OU Women In Action Wednesday At Texas A&M

MEDIA INFORMATION

No. 15/16 Oklahoma Sooners (11-2, 1-1 Big 12) at Texas A&M Aggies (7-6, 0-2 Big 12)

Date & Time: Wed., Jan. 14 @ 7 p.m.

Site: Reed Arena (12,500) - College Station, Texas

Series Record: OU leads 15-8

Tickets: To purchase tickets call the TAM's Athletic Ticket Office at 979-845-2311.

Radio: Wednesday's game will be aired on KMGL-FM (104.1) with Mark Rogers (play-by-play) and Tara Robinett (color analyst) calling the action. All broadcasts also are available through the OU athletics web site.

TV: none

Real-Time Stats: Live in-game statistics are available through TAM's athletics web site.

Web Site: Oklahoma (www.SoonerSports.com), Texas A&M (www.AggieAthletics.com)

PROBABLE STARTERS
OKLAHOMA                            PPG             RPG
10    F    Caton Hill                       14.2               5.8
24    F   Leah Rush                     8.5                4.2
11    G   Laura Andrews            5.1                2.5
35   G   Dionnah Jackson          10.4               5.5
5   G   Maria Villarroel             15.2                5.1

TEXAS A&M                              PPG                RPG
04    F   Janae Derrick                8.2                  6.9
55    C   Lynn Classen                8.3                  4.2
01    G    Toccara Williams          13.5                 5.6
20    G   Erica Roy                       6.2                  4.3
23    G   D'Nika Romero               4.6                  0.2

WEDNESDAY PREVIEW
      The Oklahoma women's basketball team (11-2, 1-1 Big 12) wraps up a two-game Big 12 road swing this week. The Sooners travel to College Station, Texas, to face the Texas A&M Aggies (7-6, 0-2 Big 12) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, inside the Reed Arena. Tip is set for 7 p.m.
      Oklahoma is coming off a frustrating 63-58 loss to No. 3 Texas in Austin, while Texas A&M will be looking for its first Big 12 win of the season. The Aggies have lost both games by a total of five points. OSU defeated TAM 67-65 in the final seconds in Stillwater, while Baylor handed them a 60-57 loss at home.
      The Sooners also will be looking to revenge a 69-61 loss to the Aggies from a year ago. OU defeated Texas A&M by 38-points in the two teams first meeting in Norman (Jan. 18) but suffered its most disappointing setback of the season less than a month later (Feb. 5).
      Same as last year, TAM depends on senior guard Toccara Williams to direct traffic, score and battle for rebounds. Williams leads the Aggies with 13.5 points, 6.4 assists and 3.5 steals plus ranks second with 5.6 rebounds per game. Williams' assists and steals per game averages top the Big 12 Conference, while her scoring ranks 15th best.
      The Sooners have a more balance team as three players contribute 10-plus points and four players average five-plus rebounds per game. Seniors Maria Villarroel and Caton Hills sports 15.2 and 14.2 points per game, respectively, while junior guard Dionnah Jackson averages 10.4 ppg and team bests of 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game. Hills is OU's best rebounder at 5.8 boards per outing, followed closely by sophomore Beky Preston's 5.7 rpg.
      OU averages 78.6 points to TAM's 64.4 ppg. The Sooners also owns a 42.4 to 33.9 edge on the boards.

OU-TEXAS A&M SERIES
Texas A&M snapped OU's nine-game winning streak with a 69-61 win on Feb. 5, 2003 in College Station, Texas. However, the Sooners still hold a 15-8 all-time series advantage when facing the Aggies and are winners of nine of the last 10 games.

