University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Head To SEC Tournament
March 04, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Georgia Lady Bulldog Basketball
SEC Tournament Notes
Georgia vs. Kentucky
Thursday, March 5 at 2:30 p.m. CENTRAL
Alltel Arena (15.936) in North Little Rock, Ark.
FOX Sports South TV (Dave Neal, play-by-play; Teresa Edwards, color)
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM960 The Ref in Athens)
The basics
Georgia travels to this week’s SEC Tournament in search of victories to bolster its competitive resume for post-season consideration. The No. 7-seeded Lady Bulldogs take on No. 10-seeded Kentucky in Thursday’s opening round at 2:30 p.m. CT.
The Lady Dogs are in this week’s mock NCAA bracket by collegerpi.com but are the second team out in espn.com’s projections.
The roller-coaster ride that has become Georgia’s 2008-09 campaign appears to be headed upward. However, the peaks and valleys over the past eight weeks or so much like the best thrill rides occurred when they were least expected.
The Lady Dogs ended the regular-season with a win over No. 17 Florida, a stark contrast to just five days earlier when Georgia was mired in the first five-game losing streak in Andy Landers’ 30 seasons in Athens.
Preceding the unprecedented descent was an impressive string of four victories that included upsets of then-No. 17 Vanderbilt and then-No. 5 Auburn, which was a perfect 20-0 prior to losing to the Lady Bulldogs.
Subsequent to that quartet of “Ws” Georgia was 11-7 overall and 1-2 in SEC play, and the Lady Dogs’ season appeared ready to come completely off the tracks.
Wins over Kentucky and the Gators to round out the regular season provided more than enough reason for optimism.
Georgia finished SEC play with a 7-7 mark but did so while playing three of the league’s four ranked teams Auburn, Florida and Vanderbilt two times. Georgia and Vanderbilt are the only two teams to post wins over three of the four teams receiving first-round byes this weekend.
Still, wins in Little Rock are a virtual necessity if the Lady Bulldogs are to earn their 15th consecutive and 26th overall NCAA Tournament bid. Whether the roller coaster continues in two weeks or ends this weekend remains to be seen.
A pair of second-team All-SEC juniors lead Georgia into Alltel Arena.
Ashley Houts paces the Lady Bulldogs’ production in points (12.1 ppg), assists (4.8 apg), steals (2.3 spg), free throw percentage (.794) and minutes played (an SEC-high 37.5 mpg). Angel Robinson is scoring 11.0 ppg and currently leads the team in rebounds (9.1 rpg), blocks (2.1 bpg) and field goal percentage (.539).
In addition, sophomore Porsha Phillips has been Georgia’s most consistent performer in SEC play. Phillips is chipping in 10.6 ppg overall, but that average jumps to a team-best 12.7 ppg against conference foes. She scored in double figures in 12 of 14 conference contests.
Series history vs. UK
Georgia enters this afternoon’s game with a 30-11 lead in its all-time series with Kentucky, including a 5-1 mark in SEC Tournament meetings.
Just last Thursday in Lexington, Ashley Houts scored a career-high 26 points including 12 of the Lady Bulldogs’ final 13 in a 61-57 victory.
“It was a gutty performance,” Andy Landers said. “We needed someone to gut it out and Ashley did just that. The most impressive piece of it was that they were literally dogging her from end to end trying to keep the ball out of her hands most of the night. She had to work hard just to get the ball and then get it up the floor.”
The Lady Bulldogs led the entire contest, including a 10-point edge at half, but that did not prevent some second-half drama as the Wildcats pulled within two points four times.
Kentucky closed to 46-45 at the 5:34 mark, but a Porsha Phillips stickback ignited an 11-4 surge that put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 57-49 with 1:01 remaining.
After not hitting a three-pointer throughout the game, the Wildcats made consecutive threes while trimming the margin to 59-57 with 10 seconds left. Houts calmly sank a pair of free throws to seal the win.
Houts hit 8-of-9 free throws in the final 61 seconds and played all 40 minutes for the ninth straight contest.
UGA and UK also met in last year’s SEC Tournament, with the fourth-seeded Wildcats securing a 57-50 victory. Kentucky used a decisive 15-6 run to break open tight game that had been tied 39-39. That setback snapped a streak of seven straight appearances in the SEC semis for the Lady Dogs.
