University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Travel To Kentucky For Final Road Date
February 25, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Georgia Lady Bulldog Basketball
Georgia at Kentucky
Thursday, February 26 at 7:00 p.m.
Memorial Coliseum (8,500) in Lexington, Ky.
FOX Sports South TV (Dave Baker, play-by-play; Carol Ross, color)
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM960 The Ref in Athens)
The basics
The Georgia Lady Bulldogs travel to Lexington on Thursday evening looking to snap a five-game losing skid. The 7:00 p.m. contest will be televised regionally by FOX Sports South.
Four weeks ago, Georgia appeared to be hitting its stride with a 67-58 upset of then-No. 5 Auburn, which was 20-0 at the time. That win was the third in a four-game streak that gave the Lady Bulldogs a 15-7 overall record and a 5-2 mark in SEC play.
Since then, Georgia has compiled the first five-game losing streak during Andy Landers’ 30 campaigns in Athens. The Lady Bulldogs fought valiantly to prevent that negative history last Sunday at No. 3 Auburn, trailing by three with 44 seconds remaining before falling by six.
Ashley Houts paces the Lady Bulldogs’ production in points (11.6 ppg) assists (4.9 apg), steals (2.3 spg), free throw percentage (.789) and minutes played (an SEC-high 37.3 mpg).
Angel Robinson is scoring 11.0 ppg and currently leads the team in rebounds (9.0 rpg), blocks (2.2 bpg) and field goal percentage (.547). Robinson has been even more productive of late, averaging 16.3 points and 12.3 boards in her last three outings.
Porsha Phillips is chipping in 10.2 ppg overall, but her scoring average jumps to a team-best 12.3 ppg in SEC play. She has scored in double figures in 10 of 12 conference contests.
Series history vs. UK
Georgia enters tonight with a 29-11 lead in its all-time series with Kentucky; however, the Lady Bulldogs own just a 10-7 advantage in games played in Lexington.
A year ago, Kentucky swept a pair of decisions over Georgia for the first time since the 1981-82 season.
On Jan. 31 in Athens, a Samantha Mahoney three with 1:51 left gave Kentucky its first second-half lead en route to a 47-44 upset of No. 17 Georgia.
The teams met again in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, with fourth-seeded Kentucky securing a 57-50 victory. That game was tied 39-39 before a decisive 15-6 UK run.
The most recent matchup in Lexington was an 82-72 overtime victory for No. 9 Georgia on Feb. 15, 2007. Though Georgia led for virtually the entire game, UK rallied from five down with 4:24 left to tie the game three times, lastly on a Carly Ormerod layup with five seconds left in regulation.
The Wildcats grabbed a 70-69 lead with 3:30 left in the extra session before Georgia closed out the contest on a 13-2 run.
That contest featured the oddity of Ashley Houts picking up her fourth foul with 5:34 left in the first half. After sitting the remainder of the period, Houts played all 20 minutes of the second half and the entire OT without fouling out.
Last time out...
No. 3 Auburn used 7-0 run over a span of 2:18 late in the game to rally to a 65-59 win over Georgia on Sunday.
Angel Robinson scored 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Lady Bulldogs. Porsha Phllips added 13 points, and Ashley Houts dished out nine assists to just one turnover.
DeWanna Bonner scored a game-high 22 points as Auburn avenged last month’s loss to Georgia in Athens. Seconds after the final horn sounded, the Tigers also learned they had clinched a share of the SEC title
“For the most part, I thought we played hard with good effort,” Andy Landers said. “The kids played well on on both ends of the floor. Both offensively and defensively, we executed about as well as we could ask them to for most of the game.”
Georgia led 29-27 at halftime before Alli Smalley’s three 14 seconds into the second stanza supplied Auburn with its first lead since the 15:54 mark of the first half.
After three ties and nine lead changes over the next 14 minutes Auburn went ahead for good on a Chantel Hilliard layup that put the Tigers up 50-49. Auburn led 54-53 with 2:44 remaining before the Tigers scored seven straight to seal the win.
Georgia grab its first lead of the day on a three-point play by Phillips that made it 8-7. The Lady Bulldogs added buckets by Danielle Taylor and Angela Puleo to push their lead to 13-7 and maintained an advantage for the rest of the period. Auburn pulled with one point on three occasions and within two three more times but Georgia answered each threat.
Redan Raiders reunion
Redan High School classmates Porsha Phillips and Armani Franklin will square in competing uniforms this evening.
UGA’s Phillips and UK’s Franklin both graduated from Redan in 2006. Phillips and Franklin helped the Lady Raiders compile a 104-27 record from 2002-06. During that span, Redan finished as Georgia’s Class AAAAA runner-up in 2005, reached the state semifinals in 2006 and advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2003 and 2004.
Phillips and Franklin were coached by former Lady Bulldog Rhonda Malone at Redan. Malone was a two-year starter at UGA and a member of teams that reached the 1983 Final Four and captured the 1983 and 1984 SEC Championships.
