University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Take On Denver At LMU
November 25, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2010
Lady Bulldog Basketball Game Notes
Georgia vs. Denver
Courtyard Marriott L.A. Westside LMU Thanksgiving Classic
Friday, Nov. 26 at 3 p.m. PT
Gersten Pavilion (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Radio: AM 960 The Ref in Athens)
The basics
After playing three games - and traveling cross country - in a 99-hour span, No. 17 Georgia was Thankful for a break from competition for roughly 66 hours.
The Lady Bulldogs return to the court on Friday when they face Denver in the opening round of the Courtyard Marriott Los Angeles Westwide Loyola Marymount Thanksgiving Classic at 3 p.m. PT.
Georgia, which caught a red-eye to Los Angeles on Sunday after dispatching Indiana earlier in the day, dropped a 71-63 decision to Southern Cal on Tuesday in the first road contest of the season.
At USC, the Lady Bulldogs raced to a double-digit lead in the first half but allowed the Women of Troy to knot the score at the half. After Southern Cal used a 20-3 surge to grab an 11-point, second-half lead, Georgia pulled within two points on three occasions but was never able to fully erase the deficit.
"There lot of things whether we win or lose this game tonight that we can build on and learn from," Andy Landers said. "To me, and I told the players this after the game, I have to do a better job with our man offenses. After that, each one of them has to take something from this because in many ways, I think we were exposed."
First meeting with Denver
This afternoon's game with Denver is the Lady Bulldogs' first-ever meeting with the Pioneers.
Georgia does own 22-3 all-time record against Denver's competition within the Sun Belt Conference. The Lady Bulldogs are 11-1 against Middle Tennessee, 4-0 versus South Alabama, 4-1 against Western Kentucky, 2-1 versus Florida International and 1-0 against Florida Atlantic.
Last time out...
Southern Cal used a 20-3 run early in the second half and withstood a pair of furious Georgia rallies en route to a 71-63 victory at the Galen Center on Tuesday night.
The Women of Troy built an 11-point lead and made that margin hold up when the Lady Bulldogs closed the gap to two points on three occasions.
Porsha Phillips notched her third double-double of the season with 11 points and a career-high 19 boards, and Jasmine James scored a game-high 17 points for the Lady Bulldogs. Phillips' rebound count represented the most by a Georgia player since Katrina McClain had 22 boards against Valdosta State in December 1986.
Ashley Corral scored 15 points for the Women of Troy, including a trio of huge three-pointers, and Jackie Gemelos chipped in 14 off the bench.
After the teams traded early baskets, the Lady Bulldogs used an 8-0 run to grab the game's first significant lead at 10-4 at the 13:04 mark.
Georgia gradually expanded that margin to 19-8 on a Phillips jumper before the Women of Troy chipped away to close within a bucket at 27-25 with 4:33 remaining in the period and finally knotted the score at 31-31 on a Gemelos three with 51 seconds left in the period.
Georgia opened the second stanza quickly and built a 39-33 lead before the Women of Troy embarked on their 20-3 surge.
After Southern Cal led 53-42 with 10:09 remaining, a Phillips stickback started a 9-0 run. The Lady Bulldogs failed to convert on two chances to tie the contest.
USC scored six straight as the margin bulged back to eight before Georgia rallied again. A three from Meredith Mitchell closed it to 59-57, but the Lady Bulldogs couldn't get over the hump.
"As we got behind, we made a good run or two and cut it to two," Andy Landers said. "Each time we either missed the shot or turned the ball over. We had some critical turnovers in the second half that in large measure weren't forced."
Phillips a beast on the boards
Porsha Phillips hauled in a career-high 19 rebounds against Southern Cal.
That tally represented the most by a Lady Bulldog in a single game since Katrina McClain hauled in 22 against Valdosta State in Dec. 1986.
Phillips notched her third double-double of the season against the Women of Troy and is currently averaging a whopping 12.8 rebounds per game.
Though it's still very early in the campaign, the last Lady Bulldog to average a double-double was McClain in 1986-87 when she was the consensus National Player of the Year. McClain averaged 24.9 points and 12.2 boards that season.
All told, Lady Bulldogs have averaged a double-double for a season on seven occasions - McClain in 1986-87 and in 1985-86 (21.3 ppg, 10. rpg); Janet Harris in 1984-85 (20.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg), 1982-83 (20.4 ppg, 11.7 rpg) and 1981-82 (22.1 ppg, 12.4 rpg); Wanda Holloway in 1980-81 (14.1 ppg, 10.6 rpg) and Cynthia Collins in 1979-80 (14.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg).