UGA’s SEC Tournament history
The Lady Bulldogs sport a 40-25 (.615) all-time record in SEC Tournament action. FYI, the SEC lists UGA as 38-25...we recognize a couple consolation wins in 1981 and 1982 missing from their totals.
Georgia has won four SEC Tourney titles, doing so in 1983, ’84, ’86 and 2001.
Georgia is the No. 7 seed for the third time, previously compiling a 4-2 record in 1993 and 1994.
The 1993 tournament was memorable as Georgia played two No. 1-ranked teams in three days. UGA defeated Arkansas, No. 1 Tennessee and Alabama on Friday-Sunday before falling to Vanderbilt, which was installed as the nation’s new No. 1 on Monday afternoon, in the title tilt.
In 1994, the Lady Dogs again topped Arkansas in the first round before falling to the No. 1 Lady Volunteers in the quarterfinals.
Georgia is 5-1 in first-round games of the SEC Tournament, falling only to 12th-seeded Ole Miss in 1998.
Last time out...
Porsha Phillips scored 20 points to lead five Lady Bulldogs in double figures in an 84-75 upset of No. 17 Florida in the regular-season finale.
Danielle Taylor, Georgia’s only senior playing in her final game at Stegeman Coliseum, scored a dozen points, all in the first half. Ashley Houts and Christy Marshall chipped in 14 apiece, and Angel Robinson added 10.
The Lady Bulldogs watched an 11-point lead late in the first half turn into a five-point deficit early in the second stanza before rallying for the victory.
Taylor’s first-half heroics helped stake Georgia to a 45-38 lead at the break. The Lady Bulldogs led 43-32 following a Houts jumper with 1:14 remaining in the half, but the Gators knocked down a pair of three-pointers to help trim the margin to seven at the intermission.
Florida then scored the first nine points of the second half to build a 47-45 edge with 17:30 left. The Gators eventually led 59-54 before Georgia answered with a 14-0 run over the next 5:51.
SEC’s best boarders to battle
The SEC’s top-two rebounders will go head to head today. Kentucky’s Victoria Dunlap leads the league in rebounding, while Angel Robinson is second. Both are averaging 9.1 boards per game, with Dunlap snaring a single rebound more over 29 regular-season games.
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 statistics for league games only. Dunlap’s average against conference foes improved to 9.9 boards per game, while Robinson hauled in 9.4 rebounds versus SEC competition.
Somewhat fittingly, Robinson and Dunlap both along with Porsha Phillips grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in last week’s matchup. Robinson collected three offensive and eight defensive boards. Dunlap posted five ORs and six DRs.
The Energizer Bulldog...she keeps going and going and going!
Ashley Houts has played all 40 minutes 19 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 37.5 and is on pace to break her own Georgia record for average MP of 36.8 set last season.
Houts MPG jumps to 39.9 in SEC play where she played at but 67.6 seconds in 14 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 1685 minutes in 42 SEC regular-season games, Houts has been on the floor for 1638...all but 47 MP or 97.2 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.
Ding, dong the streak is dead!
The Kentucky win snapped the first five-game losing streak during Andy Landers’ 30 seasons in Athens.
Georgia had dropped successive decisions to No. 12 Tennessee, Arkansas, No. 24 Vanderbilt, LSU and No. 3 Auburn before topping the Wildcats.
In fact, the Lady Dogs had never lost four straight in a single season under Landers. Georgia fell to Stanford in the “Elite Eight” of the 1991 NCAA Tournament and then dropped the first three games of the 1991-92 campaign in the only other four-game losing streak under Landers.
A streak dies, a streak lives on!
Georgia has guaranteed a winning record for the 30th straight season.
Georgia is one of only four schools in the nation to post a winning record during each of the 28 seasons since women’s hoops came under the auspices of the NCAA with the 1981-82 season. Louisiana Tech, Tennessee and Wisconsin-Green Bay are the other three programs.
Andy Landers has coached the Lady Bulldogs to 30 straight winning seasons, the second-longest streak among all Division I head coaches trailing only Pat Summitt’s tally of 35.
She was Houtstanding
Ashley Houts was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday (March 2) after averaging 20.0 points in wins over Kentucky and No. 17 Florida.
