Women's Basketball Set For Exhibition Action

Game Day Information
Opponent: Sparta Praha (0-5)
Tip: 7:00 p.m.
Site (Capacity): Lloyd Noble Center (12,000) ... Norman, Okla.
Live Stats and Audio: Sooner fans can watch live stats as they are posted and listen to play-by-play action by logging onto www.SoonerSports.com.
Radio: none
TV: none
Series: First meeting

Oklahoma
With a seasoned group of returning players and an elite mix of talented newcomers, including two redshirt freshmen, the Oklahoma women's basketball program is poised to return to the national spotlight. Under eighth-year head coach Sherri Coale, the Sooners will look to make yet another run to the NCAA Tournament and challenge for the Big 12 Conference Championship.

In her first seven years at OU, Coale has produced 132 career wins, just 11 wins shy of becoming the Sooners' all-time winningest women's basketball coach. Maura McHugh holds this honor with 142 victories in seven years. Coale has also led

OU to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, more than any other Sooner coach, and took Oklahoma to the 2002 national championship game.

A proven winner and outstanding recruiter, Coale and her staff welcome back a group of players who accounted for more than 78 percent of last year's scoring (1,668 of 2,139 points) and 68 percent of its rebounding (871 of 1,281 boards). Add to the mix the return of fifth-year senior Caton Hill, OU's only starter from the national championship runner-up team in 2002, and redshirt freshmen Erin Higgins and Casey Walker plus Coale's most complete group of newcomers and it's easy to understand why there is an air of confidence among the staff, players and Sooner fans.

It also makes the fact that Lloyd Noble Center is the site of the 2004 NCAA Midwest Regional in March something that Sooner fans have circled on their calendars.

OU enters the 2003-04 season with preseason rankings of No. 21 in both the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA and Associated Press Top 25 polls.

Sparta Praha (0-5)
Sparta Praha is 0-5 entering Thursday's game, having played at Colorado State (84-64), Denver (91-78), Kansas State (103-47), Kansas (92-66) and Wichita State (84-60). Milena Staffanova leads the team offensively with 14.8 ppg, while Irena Spirkova tops the team in rebounds with 6.8 rpg.

Sparta Praha hails from Prague, Czech Republic and is one of several European teams who tour the United States to take on college basketball teams during the exhibition season. The team has been crowned Czech champions 23 times and won the European Champions Cup in 1976.

Exhibition Success
Oklahoma is 12-4 in exhibition play over the past seven years. The Sooners defeated Oklahoma Christian, 93-61, and Solna Vikings, 99-49, last season.

OU also defeated OCU, 90-62, and Southwestern Oklahoma State, 82-46, in 2001-02.

For the 1990s, OU went 9-7 in exhibition action and boasts an 8-0 mark since 2000.

OU Picked Fourth in Preseason Conference Rankings
In a pair of preseason Big 12 Conference Polls [Coaches and Media] Oklahoma was tabbed to finish fourth in the conference race. Texas was picked to win its second straight Big 12 title in both polls. Kansas State, who finished second in last year's conference race, was tagged to finish second again while Texas Tech was chosen third, followed by OU. Colorado is a preseason pick to finish fifth, while Baylor, Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Nebraska rounds out the preseason rankings. In the coaches preseason poll, Texas A&M was chosen 12th while Nebraska was 11th.

Looking Ahead To Season Opener
Oklahoma opens the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 22 as one of four teams competing in the annual Bertha Teague Classic in Oklahoma City, Okla. The Sooners will host Tulsa, Oral Roberts and Oklahoma State. OSU and Tulsa tips the event off at 12 p.m., followed by OU and ORU at 2:30 p.m.

This classic will serve as season openers for Tulsa, OSU and OU. ORU will have already played two regular season games before Nov. 22.

Game times may change to accommandate fans for the football kick-off times for OSU and OU.

Villarroel Returns Better Than Ever
Senior Maria Villarroel (Margarita, Venezuela) concluded her first season as a Sooner as one of the best field goal shooter in the nation. Villarroel nailed 57.6 percent of her shots from the field to rank 14th in the final NCAA Statistics ranking as well as topping the Big 12 charts.

In July, the petite guard was named the MVP of the South America Tournament in Ecuador after averaging 23 ppg for the Venezuela National Team. She also nailed a tournament high 20 three pointers including nine against Cuba in the consolation game. She also was the tournament's leading scorer.

Look for an overall improved player on both ends of the court this season.

Sooners Healthy

Head coach Sherri Coale started October with 14 healthy players. To date, she still has 14 healthy players, a good start to the 2003-04 season, considering this time last year OU had already lost one incoming freshman (Casey Walker [Houston, Texas]) and a recently committed recruit (Kendra Moore [Ardmore, Okla.]) to ACL injuries. Later the Sooners would lose three more to knee injuries including All-America candidate Caton Hill (Ada, Okla.) and freshman standout Erin Higgins (Oklahoma City, Okla.).

Hill was the only returning starter from the 2002 NCAA National Championship runner-up squad before being sidelined. She averaged 12.6 points and 6.9 rebounds as a junior and is a two-time NCAA All-West Regional selection (2002, 2001).

Higgins returns to the court after averaging 10 points in her first three games as a Sooner. The Westmoore High School product dropped a career-high 18 points on Tennessee in her first collegiate game in Knoxville last year. Higgins is known as a three-point specialist.

After being sidelined in July 2002, Walker finally gets to contribute to the Sooners. Walker bring immediate size to the post positions. She was a McDonald's All-America nominee as a high school senior after earning All-State honors.

Sharp Shooters Return
OU's top three scorers return to the court including All-Big 12 second teamers Dionnah Jackson (St. Louis, Mo.), a junior, and Chelsi Welch (Plainview, Texas), a sophomore. Welch also garnished co-Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and earned Freshman All-American honorable mention accolades by womencollegehoops.com last year.

Jackson Dishing Out The Numbers
With just two seasons completed, junior Dionnah Jackson (St. Louis, Mo.) currently ranks 10th on OU's all-time assists list with 268, trailing Sooner great and WNBA standout Stacey Dales-Schuman's 764 assists.

Look At The Sooners Now
Oklahoma owns the best NCAA winning percentage of any team in the Big 12 Conference. The Sooners sport a 64.7 winning percentage, winning 11 of 17 games. Texas Tech ranks second with a 64.3 winning accuracy (27-15), followed by Texas' 60.9 winning percentage (28-18).

Sooner Coach Sherri Coale also sports the best Big 12 Coaches' NCAA Tournament winning percentage of 69.2 (9-4). Texas Tech's Marsha Sharp ranks second with a 64.3 winning percentage (27-15).

Only Oklahoma and Texas Tech has won three Big 12 regular season titles. OU, Texas and Texas Tech are the only teams in the conference that has participated in an NCAA Final Four.

Tickets, Tickets For Sale
Of OU's 30 scheduled games, 15 will take place in Norman starting Nov. 13. Season tickets are on sale now at the OU Athletic Ticket Office. To purchase your season tickets call 405-325-2424 or 800-456-4668.

Season tickets are on sale for $85 for reserved and $60 for general admission.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Women's Basketball Set For Exhibition Action

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