the nation in thefts with 4.4 steals per game and leads the team with 17.0 points per game. Caufield's free throw percentage of 84.7 percent (122-of-144) ranks second in the league. She also ranks second on the team in assists (3.5 apg) and fourth in rebounds (4.4 rpg).

Dales stands sixth in the country in assists (7.7) and has scored or assisted on 45.7 percent of Oklahoma's 830 field goals. The Nancy Lieberman-Cline Step Up Award finalist (the award is for the top point guard in the nation) follows Caufield in scoring with 16.3 points per game. She also ranks second on the team in steals (2.7 spg) and third in rebounds (5.1 rpg).

Sophomore Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) leads the team and ranks fourth in the conference in rebounds with 9.1 boards per game. Not only is she effective in the paint but the 6-1 power forward is the conference's most consistent 3-point shooter in league games, hitting 60.6 percent of her treys (20-of-33). Hill also averages 12.9 points and shoots 80.9 percent from the foul line to rank fourth best on the team. In addition, she has supplied the Sooners with 10 double-doubles (10+ rebounds, 10+ points) this season, pushing her career total to 16.

Texas (19-10, 7-8 big 12)
Texas has lost three of its last four games including at Iowa State, 87-47, and to Texas Tech, 76-60, last week. UT's last win was an overtime victory over Oklahoma State, 73-69, in Stillwater on Feb. 17.

The Longhorns are led by freshman Stacy Stephens who averages 11.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Senior JoRuth Woods ranks second on the team with 10.1 ppg and averages 5.2 rpg.

As a team, Texas score 70.0 ppg and average 43.6 rebounds. UT shots 40.2 percent from the field, 31.8 percent from the arc and 64.8 percent from the foul line.

Up Next
Oklahoma's next action will be in the 2001 Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., from March 6-10. OU, the top seed in the tournament, will face either Oklahoma State or Nebraska in the Noon game on Wednesday, March 7, at the Municipal Auditorium.

Hill vs. the horns
Sophomore Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) has fun playing the Texas Longhorns. Why? Because she always ends the game with a double double. In each of her four collegiate games against UT Hill has produced a double double for the Sooners. This year, she had 17 points and 12 rebounds in the contest in Norman on Jan. 10. In her first Red River battle as a freshman, she scored 20 points and hauled down 13 rebounds.

Overall, the 6-1 forward averages 14.5 points and 11.3 rebounds against the Longhorns. She also shoots 43.2 percent from the field, 50.0 percent from the arc and 84.2 percent from the foul line when playing UT.

A win would
... allow OU to go undefeated in conference road games for the first time in school history.

... allow OU to be the only team in the conference to produce a perfect road record in league action this year.

... allow OU to become the first team in school history to go through the month of February flawless. Last year's team became the first to go the month of January untouched (8-0).

... allow OU to improve its school and conference most consecutive wins record to 15.

... give OU a school record 15 conference victories, topping last year's 13 wins.

... allow the Sooners to become the first team in school history to close out the regular season with 15 consecutive victories.

... allow the Sooners to increase their most consecutive road wins to 10.

... improve OU's school record for most road wins in a single season to 13.

... strengthen the Sooners chances of hosting an NCAA First and Second round game.

... allow the Sooners to finish the season with the fewest losses in school history.

OU-Texas First Game Recap
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Jen Cunningham scored a career-high 18 points and had 12 rebounds to lead No. 17 Oklahoma to an 85-74 victory over No. 14 Texas on Wednesday night.

Caton Hill added 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Sooners (10-4, 2-1). Kenya Larkin scored a career-high 18 points and had six assists for the Longhorns (13-4, 1-2).

Oklahoma opened the second half with 14-0 run. Stacey Dales' layup with 15:07 left capped the run and gave the Sooners a 47-37 lead. Dales finished with 13 points and eight assists.

Oklahoma's LaNeishea Caufield, second in the nation in steals, had a career-high eight steals, including five in the first half.