Tonight marks the second time in three games that a Lady Bulldogs has faced a former classmates. Freshman Meredith Mitchell and LSU’s Courtney Jones led Midfield High to back-to-back Alabama state titles in 2007 and 2008.
The Energizer Bulldog...she keeps going and going and going!
Ashley Houts has played all 40 minutes 17 times this season not to mention a “40-” vs. Vandy when she played all but 6.5 seconds. She leads the SEC in minutes at 37.3 and is on pace to break her own Georgia record for average MP of 36.8 established last season.
Houts MPG jumps to 39.9 in SEC play where she’s played at but 67.6 seconds in 12 games.
Logging major PT during SEC play is nothing new. In league action during her two first seasons in Athens, Houts has averaged 37.9 and 39.1 MP, respectively. That means, of a possible 1605 minutes in 39 SEC regular-season games, Houts has been on the floor for 1558...all but 47 MP or 97.0 percent of the time.
Perhaps more impressive than any of the aforementioned numbers and best displaying her value to the Lady Bulldogs is what Houts did in outings versus Florida and Vanderbilt. In Gainesville on Jan. 18, she picked up her fourth foul with 16:02 left in the game and remained in the contest until purposely fouling out with 24.9 seconds remaining. Against the Commodores on Jan. 22, Houts was whistled for the fourth time with 16:06 left on the clock but never left the floor.
Defense heading back North?
An intriguing and puzzling common denominator during the first three setbacks in Georgia’s losing streak was the Lady Bulldogs’ defensive performance. While Georgia has struggled with scoring, rebounding and turnover woes at times throughout the season, its defense had been relatively solid from the get-go.
After allowing only one team to score 70 points in the first 22 games of the season, Georgia gave up successive season-high scores of 73 to Tennessee, 77 to Arkansas and 80 to Vanderbilt.
After three games heading South, Georgia’s performance on the “other” end has picked up of late.
LSU scored only 57 points, but that was just 3.3 under its season average. On Sunday, the Lady Dogs held Auburn to 65 points, 12.9 under the Tigers’ regular production.
Board battle a key component
Entering SEC play, Andy Landers offered this assessment of the season at that point.
“We’ve played very well at times, but we’ve also been very inconsistent in some key areas,” Landers said. “We’re a basketball team that is still very much a work in progress. The thing that concerns us most is that we haven’t rebounded the ball lately like we did in the first eight or nine games. It’s very important that we get that rebounding piece back in place quick.”
Georgia owned a massive +12.9 rebound margin through its first eight outings but possesses just a +0.8 edge in the last 19 contests...and that’s largely due to +15 and +29 tallies against UAB and Savannah State, respectively.
The Lady Bulldogs sport a -1.5 rebound margin in SEC play, which ranks eighth in league statistics.
And while the scoreboard ultimately determines a game’s winner and loser, the rebounding count has been a pretty consistent marking stone during Georgia’s failures. The Lady Bulldogs are 1-7 this season when being beaten on the glass.
SEC’s best boarders in building
The SEC’s top-two rebounders will go head to head tonight. Kentucky’s Victoria Dunlap leads the league in rebounding, while Angel Robinson is second.
Dunlap is pulling in 9.2 rebounds per game this season, five total rebounds and 0.2 better than Robinson’s average. Interestingly, Dunlap leads the league in offensive rebounding, while Robinson is the SEC’s top defensive rebounder.
Dunlap and Robinson also rank 1-2 in rebounding in stats for league games only. Dunlap’s average against conference foes improves to 10.2 boards per game, while Robinson is grabbing 9.3 rebounds versus SEC competition.
Lady Bulldog staff inks top-5 recruiting class
A quartet of the nation’s top girls’ basketball players inked letters of intent with the Georgia Lady Bulldogs on Nov. 12, giving Andy Landers and his staff what is widely regarded as one of the top-5 recruiting classes in the nation.
Anne Marie Armstrong, Jasmine Hassell, Jasmine James and Tamika Willis each ranked among the nation’s top-50 overall prospects by one or more scouting services will continue their basketball careers in Athens next fall. The class has been ranked No. 3 nationally by both All-Star Girls Basketball Report and The Collegiate Girls Basketball Report, as well as No. 5 by Blue Star and No. 7 by Hoopgurlz.
“I’m very pleased with the quality of the class,” Landers said. “I’m sure this class as a whole will be recognized as an outstanding group, but each individual player is outstanding and will have the opportunity to make our team better. This is the sum total of a lot of hard work and diligence on the part of our coaching staff and our assistant coaches should be congratulated.”
Armstrong, a 6-3, wing coached by Jan Azar at the Wesleyan School in Norcross, Ga., is the reigning Miss Georgia Basketball and ranked as the nation’s No. 6 prospect at her position by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
Hassell, a 6-2, center coached by Bud Brandon at Wilson Central High School in Lebanon, Tenn., was named the 2008 Division I AAA Miss Basketball for Tennessee after leading the Wildcats to their second state title in three years. She is listed as the nation’s No. 6 center by the All-Star Girls Report.