Houts scored a career-high 26 points at Kentucky and followed that with 14 against the Gators.
During those wins, Houts also ascended among three of the Lady Bulldogs’ statistical career leaders ledgers.
Houts moved her past 1996 National Player of the Year Saudia Roundtree into the No. 29 position in Georgia scoring history.
Houts supplanted both Roundtree and Carla Green to the No. 7 spot on the Lady Bulldogs’ assist list.
Houts made 10 free throws during the week to up her tally of successful trips to the charity stripe to 317 and move past Janese Hardrick and Wanda Holloway to the No. 9 slot on that list.
Houts also was tabbed SEC Player of the Week on Dec. 1.
A duo of class reunions
Redan High School classmates Porsha Phillips and Armani Franklin will square off in competing uniforms Thursday for the second time in three games.
In fact, a Lady Bulldog has faced someone from their high school graduating class three times in the last five games.
On Feb. 19, Meredith Mitchell met LSU’s Courtney Jones. They led Midfield High to Alabama AAAA state titles in 2007 and 2008.
UGA’s Phillips and UK’s Franklin both graduated from Redan High in Stone Mountain, Ga. They helped the Lady Raiders to 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.
Defense heading back North?
An intriguing and puzzling common denominator during the first three setbacks in Georgia’s five-game losing streak was the Lady Bulldogs’ defensive performance. While UGA struggled with scoring, rebounding and turnover woes at times, 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 in the final four games.
LSU scored 57 points, but that was just 3.3 under its season average. The Lady Dogs held Auburn to 65 points, 12.9 under its regular production. Kentucky and Florida shot 31.3 and 38.5 percent from the field, respectively.
Board battle a key component
Entering Southeastern Conference 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 a paper-thin +0.095 edge in the last 21 contests...and that’s largely due to +15 and +29 tallies against UAB and Savannah State, respectively.
The Lady Bulldogs sport a -2.3 rebound margin in SEC play, which ranks ninth in league stats.
Double-digit TV dates
FOX Sports South’s telecast of today’s game is the 12th TV date for Georgia during the 2008-09 season.
During the regular season, FOX Sports Net and FOX Sports South aired five games. Matchups at Florida, vs. Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Auburn were televised nationally on FSN. FSSO’s telecast at Kentucky wrapped 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 136-84 (.618) 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 has since upped that tally to 1,059 points is now five away from the No. 28 mark (1,064 points) among Georgia’s career scoring leaders currently occupied by former teammate Megan Darrah.
Angel Robinson enters the SEC Tourney 90 points from 1,000 for her career.
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 ahead of Coco Miller and Sherill Baker to No. 9 against the Razorbacks, ascended past Saudia Roundtree to No. 8 at Kentucky and climbed over Carla Green to No. 7 mark versus Florida. Houts is seven assists shy of No. 6.
Houts already had joined some pretty elite UGA company. When she delivered 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 Lady Bulldog guards to do so.
Puleo’s “Tour de Stegeman”
Angela Puleo’s practice time was minimal from Dec. 31-Feb. 7 after she was diagnosed with a “stress reaction” in her right fibula just after the holiday break.
Typically, Puleo rode a stationary bike during practice and then joined walkthroughs of opponent scouting information. On Feb. 9, she began working her way back into limited rotations of practices totaling about 30 minutes per session. Puleo has practiced with no limitations since Feb. 24.
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 Puleo logged 581.1 miles on stationary bikes from Dec.31-Feb. 20.
For some perspective...following mapquest’s directions, there are 588.48 miles separating Stegeman Coliseum and Alltel Arena. Becker is positive Puleo has sprinted the remaining distance since returning to practices.
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 before inching ahead at Auburn.
With 246 steals to date, Houts is currently 33 thefts shy of Janet Harris’ No. 6 mark.
Out of my way, coach!
Angel Robinson swatted three shots at Oakland on Nov. 20 to inch past current assistant coach La'Keshia Frett into the No. 10 position among Georgia’s career blocks 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 the SEC Tournament with 143 career blocks, 20 swats from the current No. 6, Tammye Jenkins.
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.
SEC Tournament Notes
Georgia vs. Kentucky
Thursday, March 5 at 2:30 p.m. CENTRAL
Alltel Arena (15.936) in North Little Rock, Ark.
