New Orleans, Louisiana-After a week off, the University of New Orleans women's basketball team will hit the road, again heading west to Houston, Texas to face the Huskies of Houston Baptist in a Southland Conference contest, Thursday, Jan. 19, at Sharp Gymnasium. Tipoff is 7 p. m.
A win would give New Orleans (8-7, 3-2 SLC) a three-game winning streak, the longest string of wins by the Privateers since a four-game run at the end of the 2014-2015 season. The current streak started with a win at Incarnate Word, 71-67, followed by an easy 78-49 win over Sam Houston State on Jan.12.
Privateer head coach
Keeshawn Davenport is till beaming over the fact that her team had 30 baskets and 20 assists against Sam Houston State.
"We need to keep that up because that means we're looking to get others involved and when we do it's hard to focus on stopping one person," said Davenport.
Usually that "one" person is the leading scorer in the Southland Conference,
Randi Brown (Human Performance). The junior guard averages 21.5 points a game. Brown also leads the conference in 3-point field goals a game averaging 3.1. She needs six points to move into the ninth spot all-time among scorers at the University of New Orleans passing Brittany Helm (2007-10) who tallied 1,339 points during her Privateer career.
Sophomore
Shania Woods (Accounting) continues her consistent play as her name appears among the top ten statistically in a number of categories in the Southland Conference (SLC). Woods, who is scoring at a 9.3 clip, is 6
th in rebounds (7.8), 7
th in field goal percentage (.535 on 64-of-114), and 8
th in blocked shots (1.1). The Cypress, Texas native had a double-double on the road against Incarnate Word with 21 points, a career-high, and 14 rebounds.
Kayla Mundy (Human Performance), a junior, had 16 points off the bench in the win over Sam Houston State for her second consecutive double figure outing. She had 11 against Incarnate Word.
Point guard
Mariah Wright (Computer Science) was one of six Privateers with at least six points against Sam Houston State, however the sophomore had the best all-around outing with 6 points and season-highs in rebounds (7), assists (4), and steals (6).
UNO leads the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.360) and they are third in both field goal percentage (.421) and 3-point field goal defense (.393). New Orleans is fourth in scoring offense at 69.7 points a game and fifth in the SLC in scoring defense surrendering 63.5 points a contest.
At the halfway point of the regular season, Davenport is excited about what's in store the rest of the way.
"This team has something my teams lacked in recent years and that's resiliency." Davenport added, "They just refuse to surrender and the harder you work the harder it is to surrender."
Houston Baptist (4-12,2-4 SLC) was victorious in its last outing, a 68-51 win over the University of the Incarnate Word on Jan. 14.
The Huskies were led by Lisa Zderakicka who recorded her first career double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds. She leads the Huskies in scoring (9.8) and rebounds (3.8).
"They have a very young team that's still trying to figure it out. They do a great job on the defensive end and they spread the ball around on offense," Davenport said.
Houston Baptist holds a 4-1 advantage in the all-time series between the two schools. The Huskies won last year's meeting in New Orleans 71-51.
After facing Houston Baptist, the next time the Privateers will be in action is Saturday, Jan. 21, against Central Arkansas at Lakefront Arena. Tipoff is set for 4 p. m.
For tickets to that game and other Privateer Athletics events, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or via the Internet by clicking
HERE.
--www.UNOPrivateers.com--