Radio lineup for this week
Due to conflicts with men's basketball and football, radio broadcasts of Lady Bulldog Basketball will alter slightly this weekend.
Friday's game with Denver only be broadcast on AM 960 The Ref in Athens due to a conflict with men's basketball at the Old Spice Classic. The Bulldogs will face either Cal or Temple at 5 or 7:30 ET on Friday.
On Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs will move to sister station AM 1340 WGAU in Athens due to the Georgia football game with intrastate rival Georgia Tech.
Unofficial Los Angeles host
Inglewood native Alexis Kendrick, who holds the Lady Bulldog record for career starts, is expected to be at all three of Georgia's games in California this week.
Kendrick was a WBCA and McDonald's All-American at St. Bernard Catholic School who started all 132 games played for the Lady Bulldogs from 2002-06. She helped Georgia compile a 93-39 record during that span, reaching the 2004 "Elite Eight" and the 2003, 2005 and 2006 "Sweet 16s."
Kendrick played some of her best basketball during NCAA Tournament action. She scored 17 points in a 2003 second-round win over No. 23 Rutgers; hit a game-winning baseline jumper with five seconds left in a 66-64 upset of No. 2 Purdue in the 2004 "Sweet 16"; had 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in a 2005 second-round win over No. 11 Texas; and hit a three from the right corner to give Georgia a 75-74 lead over No. 8 Connecticut in the 2006 "Sweet 16" before Barbara Turner's miraculous turnaround three-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining.
Kendrick ranks No. 25 among Georgia's career scoring leaders with 1,157 points and also is No. 5 in assists (545) and No. 9 in three-pointers made (144).
80-point mark improves
With their 84-51 victory over Indiana on Nov. 21, the Lady Bulldogs improved to a staggering 423-7 when scoring 80 or more points during Andy Landers' 32 seasons as Georgia's head coach.
That converts to an almost unfathomable 98.372093 winning percentage.
Familiar faces on benches
Southern Cal head coach Michael Cooper coached Georgia assistant coach La'Keshia Frett Meredith during her two seasons playing for the L.A. Sparks.
Frett Meredith was drafted by the Sparks in 1999 after two years in the ABL and played in Los Angeles in 1999 and 2000.
After serving as an assistant coach for the Sparks in the summer 1999, Cooper was promoted to head coach in November.
In his eight WNBA seasons, Cooper also coached former Lady Bulldogs Sherill Baker, Kiesha Brown and Christi Thomas.
Ransford wows 'em vs. IU
Ronika Ransford turned in two impressive second-half plays against Indiana. Actually, it was one play and one display.
When an Indiana shot lodged between the rim and the backboard, the freshman from Washington, D.C. quickly took care of business. She grabbed the net with both hands, pulled herself up to the rim and punched the ball loose.
In the game's waning moments, Ransford brought the ball the length of the floor down the left-hand side, pump-faked a pass and then completed a crowd-wowing, wrap-around pass around a defender to deliver a lay-up by Anne Marie Armstrong.
Holiday bragging rights on line
Holiday bragging rights at the Newbauer household were on the line during the Indiana game on Nov. 21.
Georgia assistant coach Cameron Newbauer faced the unenviable task of scouting a Hoosier roster which featured his younger sister, Andrea, a freshman guard on the Hoosier roster.
Cam is in his fourth season with the Lady Bulldogs and seventh year in Athens. He served as a graduate assistant with the Georgia men's program from 2003-04 and as the Bulldogs' director of basketball operations from 2005-07 before joining Andy Landers' staff.
Andrea led Fort Wayne Concordia High School to the Indiana 2010 3A state title, averaging 13.5 points per game for the 24-3 Cadets. She was tabbed an Indiana Senior and Junior All-Star and was named to the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association all-state team as a senior.
Andrea scored two points, grabbed three rebounds and had an assist and a steal in 11 minutes of action against Georgia.
Willis makes most of first start
Tamika Willis posted a career-high scoring output for the second time in as many games with 12 points in her first career start against Chattanooga on Nov. 19.
Willis scored nine points against Georgia Southern in the opener, five points better than her previous high as a freshman.
In fact, Willis scored 27 points - on a white-hot 13-of-15 (.867) shooting from the field - in the first three games in 2010-11. That was 10 points more than she scored in 13 games played during the 2009-10 season.