OKLAHOMA (11-2, 1-1 BIG 12)
      Thirteen games into the season, Oklahoma has proven it can score and play defense as the Sooners are averaging better than 78 points per game and holding opponents to less than 58 ppg and a 36.8 field goal percentage. OU ranks fourth in the Big 12 Conference in offensive production (78.6 ppg) and ranks among the league's top 5 in seven other categories, including second in three-point field goal percentage defense (.255).
      The Sooners have a well-balanced attack from its front and back courts. To date, 56.5 percent of OU points come from the guards and 43.5 percent come from post players.
      Senior guard Maria Villarroel (15.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg, .574 FG%) has been a vital piece of Oklahoma's transition game for the past two seasons. She has scored in double digits in all but one game (Utah) and leads the team with 15.2 points per game. She scored a season-high 24 points in the win at Stephen F. Austin by hitting 10-of-12 shots. Against Texas Saturday, Villarroel scored all of her game-high 18 points in the second half. She currently ranks fifth in the league for best field goal percentage, shooting 57.4, and averages 17.5 points and 7.5 rebounds when playing the Aggies. Last year, she shot 72.2 percent vs. TAM, hitting 13-of-18 shots and all eight of her attempted free throws.
      Junior Dionnah Jackson (10.4 ppg, team-high 5.1 apg and 5.5 rpg, .815 FT%) is in her second season as the everyday point guard for the Sooners. Jackson is getting her points as a slasher, driving to the basket and creating havoc for opposing defenses. She ranks fourth in the Big 12 in steals (2.62), assists/turnover ratio (1.9) and assists (5.1) per game. She is among the Big 12 best in five different categories. Jackson earned a spot on the Pepperdine All-Tournament team, after averaging 12 points, three rebounds and three steals per game plus shot 68.8 percent from the field.
      Senior forward and preseason All-America candidate Caton Hill (14.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg, three double-doubles) has lived up to her accolades. She leads the team in three-point field goal shooting (.417) and threes made per game (1.2). She was named OU's MVP of the Bertha Teague Classic on Nov. 22 after scoring 17 points with the assistance of three 3s against ORU in the season opener. She then piled up back-to-back double-doubles on the road at SMU (14p, 10r) and Montana State (23p, 10r). At MSU, she hit a career-best 8-of-10 shots (80%), was 4-of-4 from the arc (100%) and 3-of-4 from the foul line (75%). She now has a school record 32 career double-doubles and moved up to No. 2 on the all-time rebounding list after collecting nine against No. 2 Tennessee on Dec. 21. She's 147 shy of tying the school record in this category.
      Freshman forward Leah Rush (8.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, .518 FG%) will see her first start as a Sooner Wednesday night. Rush was named the Big 12 Rookie of the Week after scoring 15 points and grabbing six boards as well as shooting 50 percent from the field against No. 3 Texas in Austin Saturday. She also made and attempted career-best seven of 14 field goals. Rush has scored 10-plus points in five games including a team-high 16 points in the home-opening win against Southeast Missouri State, hitting 6-of-7 shots. She also shot 50 percent (7-of-14) at Texas for 15 points added to that was six rebounds, one assists and one blocked shot.
      Also starting for the first time this season is sophomore guard Laura Andrews (5.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, .366 3pt-FG%). The Washsington, Okla., native has been gradually increasing her playing time over the past four games where she's gone from playing 11.4 minutes to 21.8 minutes per game. Andrews scored a season-best 11 points against Illinois and Wichita State and has hit 10 of her 15 three-pointers during this time span.
      Continuing to make OU's bench one of the deepest in the Big 12 Conference are players like redshirt-freshman Erin Higgins (4.6 ppg, .295 3-pt. FG%), sophomore Beky Preston (6.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg, .522 FG%), junior Lauren Shoush (5.5 ppg, 1.6 apg, .474 FG%) and freshman Britney Brown (2.8 ppg, 1.2 apg, .387 FG%). Each have made important contributions to the team's success this season.
      Higgins started 11 games this season, while Preston has appeared among the top five in each outing (13). Preston ranks second on the team with 5.7 rebounds per game and was named MVP of the Pepperdine Invitational in November. Shoush has been the spark plug off the bench for the Sooners. She has scored 10-plus points twice (10 at SMU and a career-high 18 at Montana State). Brown has played valuable minutes in relief of Jackson at the point guard position. She took then-No. 19/23 Utah for a career-high 10 points, burying two three-pointers and hitting 4-of-7 shots in the 73-65 OU win.

TEXAS A&M (7-6, 0-2 BIG 12)
      The biggest difference in the Texas A&M (7-6, 0-2 Big 12) program has been the change in the head coach. In his first season as TAM head women's basketball coach is former Arkansas coach Gary Blair. Blair, a 30-year coaching veteran, became the seventh head coach at Texas A&M on March 31, 2003. He spent the last 10 years at Arkansas where he never had a losing season and became the program's all-time winningest coach (198-120). Blair ranks in the top 25 on the list of winningest active Division I women's basketball coaches.
      Texas A&M is a team that has not finished any higher than ninth in the Big 12 Conference regular season race. TAM currently sit at No. 12 in the Big 12 standings with an overall record of 7-6 and 0-2 Big 12 mark. They opened the 2003-04 campaign winning six of their first eight games but have gone 1-4 over the last five outings.
      Texas A&M is lead by senior guard Toccara Williams' 13.5 points per game. Williams ranked seventh and 12th in the nation in steals (3.5) and assists (6.4) per game, respectively, in the latest NCAA Rankings (Jan. 5). Both figures top the Big 12 Conference. The Aggies are the second best team in the league in thefts per outing with 12.0.
      Senior center Lynn Classen and senior forward Janae Derrick follows Williams with 8.3 and 8.2 ppg, respectively. Derrick leads the team in rebounds with 6.9, while Williams ranks second with 5.6.
A     s a team, TAM averages 64.4 points, while opponents score just 58.9 points per game. The Aggies are being outrebounded, 33.9-to-39.2.

