New Orleans, Louisiana- The University of New Orleans women's basketball team will try to make it 2 in a row in Southland Conference play when they open a three game, Texas road trip against Abilene Christian University, Tuesday, Jan. 3 at Moody Coliseum. Tipoff is 7:30.
New Orleans (6-5, 1-0) started conference play with a win for the first time since the 2007-08 season--- when the Privateers were members of the Sun Belt Conference--- with a 75-54 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Lakefront Arena.
UNO was propelled by a record-setting performance by junior
Randi Brown (Human Performance), the leading scorer in the Southland Conference (SLC), who blistered the nets for 45 points, one better than the school record of 44 set in 1981 by UNO All American Sandra Hodge.
The Houma, Louisiana native also sank nine 3 pointers in the game, breaking another single game mark set in 1994 by Shanna Cook with 8.
Brown also canned 21 points in a Jan.29 win over Crowley's Ridge College. Those performances earned her Southland Conference Player of the Week as well as College Sports Madness Southland Conference and National Mid Major Player of the Week.
"I'm so excited for her," beamed Privateer head coach
Keeshawn Davenport. "She has worked so hard and it's paying off."
Shania Woods (Accounting) continues her steady frontcourt work averaging 8.2 points and 7.1 rebounds an outing. Woods joined
Randi Brown in double figures against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with 10 points.
Senior
Jewel Angelo continues to make major contributions off the bench. She has reached double digits in scoring 5 times this season after reaching that mark once as a junior. Her best scoring performance was against nationally-ranked Texas when she poured in 17 against the Longhorns.
In the win over Crowley's Ridge, the Privateers had six players in double figures. Joining
Randi Brown (21) were
Kayla Mundy (Human Performance) 15 points,
Danielle Wright (Biological Sciences) also had 15,
Halie Matthews (Biological Sciences) had a season-high 14,
Jewel Angelo (Interdisciplinary Studies) had 13, and
Mariah Wright (Computer Science) added 11. UNO got an amazing 72 bench-points in the victory over the Pioneers.
Abilene Christian is one of the top rebounding teams in the SLC ranking second in rebounding margin outrebounding opponents by six rebounds a game.
Privateer senior
Raven Coleman (Interdisciplinary Studies) could be one of the keys to victory for New Orleans. The senior center from Marrero, Louisiana was inserted into the starting lineup five games ago, and she turned in perhaps her best performance to date against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with a season-high 10 rebounds.
"That's why Raven has moved into the starting lineup because she knows and performs her role." Davenport added, "She knows she's not a big scorer but she's out there to get rebounds and her 10 boards against Corpus Christi showed that."
Abilene Christian (7-6, 1-0), opened Southland Conference play with a convincing 82-57 win over Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, Louisiana. The Wildcats, last season's regular season conference champions, were paced by Sydney Shelstead with 26 points.
Shelstead leads ACU in scoring (13.8) and rebounds (8.4). She is joined by Alexis Mason, last season's conference player of the year who averages 13.4 points a game.
Suzzy Dimba averages 9.9 points and 4.8 rebounds a contest and Lizzy Dimba grabs 6 rebounds a game.
Abilene Christian returns the bulk of a roster that went 26-4 overall and 17-1 in Southland Conference play in 2015-16.
"We'll see a championship caliber team," said Davenport. "They have four returning starters, they are very good and very disciplined. Their scoring is wide spread and it's going to be a tough, competitive game for us."
Abilene Christian leads the all-time series 3-0. The last meeting was 2-27-16, an 80-70 Wildcat win in Abilene.
New Orleans will continue the road trip with games at Lamar Jan. 5, and Incarnate Word Jan. 7.
The next UNO home game will be Thursday, Jan. 12, versus Sam Houston State. Tipoff is 5:30 and it is the first game of a doubleheader as the Privateer men will face Sam Houston State at 7:45.
For tickets to those games 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--
