Women's Hoops Opens Season Sunday

Nov. 12, 2011


	Whitney Hand

No. 15 Oklahoma (0-0) vs. Sacramento State (0-1)
Date & Tip Time	Sunday, Nov. 13, at 2:07 p.m. CT \| Gameday Central
Location	Norman, Okla. \| Lloyd Noble Center \| Seating Views
Tickets	$5, $8 and $15; Free to OU students with valid OU I.D. OU Athletics Ticket Office
TV	Sooner Sports Network COX 3 (703 HD) in Oklahoma City and Tulsa
Radio	KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City Metro Area
Webcast	SoonerSports.com All-Access
Live Stats	SoonerSports.com GameTracker
Game Info	Game Notes (PDF)

THE GAME PLAN
Oklahoma begins its regular season Sunday, Nov. 13, hosting Sacramento State at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on COX Channel 3 (703 HD) in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas and webcast (subscription) on SoonerSports.com All-Access with Bob Carpenter on play-by-play and Billy Tubbs providing analysis. The radio broadcast with Brian Brinkley airs on KOKC 1520 AM.

Tickets
• Season tickets are available for as low as $114. Tickets may be purchased online at SoonerSports.com or by calling the OU Athletics Ticket Office at 1-800-456-GoOU.
• Single-game tickets went on sale to the general public Nov. 1. Prices are $15 for reserved seating, $8 for general admission adults and $5 for general admission youths and senior citizens. OU students receive free admission when presenting a valid ID.

Promotions
• Autograph Day: The OU women's basketball team will sign autographs in the upper concourse shortly following the conclusion of the game.
• Halftime: The OU band and featured twirler Megan McGeary will perform.
• The official women's basketball team posters and schedule cards will be available to fans on the concourse near entry points of the arena.

The Game
• This is the first ever meeting between Oklahoma and Sacramento State. The Hornets lost to Cal State Fullerton in their season opener, 81-64, on Friday. Sacramento State is unranked.
• Oklahoma begins the preseason ranked No. 16 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll and No. 15 in the Associated Press Poll.

The Coaches
• Sherri Coale is 336-155 (.684) in her 16th season at Oklahoma. She has been the Big 12 Coach of the Year four times.
• Sacramento State head coach Jamie Craighead (Oregon, 2002) is 19-41 (11-21 Big Sky) in her third season.

Sacramento State Projected Starters
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Year	2010-11 Statistics
1	Fantasia Hilliard	G	5-3	Fr.	-
12	Mallorie Franco	G	5-10	Jr.	5.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg
15	Sadie Clements	G	5-10	So.	4.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg
23	Emily Christensen	F	5-11	Sr.	4.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg
24	Kylie Kuhns	F	6-0	Jr.	15.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg

Oklahoma Projected Starters
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Year	2010-11 Statistics
10	Morgan Hook	G	5-10	So.	6.6 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.1 apg
3	Aaryn Ellenberg	G	5-7	So.	16.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg
25	Whitney Hand	G	6-1	RS-Jr.	12.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg
53	Joanna McFarland	F	6-3	Jr.	5.3 ppg, 6.6 rpg
4	Nicole Griffin	C	6-6	So.	5.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg

PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA
The Sooners were picked by the league's coaches to finish fourth in the Big 12 Conference this season. The media has Oklahoma 15th in the Preseason Associated Press Poll and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll has Oklahoma at No. 16.

Oklahoma returns to the court following its third straight Sweet 16 appearance. OU returns nine letterwinners from that squad and introduces four freshmen.

The Sooners must replace one of its most successful senior classes after the graduation of two-time All-American point guard and eligibility exhausted for Carlee Roethlisberger and Lauren Willis. That trio claimed 54 wins inside the Lloyd Noble Center, the most by Oklahoma in a four-year span.

Redshirt junior Whitney Hand is finally back to 100 percent health after suffering an ACL tear in November 2009 and returning to action in January 2011.

Sophomore Aaryn Ellenberg, the team's top returning scorer, was true to self in the team's preseason scrimmage by leading the scoring with 22 points.

Unfortunately, senior Jasmine Hartman will not play in 2011-12 after tearing her ACL in a September workout and Lyndsey Cloman doing the same in OU's first exhibition game on Nov. 2.

Captains for 2011-12
Junior Lyndsey Cloman, redshirt junior Whitney Hand and senior Jasmine Hartman are co-captains of the Sooners this season. The captains were voted by their teammates.