UP NEXT - The Bedlam Series presented by the Bank of Oklahoma and Your Oklahoma Ford Dealers
      Oklahoma will host Oklahoma State on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004 at 6 p.m. inside Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. That game will be televised by the Sooner Sports Network with Mark Rogers and Patty Phillips calling the action.
      OU has won nine straight games against the Cowgirls and 11 of the last 12 meetings.
The last time OU lost the OSU was when the Cowgirls eliminated the Sooners from the 1999 Big 12 Tournament, 70-56, in Kansas City.
      Oklahoma is 37-34 against Oklahoma State. Coale is 11-5 vs. OSU and 2-0 against current OSU coach Julie Goodenough.

SHAKEN THINGS UP
Head coach Sherri Coale will shake up the lineup against Texas A&M on Wednesday night. Earning her first collegiate start will be freshman forward Leah Rush in replace of sophomore center Beky Preston. Starting her first game of the season and 10th as a Sooner will be Laura Andrews instead of redshirt-freshman guard Erin Higgins.

RUSH NAMED BIG 12 ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman Leah Rush was named the Big 12 Rookie of the Week after scoring 15 points, 11 in the second half, against No. 3 Texas Saturday. She also had six rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot in 27 minutes of action against UT, where her older sister (Katie) attends school. The Amarillo, Texas, native canned 50 percent of her shots, hitting a career-best seven-of-14 field goals.
Rush's points and rebounds against the Longhorns were the second-most for the freshman this season. She averaged 8.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 block for the week.

RUSH PLAYING HER ROLE
      Freshman Leah Rush has been one of the most impressive players on this year's team. For the first 13 games, she's come off the bench to contribute 8.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while playing a solid 19.1 minutes per contest.
      Come Wednesday night the rookie out of Amarillo, Texas will see her first start as a collegiate women's basketball player. Rush replaces sophomore Beky Preston in the starting lineup.
      She currently is tied for first on the team with seven blocked shots and is shooting a solid 51.8 percent from the field and 76.7 percent from the free throw line.
      She is one of five Big 12 freshmen that rank among the league's top 10 in five different categories. Iowa State's Lyndsey Medders is the only Big 12 freshman that ranks among the top 10 in six different categories.
      Rush grabbed a career-best 11 boards in her collegiate debut against ORU and scored a personal-best 16 points in her first Lloyd Noble Center outing against Southeast Missouri State. She has scored in double digits five times.

VILLARROEL AND HILL NAMED FINALIST FOR...
Seniors Caton Hill and Maria Villarroel are two of 32 finalist for the third annual Senior CLASS Award, presented annually to the nation's Senior Player of the Year for NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball. The Senior CLASS Award - an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School - and now has Bayer Advantage has the title sponsor.
The two winners will be announced during the NCAA Final Four events in April.

TIME SHARE
Head coach Sherri Coale has her deepest team in eight years. The Sooners can go as deep as 10 and currently have nine players averaging better than 10 minutes per contest. All but one player averages five minutes or more per outing.
Seven players have played in all 13 games and 11 have seen action in at least 11 games.

HILL PRODUCES 32ND CAREER DOUBLE DOUBLE
      Oklahoma senior forward Caton Hill scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds at Texas Saturday for her 32nd career double-double and her fifth double-double against the Longhorns. Hill hit 6-of-15 shoots from the field and dished out two assists and pocketed three steals for the day.
      The Ada, Okla., native has recorded all three of her double-double performances away from the Lloyd Noble Center. The other two occured at SMU and Montana State. Against the Mustangs, Hill had 12 points and 10 rebounds and at MSU she had a season-high 23 points and 10 boards. She also hit a career-best 8-of-10 shots (80%), was 4-of-4 from the arc (100%) and 3-of-4 from the foul line (75%).
      When playing Texas A&M Hill averages 12.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. She has hit 54.3 percent of her shots from the field, 45.6 percent from the three-point line and 79.2 from the free throw line against the Aggies. Hill has played in started all six games against TAM.
      The 6-1 power forward past former Sooner great Phylesha Whaley on Oklahoma's all-time rebounding chart against Tennessee on Dec. 21. Hill now owns 924 career rebounds for second best on OU's chart.
      Hill has surpassed several milestones already this season including moving up to No. 9 on Oklahoma's all-time scoring list. She surpassed Tami Rogers for the ninth spot after scoring a season-high 23 points at Montana State. Hill has a total to 1,428 points in three-plus years. Hill already holds the school record for most defensive boards (646).

