OU Begins Hoops Schedule Thursday

MEDIA INFORMATION

OKLAHOMA
VS.
TTT RIGA (LATVIA)

Tipoff: 7 p.m.
Location: Norman, Okla.
Arena: Lloyd Noble Center (12,000)
TV: none
Radio: KOKC-AM (1520)
Internet: A live audio stream of all OU women's basketball games are available via the Internet. Click the “Sooners on the Air” link on the right side of the women's basketball home page.
Records: Oklahoma - 0-0
TTT Riga - 1-0
Coaches: OU's Sherri Coale is 156-95 (.620) in nine seasons with the Sooners.

PROBABLE STARTERS
Oklahoma (0-0)                                03-04 stats      PPG     RPG
24 F Leah Rush (6-1, So., Amarillo, Texas)               8.4        4.4
14 C Beky Preston (6-3, Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.)     4.4        4.3
34 G Erin Higgins (5-9, So., Oklahoma City)            6.5        2.5
35 G Dionnah Jackson (5-9, Sr., St. Louis, Mo.)       12.5       6.0
00 G Chelsi Welch (5-9, So., Plainview, Texas)        12.1      3.7

POLISH NATIONAL TEAM (TTT Riga) (0-0)
Starters not available

THURSDAY PREVIEW
Thursday marks the beginning of the 31st season of Oklahoma women's basketball. The Sooners will host the TTT Riga from Riga, Latvia, in the first of two exhibition games on tap for the 2004-05 season. Game time is set for 7 p.m. inside the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. Oklahoma is the second of nine Universities TTT Riga will face while on its USA tour. TTT Riga opens action on Tuesday, Nov. 2 against Wichita State in Wichita, Kan.

Oklahoma is coming off a stellar 2003-04 campaign, winning its second Big 12 Tournament title in three years. OU also advanced to its fifth-straight and seventh overall NCAA Tournament and produced its 10th 20-plus win season.

With the addition of two talented freshmen and 12 returning letterwinners, including three starters, the Sooners goals are to win championships. OU returns better than 60 percent of its scoring and rebounding from a year ago. Oklahoma also returns senior preseason All-American Dionnah Jackson.

Jackson and sophomores Erin Higgins and Leah Rush are the returning starters. Jackson, 2004 Big 12 Tournament MVP, is the Sooners top returning scorer and rebounder as she averaged 12.5 ppg and 6.0 rpg last year. Higgins is the team's top three-point shooter while Rush concluded her rookie campaign with career-best performances in two of the last four games.

Sophomore Chelsi Welch, the 2003 Big 12 co-Freshman of the Year, returns to action. Welch missed last season due to a knee injury but averaged 12.1 ppg and earned All-Big 12 second team honors as a true freshman in 2003-03.

EXHIBITION SUCCESS FOR OU
Oklahoma is 10-0 in exhibition games since the 1999-2000 season.
The Sooners are 15-4 in exhibition play under head coach Sherri Coale.

JACKSON & HIGGINS NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS
Senior Dionnah Jackson and sophomore Erin Higgins were voted unanimous team captains by their teammates for the 2004-05 season. This marks first time in head coach Sherri Coale's nine seasons that two players were unanimous picks.

“This shows how much respect this team has for Dionnah and Erin,” Coale said. “I'm confident that they will lead and sheppard this team.

“Dionnah has developed into a phenomenal leader in her four years at Oklahoma. This is a kid who came in from St. Louis not really wanting to lead and not caring too much about that role, it wasn't comfortable for her. She was thrust and grew into that position as a sophomore, the year we lost four kids to season ending injuries. Last year, about the middle of January, she called it her own. She has become one of the most special leaders I have ever coached, including the likes of Stacey Dales and Caton Hill. In 2002, as Stacey Dales breathed, so did we. This team will not be different. As Dionnah goes, we'll go.”

SEASON TICKETS ON SALE
Of OU's 29 schedule games, 15 will take place inside the Lloyd Noble Center starting Nov. 4. Season tickets are on sale at the OU Athletic Ticket Office. To purchase your season tickets call 405-325-2424 or 800-456-4668.

Season Ticket Prices
Reserved: $93
General Admission Flex: $70
Youth General Admission Flex: $55
Faculty/Staff Reserved: $74
Faculty/Staff General Admission Flex: $55

SOONERS PRESEASON PICK NO. 5 IN BIG 12
Oklahoma was picked to finish fifth in the Preseason Big 12 Conference poll as voted on by the league's head coaches.

Texas was the top choice among the coaches with 121 points and 11 of 12 possible first-place votes, a coach can not vote for her own team. Baylor ranked second with 107 points, followed by Kansas State's 99 points and one first place vote. Texas Tech was picked fourth with 92 points while OU collected 84 points for fifth. The Longhorns won the championship outright in 2003 and shared the title with Kansas State in 2004. Oklahoma has won the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles two of the last four years.

Iowa State was chosen sixth, Colorado seventh, Missouri eighth and Nebraska ninth. Texas A&M finished 10th, Kansas was 11th and Oklahoma State 12th.

2004-05 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Coaches Preseason Poll
1. Texas (11), 121
2. Baylor, 107
3. Kansas State (1), 99
4. Texas Tech, 92
5. Oklahoma, 84
6. Iowa State, 68
7. Colorado, 59
8. Missouri, 45
9. Nebraska, 43
10. Texas A&M, 35
11. Kansas, 24
12. Oklahoma State, 15

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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