Tuesday, January 15, 2008

BOONE, N.C. (Jan. 15, 2008) - Coming off an important conference win over Campbell Monday evening, the ETSU women's basketball team is set for a quick turnaround as the Lady Bucs play their third game in five days when they face Appalachian State in a non-conference showdown Wednesday night. Tip is set for 7 p.m. inside the Holmes Center.

The Lady Bucs concluded their season-long four-game homestand and now venture out on a three-game road swing, which includes trips to Boone and Nashville. Following its game Wednesday evening, ETSU will then travel to face conference rivals Lipscomb (Saturday) and Belmont (Monday).

Fans not able to attend Wednesday's game can listen to Don Helman's (Voice of the Lady Bucs) call on the radio through WKPT-AM 1590 in Johnson City, WKPT-AM 1400 in Kingsport and WOPI-AM 1490 in Bristol, or Buc fans can view the contest via video stream by visiting http://www.goasu.com/ and click on the Video Gallery icon under the Multimedia taskbar.

Below is a breakdown of the match-up:

Lady Bucs' Last Game

The ETSU women's basketball team displayed its best defensive effort of the season as they forced a school-record 24 steals and outscored Campbell by 21 points in the second half to claim a, 72-53, come from behind victory Monday evening inside Memorial Center.

With the win, ETSU improves to 6-9, 2-1 in A-Sun play; while Campbell falls to 6-11, 1-2. The Lady Bucs have now won all five games in the short-lived series.

Three Lady Buccaneer players reached double figures in scoring with senior Jenny Norman (Peachtree City, Ga.) and sophomore TaRonda Wiles (Danville, Va.) each netting a game-high 16 points. The 16 points by Norman set a new season best as she finished 7-of-8 from the floor. Sophomore post Latisha Belcher (Martinsville, Va.) just missed her third career double-double, posting 12 points, nine rebounds, five steals, three assists and three blocks in a career-high 31 minutes of action.

About Appalachian State

Head Coach Adrienne Shuler enters her sixth season at the helm for the Mountaineers. Appalachian State returns six players from last season's team that finished fourth in the SoCon and brought in five newcomers this year. 

After posting a record of 13-18 a year ago, the Mountaineers have struggled through their first 15 games, going 2-13 along the way. The early scheduling has not been fun for App. State as they have faced the top three teams in the SoCon (UTC, Davidson and Western Carolina) thus far.  In addition, ASU has played nationally ranked DePaul, Big South favorite Radford, and San Diego.

The Mountaineers are led by all-conference senior guard Whitney Tossie, who leads the team in scoring at 11.5 points per contest; while 5-11 sophomore forward Whitney Randolph leads the team in rebounding (5.8 per game).

As a team, Appalachian State is being outscored by almost 13 points a game. The Mountaineers are allowing 76.5 points per contest and only averaging 63.7. They are also being dominated on the glass, 41.6-33.9 (-7.7).  Appalachian State enters Wednesday's game on a six-game losing streak and has only won once in its last 13 games (Dec. 19 at Central Florida).

The Series

Appalachian State leads the historic series, 34-31, but ETSU has won four of the last six and 11 of 18 in the long-lived series. The Lady Bucs crushed the Mountaineers, 104-87, last season inside Memorial Center, marking the most points scored against App. State in the 65 games played. Both Michele DeVault (Columbus, Ohio) and Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) tallied double-doubles, with DeVault putting up 17 points and 12 rebounds; while Evans matched her teammate in rebounds and poured in a career-high 29 points. However, the Lady Bucs have not won in Boone since Feb. 14, 2004 when ETSU pulled off a 74-69 victory.

What  Break

The Lady Bucs are in the midst of a tough stretch where ETSU is playing its third game in five days. Since facing Alabama on Jan. 2, the Lady Buccaneers have played six games in 15 days (counting the Appalachian State game).

Stormin' Norman

Senior post Jenny Norman loves playing against A-Sun foes. In the three conference games thus far, Norman has posted 11.3 points and is connecting on 68.2 percent of her shots (15-22). However, in her 12 non-conference games, Norman is missing as she is only averaging 4.0 points and hitting 42.6 percent from the field (20-47).

Money In The Bank...

Should the Lady Bucs hold the lead with 5:00 left in the ballgame it is safe to say ETSU will win the contest. ETSU is 6-0 when leading after 35 minutes have been completed.

A Look Ahead

The Lady Bucs will make the trip to Nashville and look to avenge last season's 0-2 mark as ETSU was swept by Lipscomb and Belmont. ETSU will tip things off with the Bisons Saturday at 3 p.m. EST inside Allen Arena. Then, the Lady Bucs will face Belmont at 1 p.m. EST on Monday.

Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on Lady Buccaneer basketball and all other ETSU athletic news.