FOX Sports South TV (Dave Neal, play-by-play; Teresa Edwards, color)
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM960 The Ref in Athens)
The basics
Georgia travels to this week’s SEC Tournament in search of victories to bolster its competitive resume for post-season consideration. The No. 7-seeded Lady Bulldogs take on No. 10-seeded Kentucky in Thursday’s opening round at 2:30 p.m. CT.
The Lady Dogs are in this week’s mock NCAA bracket by collegerpi.com but are the second team out in espn.com’s projections.
The roller-coaster ride that has become Georgia’s 2008-09 campaign appears to be headed upward. However, the peaks and valleys over the past eight weeks or so much like the best thrill rides occurred when they were least expected.
The Lady Dogs ended the regular-season with a win over No. 17 Florida, a stark contrast to just five days earlier when Georgia was mired in the first five-game losing streak in Andy Landers’ 30 seasons in Athens.
Preceding the unprecedented descent was an impressive string of four victories that included upsets of then-No. 17 Vanderbilt and then-No. 5 Auburn, which was a perfect 20-0 prior to losing to the Lady Bulldogs.
Subsequent to that quartet of “Ws” Georgia was 11-7 overall and 1-2 in SEC play, and the Lady Dogs’ season appeared ready to come completely off the tracks.
Wins over Kentucky and the Gators to round out the regular season provided more than enough reason for optimism.
Georgia finished SEC play with a 7-7 mark but did so while playing three of the league’s four ranked teams Auburn, Florida and Vanderbilt two times. Georgia and Vanderbilt are the only two teams to post wins over three of the four teams receiving first-round byes this weekend.
Still, wins in Little Rock are a virtual necessity if the Lady Bulldogs are to earn their 15th consecutive and 26th overall NCAA Tournament bid. Whether the roller coaster continues in two weeks or ends this weekend remains to be seen.
A pair of second-team All-SEC juniors lead Georgia into Alltel Arena.
Ashley Houts paces the Lady Bulldogs’ production in points (12.1 ppg), assists (4.8 apg), steals (2.3 spg), free throw percentage (.794) and minutes played (an SEC-high 37.5 mpg). Angel Robinson is scoring 11.0 ppg and currently leads the team in rebounds (9.1 rpg), blocks (2.1 bpg) and field goal percentage (.539).
In addition, sophomore Porsha Phillips has been Georgia’s most consistent performer in SEC play. Phillips is chipping in 10.6 ppg overall, but that average jumps to a team-best 12.7 ppg against conference foes. She scored in double figures in 12 of 14 conference contests.
Series history vs. UK
Georgia enters this afternoon’s game with a 30-11 lead in its all-time series with Kentucky, including a 5-1 mark in SEC Tournament meetings.
Just last Thursday in Lexington, Ashley Houts scored a career-high 26 points including 12 of the Lady Bulldogs’ final 13 in a 61-57 victory.
“It was a gutty performance,” Andy Landers said. “We needed someone to gut it out and Ashley did just that. The most impressive piece of it was that they were literally dogging her from end to end trying to keep the ball out of her hands most of the night. She had to work hard just to get the ball and then get it up the floor.”
The Lady Bulldogs led the entire contest, including a 10-point edge at half, but that did not prevent some second-half drama as the Wildcats pulled within two points four times.
Kentucky closed to 46-45 at the 5:34 mark, but a Porsha Phillips stickback ignited an 11-4 surge that put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 57-49 with 1:01 remaining.
After not hitting a three-pointer throughout the game, the Wildcats made consecutive threes while trimming the margin to 59-57 with 10 seconds left. Houts calmly sank a pair of free throws to seal the win.
Houts hit 8-of-9 free throws in the final 61 seconds and played all 40 minutes for the ninth straight contest.
UGA and UK also met in last year’s SEC Tournament, with the fourth-seeded Wildcats securing a 57-50 victory. Kentucky used a decisive 15-6 run to break open tight game that had been tied 39-39. That setback snapped a streak of seven straight appearances in the SEC semis for the Lady Dogs.
UGA’s SEC Tournament history
The Lady Bulldogs sport a 40-25 (.615) all-time record in SEC Tournament action. FYI, the SEC lists UGA as 38-25...we recognize a couple consolation wins in 1981 and 1982 missing from their totals.