Texas' Tracy Cook had 16 points, including 10 in the second half.

Texas committed a season-high 27 turnovers.

Sooners climb higher in latest RPI POLLS
Oklahoma is ranked fourth in the latest WBCA and Women's Collegiate Basketball News plus fifth in the Jeff Sagarin RPI rankings. Oklahoma has played 11 top-25 teams this year, producing a 7-4 record against the nation's best.

12-1 ON T.V.
Oklahoma sports an impressive 12-1 record when playing in a televised game, including a 4-0 record on Sooner Sports Network, a 2-1 mark on Fox Sports Network and a 1-0 record on ESPN2.

Sooner are perfect when . . .
Oklahoma is undefeated when producing a better field goal percentage than its opponent (23-0), when leading at halftime (21-0) and when scoring 80-plus points in a game (19-0). OU is also 8-0 when playing in Wednesday conference games.

Hill improves single season record
Sophomore Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) improved her previous single season school record for most defensive rebounds to 173. As a freshman, it took Hill 33 games to collect 167 defensive boards.

She has played and started all 27 games for the Sooners this season and averages 12.9 ppg and 9.1 rpg.

Talbert increases productivity
Junior Jamie Talbert (Elkhart, Kan.) had a career night against Baylor on Feb. 21. The Seward County Junior College transfer scored a career-high 21 points on a personal-best 9-of-10 shooting, tying the team's individual high for best field goal percentage, 90%. Talbert was perfect from the field until the 10:09 minute mark in the second half. Her previous best was 13 points against SMU and Wisconsin.

Talbert has appeared among the Sooners' starting lineup in seven of OU's last eight games. She replaced junior center Jen Cunningham who went out with a torn ACL on Jan. 28 against Texas Tech. Talbert did not start against Oklahoma State Saturday due to senior night when senior Desiree Taylor appeared among the starting five for the first time this season.

In the seven games that Talbert has started, she's averaged 10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and shot 68.1 percent from the field. Prior to that, she was averaging 6.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and is shooting 52.1 percent from the field.

For the year, she's contributing 7.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and shoots 56.3 percent from the field.

Dales named to academic All-District team
Junior point guard Stacey Dales (Brockville, Ontario) is one of six student-athletes from District VI to be named to the 2001 Verizon Academic All-District Women's Basketball team. Normally five players are awarded this honor but because of a tie in the voting, six player were chosen to represent the district on the Verizon Academic All-America national ballot.

Dales is a communications major who has an overall grade point average of 3.72. The Canadian averages 16.3 points, 7.7 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game for the 23-4 and seventh-ranked Sooners. Her mark for assists per game ranks first in the Big 12 Conference and sixth in the nation. She was been named the Big 12 Player of the Week twice (Jan. 14 and Feb. 19) and is one of 10 finalist for the Conseco/Nancy Lieberman-Cline Step Up and ESPN.com Point Guard of the Year Awards. She also competed on the Canadian Olympic team this past summer in Sydney, Australia.

District VI is comprised of schools from the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. To be eligible for the team student-athletes must be a starter or front line reserve and must have at least a 3.20 overall grade point average. The team is selected by members of the College Sports information Directors of America from District VI. The Verizon Academic All-America Team for women's basketball will be announced on Thursday, March 10.

moving on up...
Oklahoma climbed one more spot to seventh in this week's women's basketball AP Poll, the highest ever for a Sooner team. OU remained at No. 8 in the current USA Today/ESPN Coaches Polls. OU first appeared among the AP Top 10 for the time in school history on Jan. 28, after defeating Texas Tech in Norman on Jan. 28. The Sooners' highest ranking previously had been 11th for the week of Jan. 12, 1986.

Oklahoma has been ranked in all 17 AP and USA Today/ESPN coaches' polls this year and 27-straight dating back to Jan. 17, 2000, OU's first appearance under Sooner coach Sherri Coale.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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