Dec. 27, 2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Louisiana Tech returns to the court following a short Christmas break as the Lady Techsters face UMBC Sunday at 1 p.m. CST in the first game of the Marriott Cavalier Classic.
Virginia, the host school, plays Riders in the second game of the day. The two winners play in the championship game on Monday at 6 p.m. CST while the two losers play in the consolation game at 3:30 p.m. CST.
UMBC (7-4) is one of the highest scoring teams in the country and boasts one of the top offensive players in the nation in guard Carlee Cassidy, who ranks third nationally averaging 24.9 points per game. Cassidy has scored 20 or more points in 10 of 11 games this year.
The Retrievers fell to Loyola (Md.), 80-76, in their last outing on Dec. 21. LA Tech and UMBC have never met in women's basketball action.
"UMBC can flat score," Long said. "They have the nation's third leading scorer and several others that can really shoot. They do a good job of creating shot for their best players. We will need to be very disciplined defensively and continue to execute offensively because it will be difficult to slow UMBC down a lot."
Louisiana Tech is coming off arguably its best performance of the season with a 77-61 win over UALR Dec. 22 in Ruston. In that contest, Tech shot 53 percent from the field and maintained a double digit lead for the majority of the game.
Junior forward Shanavia Dowdell (17.4 ppg, 9.5 rpg), sophomore forward Adrienne Johnson (13.1 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and sophomore guard Whitney Jones (12.7 ppg) continue to lead Tech offensively.
However, junior guard Tiawana Pringle (6.4 ppg) has scored in double figures in two consecutive games while sophomore guard Sidney Stewart (5.9 ppg) also chipped in with 10 points in the win over UALR.
Defensively, Tech ranks among the nation's top teams in a number of statistical categories, including 2nd in the country in three-point field goal percentage defense (18.8 percent), 14th in field goal percentage defense (33.3 percent) and 11th in blocked shots (5.9 bpg).
That defense will be a key to Sunday's game as UMBC ranks 32nd in the country in three-point field goals made per game (6.8) and 33rd in three-point field goal percentage (36.9 percent).
The Lady Techsters are still looking for their first win away from the Thomas Assembly Center this season as Tech is 6-1 at home and 3-0 on the road.
Sunday's game can be heard on KPCH 99.3 FM and while Monday's contest will be aired on KXKZ 107.5 FM. Live statistics are available for all games at VirginiaSports.com.
