OU Travels to the Pit for Semifinals

NORMAN, Okla. -- After a pair of decisive wins in the opening rounds of the Preseason WNIT, the No. 25 Oklahoma women's basketball team will head to The Pit to face New Mexico in the tournament semifinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. MST.

A strong inside game allowed the Sooners to top UW Milwaukee and SMU by an average of 34.5 points. The standout play of freshman Courtney Paris has guided the Sooner attack. The 6-4 center has averaged 21. 5 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in the opening contests.

Also contributing on the inside have been junior Leah Rush and Ashley Paris. Rush, a preseason All-Big 12 athlete, is third on the team in scoring (9.5 PPG) and tied with Ashley for the second spot in rebounds (7.0). Ashley is also scoring eight points and blocking two shots per outing.

New Mexico, which went 26-5 in 2004-05, will counter with a trio of 6-3 post players and a roster than only has three players under six feet. The Lobos won the 2004-05 Mountain West regular season and tournament titles before losing to Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Game Notes PDF | WNIT Bracket | Game Tracker

New Mexico and The Pit are home to one of the most raucous crowds in women's basketball. The Lobos have won 16 straight on the home court and key returnees Dionne Marsh and Abbie Letz are largely responsible. Marsh, a forward who averaged 13 PPG and 5.5 RPG last season, is scoring 10.5 per game while making 25 percent of her shots. Letz is averaging 9.5 rebounds and 9.0 rebounds. The leading Lobo scorer is Katie Montgomery at 12.5 per contest.

OU leads the all-time series 4-2 and has split two meetings in Albuquerque. In the most recent meeting, UNM defeated OU 82-75 at the Pit in 1996. This is first of two trips to New Mexico for OU, who will also play at The Pit on Dec. 30.

Setting The Scene
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005
Location: Norman, Okla.
Tipoff: 7 p.m. MST
Venue: The Pit (18,018)
TV: None
Webcast: None
Radio: KOKC (1520 AM), Yahoo! Radio
Radio Talent: Brian Brinkley (Play-by-Play) & Tara Degiusti
Tickets: (505) 925-527

Player To Watch
Junior Kendra Moore has been praised by head coach Sherri Coale for her steady play as the backup point guard. Moore is averaging 23 minutes a game, despite not starting, and is making the most of her time. She is second on team in scoring at 10 points per game, while also averaging four rebounds and two assists per game. Moore's hot start will be challenged when she squares off against New Mexico's leading scorer Katie Montgomery (12.5 PPG).

Sign Of The Times - 111-61
Sherri Coale's squads have always been guard driven. Not this season. The Sooners are controlling the post, where they have outrebounded opponents 111-61. The Sooners are pulling down an average of 55.5 boards per game in the early going.

SMU Leftovers
Courtney Paris had 19 points and 20 rebounds Sunday to lead No. 25 Oklahoma to an 80-43 victory over SMU in the second round of the Preseason Women's NIT.

Oklahoma scored the first 17 points as the Mustangs (1-1) missed their first 11 shots. Leah Rush, Britney Brown and Erin Higgins hit 3-pointers to start the game for the Sooners, and Ashley Paris hit a right-handed hook shot to complete the run.

The Sooners closed the first half with a 7-0 run and led 49-22 after Ashley Paris took a pass in transition and found her twin sister Courtney under the basket for a layup.

The Sooners later struggled on offense, missing 19 of their 25 shots in the second half. They scored 18 of their 31 points in the second half on free throws, and finished with 24 turnovers.

Notes:
* Courtney Paris' rebounding effort was a Preseason WNIT single game record.
* For the second consecutive game OU controlled the paint. The Sooners scored 78 points in the paint, compared to the opposition's 20.
* Junior Krista Sanchez came off the bench for 10 points and six rebounds in 12 minutes of action.
* OU has defeated its two regular season opponents by an average of 34.5 points this season.

OU In Their Words

SMU Head Coach Rhonda Rompola
“They're not a good team, they're a great team. I know right now they're ranked 25, but that's a team you're going to see jump in the polls. They'll certainly get my vote.”

Milwaukee Head Coach Sandy Botham
“She's (Courtney Paris) got great hands. She runs the floor extremely well. She's power, but yet finesse. She can just do so many different things. I swear she's got eyes in the back of her head too.”

An Immediate Impact
Coming into the season much was made of the potential impact of twin freshman post players Ashley and Courtney Paris. Just two games into their careers, they are fulfilling the hype.
Courtney is averaging 21.5 points and 15 rebounds on the young season and has already set two records. Her 24 points against UW Milwaukee were an OU freshman debut record, while her 20 rebounds against SMU were a WNIT single game best.

Ashley is averaging 8 points and seven rebounds as the Sooners sixth man.

Fighting the Good Fight
The battle for the starting point guard duties began when Dionnah Jackson hung up her jersey at the end of last season. Britney Brown has started the first two games, but fellow junior Kendra Moore has played more minutes (46 to 35). Through the early going the battle is a draw and head coach Sherri Coale is happy about that.

So far Moore is the second leading scorer (10 PPG) and has just three turnovers. Brown has also committed only three turnovers and is leading the team with three APG.

The duo has combined to average 16 PPG, 7.5 RPG and five APG. Jackson averaged 14.6 PPG, 8.5 RPG and 5.7 APG last season as a honorable mention All-American. Coale hopes the duo can combine to fill those numbers and so far they have lived up to expectations.

Preston Makes First Of Two Trips Home
The Sooners semifinal game with New Mexico will be a homecoming for Albuquerque native Beky Preston. The senior attended LaCueva High School where she averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds as a senior. She was named the 2002 New Mexico State Player of the Year and earned USA Today All-America Honorable Mentions honors during her final prep season.

Preston has averaged 3.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game during her three-plus years at OU. Her parents, Richard and Jan, are expected to be in attendance at Wednesday's game.

Bench Mark
Oklahoma's bench has been responsible for 39 percent (70 points) of its scoring this season. The Sooner bench has outscored the opposing bench 70 to 43.

Additionally every Sooner on the roster has seen action in the two regular season games and one exhibition contest. Every player scored in the exhibition contest, while 10 of 11 have put points on the board in the WNIT contests.

Experimental Rules
The NCAA Rules Committee is enforcing two experimental rules during all Division I women's basketball exhibition games and selected tournaments, including the Preseason WNIT.

The 3-point line has been moved back nine inches (20 feet, 6 inches from rim) and is marked by a three-inch line. Players can shoot a legal 3-pointer from beyond or on top of that line, but the shot will be worth two points if any portion of the foot crosses the inside of the line.

The second experimental rule is the 10-second backcourt rule that is utilized in men's college game. Teams have 10 seconds to get the ball across half court after a made basket or change in possession.

Record Turnout
A home-opener record crowd of 5,711 watched the Sooners defeated UW Milwaukee on Friday, Nov. 11. The previous record was 4,360 from the 2001 opener against Sam Houston State.

The crowd was also the third largest turnout for a pre-January game. The record for a pre-January Sooner game was set in 2001 when 12, 080 sold out Lloyd Noble for a game with Tennessee. The second best crowd was 1999 game against UConn when 10,713 were in attendance.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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