Landers' 1000th game at UGA
The Chattanooga contest on Nov. 19 represented Andy Landers' 1000th game as head coach of the University of Georgia's Lady Bulldogs.
Landers, who was presented a commemmorative ball prior to tip-off against UTC, coached his first game with the Lady Bulldogs on Nov. 10, 1979. Georgia earned a 88-69 victory over Piedmont in that contest.
Some points of reference for that date...
• "Heartache Tonight" by The Eagles was No. 1 on the Billboard charts;
• The Iranian Hostage Crisis was less than a week old (began Nov. 4);
• Gas was 80 cents a gallon;
• A ticket to the movies cost $2.47 (we're guessing $2.50 with tax);
• A Sony Walkman cost $200
Landers improved to 9-1 in "games on the hundreds" with a 79-69 decision over Chattanooga as outlined below.
100 - Dec. 11, 1982 in Athens
Georgia 88, Florida 66
200 - Nov. 30, 1985 in Raleigh, N.C.
No. 2 Georgia 92, No. 15 N.C. State 67
300 - Dec. 19, 1988 in Detroit, Mich.
No. 4 Georgia 87, Detroit 54
400 - Jan. 26, 1992 in Athens
Georgia 82, Mississippi State 60
500 - Feb. 21, 1995 in Athens
No. 9 Georgia 91, Charleston Southern 33
600 - March 13, 1998 in Storrs, Conn.
George Washington 74, Georgia 72 (NCAA Tournament)
700 - March 3, 2001 in Memphis, Tenn.
No. 6 Georgia 63, Arkansas 44 (SEC Tournament)
800 - Nov. 19, 2004 in Athens
No. 5 Georgia 98, Furman 76
900 - Nov. 9, 2007 in Athens
No. 9 Georgia 81, Richmond 53
Career-highs abound
There were numerous career-high outputs from the season-opening win over Georgia Southern as outlined alphabetically below.
• Anne Marie Armstrong equaled her career high with three assists;
• Anne Marie Armstrong equaled her career high with three blocks;
• Jasmine Hassell equaled her career high with one steal;
• Meredith Mitchell dished out a career-best seven assists (previously five);
• Tamika Willis scored a career-best nine points (previously four);
• Tamika Willis grabbed a career-best eight boards (previously five);
• Tamika Willis logged a career-high 13 minutes (previously 10);
• Tamika Willis equaled her career high for blocks (one);
UGA impressive in openers
Georgia improved to 31-9 (.775) all-time in season openers, including an even more sterling 27-5 (.844) under Andy Landers.
The Lady Bulldogs are now 16-1 all-time in openers contested within historic Stegeman Coliseum.
Lady Bulldogs tabbed fourth
Georgia was picked to finish fourth in the SEC in separate pre-season balloting of league media and coaches.
Both bodies picked Tennessee and Kentucky to finish 1-2 and also agreed on Georgia to finish fourth, Auburn sixth, South Carolina seventh and Mississippi State 12th.
The media voted Vanderbilt third, LSU fifth and Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss and Florida in eighth-11th places, respectively.
The coaches voted LSU third, Vanderbilt to tie with the Lady Bulldogs for fourth and Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida and Arkansas in the eighth-11th positions.
Porsha Phillips was a first-team All-SEC selection by league coaches, who also included Jasmine James on their second-team. Phillips was featured as a second-team pick in voting of league and national media as well.
Record number of TV dates
A Lady Bulldog-record 15 regular-season games will be televised during 2010-11. That tally betters the previous high of 14 contests in both 2006-07 and 2009-10.
The Lady Bulldogs will appear nationally on the ESPN family networks three times - on ESPN2 at LSU and at Tennessee, as well as on ESPNU at Kentucky.
Eight contests will be shown on CSS. Airing on the network will be non-conference dates at Georgia Tech and at TCU, SEC road contests at Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss and Florida and league home dates with Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
FSN will televise home games with Mississippi State, Alabama and Kentucky, while the Lady Bulldogs' matchup with Florida in Athens will be shown on the SEC Network.
The addition of television coverage did change the originally announced game times for four games. The Jan. 13 game at Arkansas and the Jan. 20 game at Alabama both are now scheduled for 9 p.m. The Jan. 23 contest against Mississippi State in Athens is now at 3 p.m. The regular-season finale at Florida is now set for 2 p.m.