All Home Games Televised
All 14 of OU's regular season home games plus the two exhibition contests will be televised either locally on the Sooner Sports Network or nationally on Fox Sports Net or ESPN2.

OU's games on the Sooner Sports Network are also webcast on SoonerSports.com All-Access subscription site (exhibitions free).

An additional eight road games are scheduled to be televised on various networks, giving OU a guaranteed slate of 24 television broadcasts in 2011-12.

DeCosta Returns as an Assistant
Pam DeCosta has returned to Oklahoma after four seasons as head coach at San Jose State. There, she led the Spartans to their first victory over a ranked opponent in nearly three decades and the fifth Western Athletic Conference tournament victory in their history.

DeCosta was an assistant at OU during Coale's first two seasons and was significant in constructing its championship tradition, having recruited some of the program's most distinguished student-athletes, including two-time All-American Stacey Dales.

DeCosta was an assistant at the University of Kansas for a total of eight seasons (1994-96 and 1999-2003) with a stint at OU between. During her time at KU, the Jayhawks won a Big Eight Championship and made five NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 1996.

NEXT UP
Oklahoma travels to "The Pit" to play New Mexico on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m. CT.

Sooner to Watch
	Morgan Hook \| So. \| Guard Hook's preseason tuneup to replacing two-time All-American Danielle Robinson as OU's starting point guard went about as well as it could as she averaged 11.5 points and 4.0 assists. But real games start Sunday with a team that traditionally disrupts with full-court pressure. It will be Hook's job to keep the right pace and make the offense flow smoothly.

PREVIEWING SACRAMENTO STATE
Sacramento State plays with an up-tempo beat and is quick to shoot in the offense built by third-year head coach Jamie Craighead. A fact made evident by the 122 field goal attempts taken in their lone exhibition game.

True to their mascot, the Hornets swarm in a full-court press and run and led the Big Sky Conference in steals two seasons ago with 10 per game. They have also paced the league in rebounding in recent years.

Junior Kylie Kuhns is the most reliable producer. She was an all-conference honorable mention last season after averaging 15.9 points and 11.8 rebounds. Kuhns had 13 double-doubles as a sophomore and was No. 12 in the NCAA in rebounding.

OPENING THE SEASON
Oklahoma is 22-15 all-time in its season opener. The Sooners have won three straight season openers, and seven of their last eight. OU's last loss to an unranked team in a season opener was to Stephen F. Austin in the first game of 1997-98.

Oklahoma has won 13 consecutive home openers is 28-9 all-time in its first game at the Lloyd Noble Center. In its last 10 home openers, OU's margin of victory is 31.5 points.

OKLAHOMA FOURTH IN BIG 12 VOTE
The University of Oklahoma women's basketball team was picked fourth in the preseason poll of the Big 12 coaches. Baylor was selected as the preseason favorite to win the Big 12 regular season title for the third consecutive year.

The Lady Bears received all of the possible nine first-place votes (coaches cannot vote for their own team) after capturing both the Big 12 regular season and postseason titles a year ago. Texas A&M, last season's national champion, was picked second and nabbed the other first-place vote. Just two points separated the next two spots as Texas was chosen third, followed by Oklahoma in fourth. Iowa State rounded out the top five. The remaining selections were Texas Tech in sixth, Kansas seventh, Oklahoma State eighth, Kansas State ninth and Missouri 10th.

Sooners Aaryn Ellenberg and Whitney Hand were honorable mentions to the All-Big 12 team of Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims (Baylor), Carolyn Davis (Kansas), Toni Young (Oklahoma State), Chassidy Fussell (Texas) and Tyra White (Texas A&M).

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
Oklahoma's 2011-12 women's basketball team gets in the record books before a minute of ball is even played. The team averages to 6-feet, 1-inch in height, the tallest team in OU's history. Led by the tallest player in the program's history, 6-foot-6 Nicole Griffin is among the eight of 13 Sooners who are 6-0 or taller.

OU's first team was its shortest. The 1974-75 squad averaged 5-5 with its tallest member, freshman center Julie Arrington, towering over her teammates at 5-10. Freshman guard Alice Roach measured at 5-1, the shortest player in OU history.

Just three seasons later, OU cracked 5-9 as an average height for the first time and would reach 5-11 after the following five years. It would take almost two decades to grow another inch, though, as the Sooners averaged to 6-0 for the first time last season.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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