Women's Basketball Starts Home Weekend Against Stephen F. Austin

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN AT NEW ORLEANS
THURSDAY, JAN. 14 | 7 PM
LAKEFRONT ARENA | NEW ORLEANS, LA.

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The New Orleans Privateers women's basketball team (4-8, 1-2 Southland) begins a home tilted rest of the month when they take on the Stephen F. Austin Lady Jacks (7-7, 1-2) on Thursday evening at the Lakefront Arena. Tip is slated for 7 p.m.
 
In the Privateers' last outing, they battled back from a nine-point halftime deficit to take a lead with under four minutes left at Sam Houston State, but wound up falling 64-52. Randi Brown led the team with 19 points and increased her scoring average to 16.9 which now co-leads the conference along with Shernise Robertson (Sam Houston State).
 
Coach Keeshawn Davenport praised the effort of her team to battle back on Saturday, and added "It's time to learn from our mistakes and take it to the next level. They're aware of what needs to happen. At this point of the season, I feel like we're not going to see many new schemes. When you get to this point, it's about focusing on us and doing the little things we need to do to win."
 
Home has been good to New Orleans this season as the Privateers are 4-1 at Lakefront Arena. Five of the next six games will take place at the Lakefront. The only road trip will be on Jan. 23 when the Privateers head to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
This week, the Privateers have a tall task to start the home stand against Stephen F. Austin, who is the defending regular season champion. Last year, the Lady Jacks went 16-2 in the Southland during the regular season and defeated New Orleans in the only meeting between the two on Jan. 15, 2015. This season though, Stephen F. Austin has a different look on the sideline with first year head coach, Mark Kellogg.
 
"Now that we're in conference, we're going to see a lot more zone," said Davenport. "Our last two games, opponents played a lot of zone and SFA is going to do the same. They play extremely wide and aggressive in their zone and we have to find a way to score against it. We have to make sure we can break down the zone and score on the inside."
 
Bria Platenburg has been a large part of the Privateers' inside scoring this season. Platenburg is second on the team in scoring (7.8 PPG) and has six games of double figures in points including a career-best 19 vs. LSU-Alexandria. Platenburg is also fifth in the conference in field goal percentage heading into Thursday's contest.
 
New Orleans has also continued their solid work on the boards, hauling in 45 rebounds against Sam Houston State. This season, the Privateers are averaging a Southland best 43.8 boards per game. The Privateers are currently ranked 27^th in the nation in rebounding. The Privateers are ranked inside the top ten (6^th) in offensive rebounds. Individually, Shania Woods is leading the team on the glass (4.8 RPG).
 
The Privateers are shooting 68.1 percent from the free throw line, but have been held under 15 attempts in each of the last two games. Davenport stated," That's on being aggressive. Stephen F. Austin goes a little deeper into their rotation, but the last two games we played, teams didn't run very deep and those players were disciplined. Something we have to do is continue to crash those offensive boards, but also capitalize on them. When you play teams who play solid defense without fouling, that's when we have to look to make shots and not just draw contact."
 
The Lady Jacks enter Thursday reeling a bit after suffering a 55-53 loss to Central Arkansas. The game deciding basket was scored in the final seconds, which handed Stephen F. Austin their second consecutive loss.
 
Taylor Ross is the team's leading scorer at 14.8 PPG and was a Second Team All-Southland selection in 2014-15. Ross has been held to single digits in points in three of the last five games and 17 total points in her last two outings.
 
Brentney Branch is the team's main outside threat with 31 made three-pointers this season. Branch is also shooting 40.6 percent from beyond the arc, which ranks fifth in the Southland. As a team, Stephen F. Austin is in the top five in the conference in scoring offense and defense.
 
For more information on ticket purchasing for the 2015-16 season, click here or call (504) 280-GAME (4263).
 
To keep up with the latest New Orleans women's basketball news, follow the team on Twitter @UNOPrivateers and @Privateers_WBB or by liking New Orleans Privateers on Facebook.