Georgia has won four SEC Tourney titles, doing so in 1983, ’84, ’86 and 2001.
Georgia is the No. 7 seed for the third time, previously compiling a 4-2 record in 1993 and 1994.
The 1993 tournament was memorable as Georgia played two No. 1-ranked teams in three days. UGA defeated Arkansas, No. 1 Tennessee and Alabama on Friday-Sunday before falling to Vanderbilt, which was installed as the nation’s new No. 1 on Monday afternoon, in the title tilt.
In 1994, the Lady Dogs again topped Arkansas in the first round before falling to the No. 1 Lady Volunteers in the quarterfinals.
Georgia is 5-1 in first-round games of the SEC Tournament, falling only to 12th-seeded Ole Miss in 1998.
Last time out...
Porsha Phillips scored 20 points to lead five Lady Bulldogs in double figures in an 84-75 upset of No. 17 Florida in the regular-season finale.
Danielle Taylor, Georgia’s only senior playing in her final game at Stegeman Coliseum, scored a dozen points, all in the first half. Ashley Houts and Christy Marshall chipped in 14 apiece, and Angel Robinson added 10.
The Lady Bulldogs watched an 11-point lead late in the first half turn into a five-point deficit early in the second stanza before rallying for the victory.
Taylor’s first-half heroics helped stake Georgia to a 45-38 lead at the break. The Lady Bulldogs led 43-32 following a Houts jumper with 1:14 remaining in the half, but the Gators knocked down a pair of three-pointers to help trim the margin to seven at the intermission.
Florida then scored the first nine points of the second half to build a 47-45 edge with 17:30 left. The Gators eventually led 59-54 before Georgia answered with a 14-0 run over the next 5:51.
SEC’s best boarders to battle
The SEC’s top-two rebounders will go head to head today. Kentucky’s Victoria Dunlap leads the league in rebounding, while Angel Robinson is second. Both are averaging 9.1 boards per game, with Dunlap snaring a single rebound more over 29 regular-season games.
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 statistics for league games only. Dunlap’s average against conference foes improved to 9.9 boards per game, while Robinson hauled in 9.4 rebounds versus SEC competition.
Somewhat fittingly, Robinson and Dunlap both along with Porsha Phillips grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in last week’s matchup. Robinson collected three offensive and eight defensive boards. Dunlap posted five ORs and six DRs.
The Energizer Bulldog...she keeps going and going and going!
Ashley Houts has played all 40 minutes 19 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 37.5 and is on pace to break her own Georgia record for average MP of 36.8 set last season.
Houts MPG jumps to 39.9 in SEC play where she played at but 67.6 seconds in 14 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 1685 minutes in 42 SEC regular-season games, Houts has been on the floor for 1638...all but 47 MP or 97.2 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.
Ding, dong the streak is dead!
The Kentucky win snapped the first five-game losing streak during Andy Landers’ 30 seasons in Athens.
Georgia had dropped successive decisions to No. 12 Tennessee, Arkansas, No. 24 Vanderbilt, LSU and No. 3 Auburn before topping the Wildcats.
In fact, the Lady Dogs had never lost four straight in a single season under Landers. Georgia fell to Stanford in the “Elite Eight” of the 1991 NCAA Tournament and then dropped the first three games of the 1991-92 campaign in the only other four-game losing streak under Landers.
A streak dies, a streak lives on!
Georgia has guaranteed a winning record for the 30th straight season.
Georgia is one of only four schools in the nation to post a winning record during each of the 28 seasons since women’s hoops came under the auspices of the NCAA with the 1981-82 season. Louisiana Tech, Tennessee and Wisconsin-Green Bay are the other three programs.
Andy Landers has coached the Lady Bulldogs to 30 straight winning seasons, the second-longest streak among all Division I head coaches trailing only Pat Summitt’s tally of 35.
She was Houtstanding
Ashley Houts was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday (March 2) after averaging 20.0 points in wins over Kentucky and No. 17 Florida.
Houts scored a career-high 26 points at Kentucky and followed that with 14 against the Gators.
During those wins, Houts also ascended among three of the Lady Bulldogs’ statistical career leaders ledgers.
Houts moved her past 1996 National Player of the Year Saudia Roundtree into the No. 29 position in Georgia scoring history.
