New Orleans- The University of New Orleans women's basketball team will face Abilene Christian in the first round of the Southland Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, Thursday, March 8 at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy Texas. Tipoff at 1:30 p. m.
New Orleans (15-14, 11-7 Southland) is the No. 6 seed and Abilene Christian (15-13, 9-9 Southland) is the No. 7 seven seed. The winner will face the No. 3 seed Central Arkansas, Friday, March 9 at 1:30 p. m.
The Privateers and the Wildcats met during the regular season when ACU defeated UNO back on Dec. 28, 2017, 80-70. Despite 27 points from All-Southland Conference performer
Randi Brown, New Orleans dropped the Southland Conference opener for both clubs.
This is the second trip to the conference tourney for the Privateers while the Wildcats are in the tournament for the first time.
"We got the first-time experience out of the way last year," said head coach
Keeshawn Davenport. "I think the team is focused on what we have to do and that's to win four games if we want to get to the championship. But it's the old line, one game at a time."
After leading the Southland Conference in scoring all season,
Randi Brown was named all-conference for the third straight season. Brown averaged 22.2 points a game and she joined former UNO great Sandra Hodge (1980-84) as the only Privateers to exceed 2-thousand career-points. The Houma, Louisiana native is the 5
th leading scorer in Southland Conference history with 2,112 points.
Senior guard
Kayla Mundy and junior center
Shania Woods were honorable mention all-conference selections.
Woods ranks among conference leaders in rebounds at 9.3 a game (3
rd) and field goal percentage hitting 56.8% of her tries (2
nd). The Houston, Texas native also scored at a 12.7 clip.
Mundy averaged 13.0 points a contest in conference games this season and she was the third best free throw shooter in the Southland hitting 88.1% of her freebies.
Abilene Christian won the Southland Conference regular season crown in 2016 and 2017 however the Wildcats were in the midst of their transitional period making them ineligible for NCAA postseason play.
ACU has lost five-in-a-row and they'll rely on sophomore Breanna Wright, a Third Team All-Southland Conference selection averaging 15.1 points and is the leader in free throw shooting in 18 conference contests hitting 91.1% of her free throws. Wright is also third in the SLC in 3-pointers with 2.4 an outing.
"She's the head of the snake. She makes the team go. She does a great job of getting to the rim and kicking it out for the "3" so we definitely have to contain her," said Davenport.
Last year, after a first round bye, New Orleans lost in the quarterfinals to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 88-77.
Tickets for the 2018 Southland Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament are available on
www.UNOPrivateers.com/SLC for $75. The tournament runs March 8-11.
Be sure to follow
@UNOPrivateers on Twitter,
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/UNOPrivateers on Facebook and subscribe to the
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