ANDREWS EARNING P.T.
      Sophomore Laura Andrews has come off the bench the last four games to average a solid 9.0 points and play 21.8 minutes per game. The Washington, Okla., native canned a team-best 50.0 percent of her three-pointers, hitting 10-of-20 treys, against Illinois, Wichita State, Nebraska and Texas.
      Andrews also has contributed 3.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 41.4 percent from the field (12-of-29).
      Prior to the Illinois game, Andrews was playing just 11.4 minutes and contrubuting 3.3 ppg. She also had only hit five three-pointers in nine games.

JACKSON SOLID ACROSS THE BOARD
      Junior Dionnah Jackson may not be flashy in how she scores, rebounds or passes the basketball but her production across the board deserves a standing ovation. The St. Louis, Mo., native has one of the most impressive stat line in the Big 12 Conference.
Jackson averages 10.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game plus shots 46.4 percent from the field and 81.5 percent from the free throw line as a 5-9 point guard. She ranks among the league's best in five categories (steals [4th], assists/turnover ratio [4th], assists [4th], defensive rebounds [14th], scoring [27th]) and is OU's third best rebounder at 5.5 rpg. She also is OU's second best free throw shooter, hitting 22-of-27 foul shots (81.5 FT%).
      Over the last four games, she's dished out 6.5 assists, pocketed 4.0 steals and grabbed 5.8 rebounds per game, while scoring 7.8 points a game.
      Jackson has had more assists than turnovers in 11-of-13 games, including seven assists to zero turnovers in the season opener against ORU, six assists to zero turnovers vs. Nebraska and seven assists to just one turnover against then-No. 2 Tennessee.

RACKIN' UP
Oklahoma is one of the best offensive scoring teams in the Big 12 Conference. The Sooners are averaging 78.6 points per game (fourth best in the league) and have racked up 80-plus points against seven different opponents this season. OU has also surpassed the 90-point plateau three times.

SOONERS STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE STRONG
      Oklahoma currently ranks 21st in the most recent (Jan. 12) WBCA-Summerville RPI Rankings.
      Six of OU's opponents are ranked in the AP Top 25, while two another are receiving votes in the either the AP or ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls.
      On the slate are eight teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament and four to the WNIT a year ago --- Pepperdine, Utah, Tennessee, Illinois, Texas (Final Four), Kansas State, Texas Tech (Elite Eight) and Colorado (Sweet 16). WNIT participants from the 2002-03 season are Montana State, Siena, Baylor (runner-up) and Missouri.

HOME ATTENDANCES RANKINGS OUT
      OU's game against Tennessee ranks as the 15th best attended women's basketball game of the 2003-04 season. OU-UT drew a record setting 12,080 fans, the most ever to witness a women's basketball game in the state of Oklahoma. The previous best was 11,245 set during the NCAA Tournament second-round game between OU and Villanova on March 18, 2002. The previous best for an OU regular season home game was 10,713 when the Sooners hosted Connecticut on Dec. 29, 1999.
      Connecticut ranks No. 1 for the sixth-straight week, bringing in an average of 13,996 fans per home game. Oklahoma ranks 14th in the nation with 5,677 fans per home game (as of Jan. 11).
      Eight of the Big 12's teams rank among the nation's top-50 in home attendance average, including four in the top-12.

OU AMONG ELITE PROGRAMS
Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas are the only Universities in the Big 12 Conference to have its men's and women's basketball teams ranked among the AP top-25. Overall, seven universities across the nation have both programs ranked: Connecticut, Duke, Stanford, North Carolina, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

SOONER BENCH POWER
     Out of Oklahoma's 1,022 points scored this season 34.9 percent (357 points) has come from its bench. Freshmen Leah Rush's 110 points account for 31.0 percent of the bench scoring.
      The Sooners have scored 20-or-more points from its non-starters in 10 of OU's 13 games.
      As a group, OU reserves have outscored the opponent subs 357-177. The largest differences between the two benches was when OU got 37 points to Southeast Missouri State's 6 (+31).

JUST IN CASE YOU WANTED TO KNOW
Oklahoma has shot 40 percent or better from the field in 10 games, while holding seven opponents to below that figure ... no team has shot 50 percent or better against the Sooners ... from the three-point line only one team has shot over 40 percent vs. OU (Tennessee, 43.8% [7-of-16]) ... OU ranks second in the Big 12 Conference in three-point field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 25.5 percent from beyond the arc ... Oklahoma has dished out more assists than its opponent in every game this season and has had more steals in all but one game (vs. Tennessee) ... the Sooners have been outrebounded four times ... OU freshmen class account for 26.3 percent of the team's total offense (269 points) while the starters are responsible for 64.0 percent of the points (654) and 56.6 percent of its rebounds (312) ... largest margin of victory this season has been 48 points over ORU (N22) ... the Sooners have hit 50 percent or better from the field in seven games ... OU has set two team record under the Sherri Coale Era, most team rebounds (68) and most attempted shots (80) against ORU (N22).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Women In Action Wednesday At Texas A&M

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