Houts supplanted both Roundtree and Carla Green to the No. 7 spot on the Lady Bulldogs’ assist list.
Houts made 10 free throws during the week to up her tally of successful trips to the charity stripe to 317 and move past Janese Hardrick and Wanda Holloway to the No. 9 slot on that list.
Houts also was tabbed SEC Player of the Week on Dec. 1.
A duo of class reunions
Redan High School classmates Porsha Phillips and Armani Franklin will square off in competing uniforms Thursday for the second time in three games.
In fact, a Lady Bulldog has faced someone from their high school graduating class three times in the last five games.
On Feb. 19, Meredith Mitchell met LSU’s Courtney Jones. They led Midfield High to Alabama AAAA state titles in 2007 and 2008.
UGA’s Phillips and UK’s Franklin both graduated from Redan High in Stone Mountain, Ga. They helped the Lady Raiders to 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.
Defense heading back North?
An intriguing and puzzling common denominator during the first three setbacks in Georgia’s five-game losing streak was the Lady Bulldogs’ defensive performance. While UGA struggled with scoring, rebounding and turnover woes at times, 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 in the final four games.
LSU scored 57 points, but that was just 3.3 under its season average. The Lady Dogs held Auburn to 65 points, 12.9 under its regular production. Kentucky and Florida shot 31.3 and 38.5 percent from the field, respectively.
Board battle a key component
Entering Southeastern Conference 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 a paper-thin +0.095 edge in the last 21 contests...and that’s largely due to +15 and +29 tallies against UAB and Savannah State, respectively.
The Lady Bulldogs sport a -2.3 rebound margin in SEC play, which ranks ninth in league stats.
Double-digit TV dates
FOX Sports South’s telecast of today’s game is the 12th TV date for Georgia during the 2008-09 season.
During the regular season, FOX Sports Net and FOX Sports South aired five games. Matchups at Florida, vs. Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Auburn were televised nationally on FSN. FSSO’s telecast at Kentucky wrapped 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 136-84 (.618) 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 has since upped that tally to 1,059 points is now five away from the No. 28 mark (1,064 points) among Georgia’s career scoring leaders currently occupied by former teammate Megan Darrah.
Angel Robinson enters the SEC Tourney 90 points from 1,000 for her career.
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 ahead of Coco Miller and Sherill Baker to No. 9 against the Razorbacks, ascended past Saudia Roundtree to No. 8 at Kentucky and climbed over Carla Green to No. 7 mark versus Florida. Houts is seven assists shy of No. 6.
Houts already had joined some pretty elite UGA company. When she delivered 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 Lady Bulldog guards to do so.
Puleo’s “Tour de Stegeman”
Angela Puleo’s practice time was minimal from Dec. 31-Feb. 7 after she was diagnosed with a “stress reaction” in her right fibula just after the holiday break.
Typically, Puleo rode a stationary bike during practice and then joined walkthroughs of opponent scouting information. On Feb. 9, she began working her way back into limited rotations of practices totaling about 30 minutes per session. Puleo has practiced with no limitations since Feb. 24.
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 Puleo logged 581.1 miles on stationary bikes from Dec.31-Feb. 20.
For some perspective...following mapquest’s directions, there are 588.48 miles separating Stegeman Coliseum and Alltel Arena. Becker is positive Puleo has sprinted the remaining distance since returning to practices.
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 before inching ahead at Auburn.
With 246 steals to date, Houts is currently 33 thefts shy of Janet Harris’ No. 6 mark.
Out of my way, coach!
Angel Robinson swatted three shots at Oakland on Nov. 20 to inch past current assistant coach La'Keshia Frett into the No. 10 position among Georgia’s career blocks 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 the SEC Tournament with 143 career blocks, 20 swats from the current No. 6, Tammye Jenkins.
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.
Georgia Women's Basketball Coach Guzzardo Introductory Press Conference
Wednesday, April 08
Georgia Women's Basketball Coach Guzzardo Media Availability
Tuesday, April 07
Georgia Women's Basketball - Trinity Turner & Dani Carnegie Feature
Tuesday, March 17
Georgia Women's Basketball - Coach Abe and Players Pre-NCAA Tournament Press Conference
Monday, March 16