New Orleans, Louisiana- The University of New Orleans women's basketball team will go for a season-sweep of the University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals, Thursday, Feb. 9, at Lakefront Arena. Tipoff is 7 p. m.
The Privateers (11-10,6-5) defeated UIW 71-67 the first time the schools met this season in San Antonio on Jan. 7.
New Orleans is in 4th place in the Southland Conference trailing conference leader Abilene Christian, Central Arkansas and Lamar are tied for second and Stephen F. Austin is third.
"We are playing for seeding and if we keep winning we can move up in these seedings," said head coach
Keeshawn Davenport. "Not to mention we now have a winning season in sight, something we haven't accomplished since I was a senior in 2001."
Randi Brown (Human Performance) continues to lead the Southland Conference in scoring at 20.3 points a game. She also leads in points scored with 426. The junior has failed to reach double figures in only 1 of 21 games this season and has eleven 20-point games thus far. Brown had a conference single-game high of 45-points against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on New Year's Eve.
The Houma, Louisiana native, who had 23 points in the win over Nicholls State last Saturday, has 1,237 career- points as a Privateer and needs 10 points to pass Michelle Anderson (1980-84) as the sixth leading scorer all time in New Orleans basketball history.
Halie Matthews (Biological Sciences), a junior from Harvey, Louisiana, is playing the best basketball of her career with three consecutive double figure games off the bench (13 vs. Stephen F. Austin, 13 vs. Lamar, 15 vs. Nicholls State). Matthews averages 6 points and 3 rebounds an outing. She also leads the Privateers in blocked shots with 20.
Kayla Mundy (Human Performance) a junior guard, also continues her production off the bench with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Om the club's 81-77 win over Nicholls the bench scored 43 points for UNO.
Center
Shania Woods (Accounting) leads UNO in rebounds with 7.1 a game and is second in scoring at 9 points a contest. The Cypress, Texas native is the team's most accurate shooter canning 80-of-158 shots for .506 percent.
Incarnate Word (6-16, 4-7) enters the contest fresh off the program's first win ever over Houston Baptist, 69-54, on Feb. 2. The Cardinals are led by one of the conference's best players in Celia Garcia Paunero, 4th the in the conference in scoring (17.5) and leading the Southland in rebounds (10.9).
"She scores in a variety of ways. She can post you up, knock down the mid-range jumper or hit the three. I'm sure she has an asterisk by her name for every scouting report," said Davenport.
Senior guard Cheyenne Berry averages 12 points a game and freshman guard Imani Robinson contributes 11.4 a contest. Junior guard Haley Frias tied an NCAA record for 3-pointers in a game with 12 in a win over LSU-Alexandria earlier this season. She averages 9 points an outing.
New Orleans is tops in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage connecting on 110-of-312 shots for a .353 clip.
"We need to string together more than one win at a time so we can put some space between us and the teams that are right behind us. It's time for us to decide our own destiny," Davenport added.
The Privateers prevailed the first time these schools met this season back on Jan. 7 in San Antonio. It was New Orleans 71 UIW 67 and the all-time series between the schools is tied at 2-2.
New Orleans returns to action Saturday, Feb.11, on the road against Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond at 3 p. m. It's the first game of a doubleheader as the New Orleans men will face Southeastern Louisiana at 5 p. m.
The Privateers will play their next home game Thursday, Feb. 16, when the Cowgirls of Mc Neese State visit Lakefront Arena for a 7 p. m. contest.
For tickets to all Privateer Athletics events, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or via the Internet by clicking
HERE.
--www.UNOPrivateers.com--
