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For Immediate ReleaseWomen's Basketball -- Jan. 10, 2012
Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook
PDF Version of Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook
THE ST. LOUIS POWERS The Eureka College women’s basketball team will continue a stretch of 11 consecutive games against St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opponents with two contests against traditional league powers this week.
The Red Devils will host the Webster Gorloks Tuesday at the Reagan Center at 6 p.m. Eureka will close the week with a 1 p.m. tip-off against the Fontbonne Griffins on Saturday in St. Louis, Mo.
SCOUTING WEBSTER The winner of last season’s SLIAC Tournament, Webster is 4-8 overall and 2-1 against the SLIAC this season. The Gorloks have won three games in a row and will be playing on the road Tuesday for the first time since Dec. 19.
The Gorloks dropped their SLIAC opener versus Westminster on Nov. 30, 59-45, but bounced back with league wins over Blackburn and Spalding last week in St. Louis. Webster also owns non-conference wins against Austin (67-63, Dec. 11) and St. Scholastica (71-58, Dec. 30). Tuesday’s contest with the Red Devils represents the Gorloks’ first SLIAC road trip of the 2011-12 season.
Eight different players have earned a start for the Gorloks this season and no player scores in double-figures on average. Junior guard Gwen Williams leads the offense with 9.9 points per game. Webster has struggled from the field this season and ranks eighth among SLIAC squads with a .349 team shooting percentage.
Jefferson City, Mo. native Jordan Olufson is in his fourth season as the head coach at Webster. He has guided the Gorloks to a 49-42 record since taking over the program prior to the 2008-09 season.
The Red Devils are 3-7 against the Gorloks since joining the SLIAC in 2006 and will try to break a seven-game losing streak in the all-time series on Tuesday.
Eureka’s previous victory over Webster was a 55-44 triumph on Jan. 19, 2008. The Gorloks have since won three in a row inside the Reagan Center.
SCOUTING FONTBONNE Fontbonne represents Eureka’s second SLIAC opponent of the week. The Griffins enter the week 5-7 overall and 2-1 in the SLIAC. Fontbonne will visit Spalding on Tuesday and Greenville on Thursday before hosting Eureka this Saturday afternoon.
The Griffins have yet to play a close league game this season, romping to double-digit victories over Blackburn (Dec. 3) and MacMurray (59-36). Fontbonne dropped its most lopsided decision to Westminster in more than 15 years when the Griffins fell in Fulton on Jan. 4, 88-60.
Sophomore forward Chelsey Freymuth is one of three Griffins to start all 12 games and leads FU with 10.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
Matt Wickenhauser is in his first season as head coach of the Griffins. He had previously been an assistant coach on women’s staffs at Missouri-St. Louis, Maryville and Fontbonne. Fontbonne is 9-1 against Eureka in SLIAC competition and will be shooting to beat the Red Devils for the sixth consecutive outing this Saturday.
A charter member of the SLIAC, Fontbonne owns the winningest women’s basketball program in conference history with 232 league wins, a .708 winning percentage and six regular season SLIAC titles since 1991.
ONE UP, ONE DOWN LAST WEEK Eureka improved its road record to 3-0 last Wednesday with a 71-58 drubbing of Spalding in Louisville, Ky. Senior forward Khassandrae Brown scored a game-high 18 points and sophomore guard Caty Eeten compiled the game’s only double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, as Eureka shot a season-best 51 percent from the field.
Defending SLIAC champion Westminster used an efficient attack to build a big first-half lead, then held off a furious second-half rally from Eureka to earn an 80-67 league win over the Red Devils, Saturday afternoon at the Reagan Center. Brown led all scorers with a career-high 24 points on 9-for-11 shooting. Sara Hamilton scored 13 points, pulled down a game-high seven rebounds and shared game-high honors with five assists.
BROWN’S MILESTONE Senior forward Khassandrae Brown joined teammates Lisa Byard and Caty Eeten as active Red Devils with 500 career points after her 18-point showing at Spalding last Wednesday. She went on to pour in a career-high with 24 points and tied a personal-best with nine field goals Saturday versus Westminster.
Brown went 16-for-21 from the field for the week to bump her career field goal percentage to .500 (187-for-374) and her career point total to 530.
EETEN UPDATE According to the latest weekly statistic report from the NCAA for games through Jan. 8, Caty Eeten remains the Division III scoring leader with 26.0 points per game. The Eureka native also ranks 38th nationally with a .539 field goal percentage.
As a team, Eureka ranks among the national top-50 in scoring (78.0, eighth) and rebound margin (+7.6, 41st).
THE BYARD WATCH Senior forward Lisa Byard collected a personal season-best nine rebounds Wednesday at Spalding and later became the eighth player in program history to gather 600 career rebounds with her board at the 11:19 mark of Saturday’s first half against Westminster. Byard, who has started all 85 games of her collegiate career since the 2008-09 season, needs six rebounds to tie Kelly Ducat (1988-92) for seventh place on the all-time Eureka list.
WEEKLY NOTABLES Wednesday’s win at Spalding was Eureka’s first in five tries as a member of the SLIAC against the Golden Eagles and the 17th overall of head coach Taren Martin’s career.
Martin needs one more victory to tie Abby Hearn (2007-10) for third place on the all-time Eureka women’s basketball wins list. Martin’s career winning percentage of (.486) currently ranks third among Eureka’s nine head coaches in program history.
The Eureka defense held Spalding to 19 points in the first half last Wednesday, the best defensive effort by the Red Devils in a half against SLIAC competition since limiting Fontbonne to 18 first-half points on Dec. 9, 2008. The 71-58 win improved the Red Devils to 9-0 under Taren Martin when allowing 59 points or less.
Sophomore guard Caty Eeten recorded her 200th career rebound last Wednesday at Spalding and her 100th career assist Saturday versus Westminster.
Junior guard Jay Stewart set new career-highs with 14 points and six free throws made at Spalding last Wednesday.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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