James, a 5-9, guard coached by Lynn Whitfield at Barlett High School in Memphis, Tenn., was named the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Player of the Year as both a sophomore and a junior. She is ranked No. 5 nationally among guard prospects by the All-Star Girls Report.
Willis, a 6-2, forward coached by Hilda Hankerson at Atlanta’s Westlake High, is a two time All-State performer in Class AAAA and tabbed as the No. 11 post prospect by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
Double-digit TV dates
FOX Sports South’s telecast of tonight’s game between the Lady Bulldogs and Kentucky is the 10th of 11 TV dates during the 2008-09 regular season.
FOX Sports Net and FOX Sports South have aired five games during the season. Matchups at Florida, vs. Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Auburn were televised nationally on FSN. FSSO’s telecast tonight wraps up the FOX regular-season slate.
Three contests aired on the ESPN family of networks at Rutgers and at Vanderbilt on ESPN2 and at Virginia on ESPNU.
In addition, CSS aired the Ole Miss game and Auburn contest in Athens and will air Sunday’s date with Florida.
The Lady Bulldogs annually are one of the nation’s most televised teams. Georgia is 134-84 (.615) all-time on TV. Over the past five years, UGA has appeared on TV an average of 16.2 times per season.
Houts becomes 30th to 1000
Ashley Houts became the Lady Bulldogs’ 30th 1,000-point career scorer during the Feb. 15 game at Vanderbilt.
Houts entered that contest with 999 points and scored seven versus the Commodores. She has since upped that tally to 1019 points is now 19 away from the No. 28 mark (1,038 points) among Georgia’s career scoring leaders currently occupied by Saudia Roundtree, the 1996 National Player of the Year.
Houts a top-10 table setter too
Ashley Houts not only scores, she has helped other Lady Bulldogs notch plenty of points as well. She joined Georgia’s top-10 career leaders for quoting the cool kids “dropping dimes” during the Feb. 8 Arkansas game.
Houts moved past both No. 10 Coco Miller and No. 9 Sherill Baker on against the Razorbacks and she is now three assists shy of the No. 8 tally by Saudia Roundtree and only seven away from the No. 7 mark of Carla Green.
Houts already had joined some pretty elite UGA company. When she notched her 100th assist of the year against Auburn on Jan. 29, Houts became just the fourth Lady Bulldog to post 100 assists in each of their first three seasons in Athens.
Teresa Edwards, Kelly Miller and Alexis Kendrick are the other players to do so.
Puleo’s “Tour de Stegeman”
Angela Puleo’s practice time has been minimal since she was diagnosed with a “stress reaction” in her right fibula just after the holiday break.
From Dec. 31-Feb. 7, typically Puleo rode a stationary bike to maintain her conditioning during practice and then joins walkthroughs of opponent scouting information. Beginning on Feb. 9, she began working her way back into limited rotations of practices totaling about 30 minutes per practice.
While Puleo was spared the rigors of the up-and-down action of practice, she logged massive miles without moving an inch.
Athletic trainer Shannon Becker estimates that from Dec. 31 when she began biking through Feb. 20, Puleo had logged 581.1 miles.
For some perspective...there are 403.18 miles separating Stegeman Coliseum and Memorial Coliseum according to mapquest, although we’re not so sure we would take the back roads to Knoxville like they suggest. That means Puleo could have peddled her way to tonight’s game and she would be just south of Knoxville on her return trip.
Houts stealing the show
Ashley Houts passed Cynthia Collins to join Lady Bulldogs Basketball’s top-10 career steals leaders during the Rutgers game on Dec. 8.
Houts has since moved ahead of Bernadette Locke to No. 9 at Ole Miss, ascended over Coco Miller into the No. 8 slot during the Savannah State game and tied Carla Green’s No. 7 tally against LSU.
With 241 steals to date, Houts is currently 38 thefts shy of Janet Harris’ No. 6 mark (279) on that ledger.
Out of my way, coach!
Angel Robinson swatted three shots at Oakland to inch past current assistant coach La'Keshia Frett into the No. 10 position among Georgia’s career leaders.
Robinson has since ascended to the No. 7 slot passing Kara Braxton against Tennessee Tech, Wanda Holloway at Georgia Tech and Tasha Humphrey at Ole Miss.
Robinson enters this game with 139 career blocks, 24 swats from the current No. 6, Tammye Jenkins (163).
Up next:
Georgia wraps up its regular-season slate on Sunday when the Lady Bulldogs host Florida at 2:30 p.m.
Georgia leads the all-time series with the Gators by a 42-11 margin, including a 21-3 mark in Athens. Andy Landers is 42-9 against Florida.
The Gators secured a 61-45 win earlier this season on Jan. 18 in Gainesville behind 20 points from Marshae Dotson and 15 from Sha Brooks.