University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Go Pink Versus Bama
February 05, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2011
Lady Bulldog Basketball Game Notes
Georgia vs. Alabama
Sunday, Feb. 6 at 2:00 p.m.
Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.
SportSouth TV
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM 960 in Athens)
The basics
Georgia hosts Alabama at 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Lady Bulldogs' participation in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone. The Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the WBCA's nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.
The WBCA began the Pink Zone in 2007, with the late Kay Yow, former N.C. State coach, serving as the catalyst after her third reoccurrence of breast cancer in 2006. In four years, Pink Zone has raised nearly $3.3 million for cancer research.
Former Lady Bulldog Lisa O'Connor will conduct a ceremonial tip-off prior to the Alabama game. O'Connor was chosen to do so because of her own personal experience with breast cancer.
A native of Cartersville, O'Connor was a four-year starter on teams that won three SEC titles, reached two Final Fours and finished as NCAA runner-up in 1985. Among Georgia Basketball's career leaders, O'Connor completed her playing days ranked No. 2 in games started (126), No. 4 in points (1,509) and No. 5 in rebounds (728). Today, she ranks No. 5 in starts and No. 15 in scoring.
"Lisa O'Connor is one of the most important players in Georgia Basketball history," said Andy Landers. "Most people know that Lisa had a great career here, but what they don't realize is that she was perhaps the greatest leader we've ever had. From 1982-86, in many ways Lisa O'Connor ran Georgia Basketball."
Pink Zone jersey changes
The Lady Bulldogs will don pink uniforms as part of their participation in the Pink Zone initiative. Therefore, several players will wear numbers other than their traditional jerseys as outlined below.
• Anne Marie Armstrong will wear No. 33
• Jasmine Hassell will wear No. 42
• Jasmine James will wear No. 25
• Arieal Johnson will wear No. 34
• Meredith Mitchell will wear No. 22
• Tamika Willis will wear No. 24
Series history vs. Alabama
The Lady Bulldogs are 32-9 all-time against Alabama, a tally that includes an 14-3 mark in Athens.
Georgia has won 19 straight in the series, last losing in Tuscaloosa in 1998 when Coco and Kelly Miller were freshmen.
Last season and this year, the Lady Bulldogs and Crimson Tide met on a home-and-home basis due to the SEC's rotating scheduling process.
Seventeen days ago, the Lady Bulldogs bested the Tide, 60-51, in Tuscaloosa.
Khaalidah Miller scored 12 points and Meredith Mitchell, playing an hour from her hometown of Midfield, added 10 points and nine rebounds to lead Georgia. Porsha Phillips had 11 rebounds and eight points, while Anne Marie Armstrong equaled her career high with eight boards.
The Lady Bulldogs built an 18-point, second-half lead and withstood an Alabama rally that trimmed the margin to six with less than a minute remaining.
After leading by six at halftime, the Lady Bulldogs outscored Alabama 20-8 over the first 9:11 of the second half to go up 45-27.
Georgia led by 18 four times during the period, lastly at 52-34 at the 6:16 mark.
A Tierney Jenkins lay-up initiated a 15-6 surge that brought the Tide within 56-47 with 2:27 on the clock. Alabama closed within six on a Jenkins lay-up with 43 seconds left.
Jasmine James sank both ends of a one-and-one with 34 seconds remaining to give Georgia breathing room.
In the most recent contest in Athens last Feb. 14, Georgia sank 12 three-pointers - one shy of the school record - on its way to a 76-47 win.
That victory secured Georgia's 25th 20-win campaign under Andy Landers.
Ashley Houts, who accounted for six made threes, led all scorers with 24, while Phillips and Jasmine James joined her in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Jasmine Hassell and Mitchell flited with double-doubles. Hassell posted a career-high 12 rebounds and nine points, while Mitchell tallied 10 rebounds and eight points.
Last time out...
Georgia outscored Arkansas 10-7 in overtime on its way to a 57-54 victory over the Razorbacks on Thursday evening in Stegeman Coliseum.
Georgia was led by Jasmine James' 14 points, while Meredith Mitchell added 12. Porsha Phillips grabbed 18 rebounds, the second-most ever by a Lady Bulldog against SEC competition.
The Lady Bulldogs charged back from an 11-0 deficit to start the game and trailed the Razorbacks just 22-20 at halftime.
Georgia took its first lead of the game at 25-24 with 18:48 on the clock in the second half and went up by its largest margin of four, 38-34, with 12:14 left on a jumper for James.
Arkansas came back to take the lead again as Lyndsay Harris hit one of her six threes to make it 44-42 in favor of the visitors with 4:05 remaining in regulation.
James hit a jumper and Phillips made one of two free throws to give the lead back to the Lady Bulldogs, 45-44, with 2:33 to go, but Harris drained another long-ranger to make it a 47-45.
James connected on a pair from the line with just under two to go - the last scoring of regulation as the first 40 minutes went undecided at 47-47.
Georgia was in-bounding the ball with just three-tenths of a second to go, and freshman Khaalidah Miller caught and shot, hitting a three that would have given the Bulldogs the victory, but the officials ruled she didn't get it off in time and the teams headed into OT.
Georgia had four different players score in extra time, including Miller - who made a three that counted that time around and pushed the Lady Bulldogs in front by three, 52-49, with 2:49 left. A jumper for Mitchell gave Georgia four-point lead at 54-50, but a lay-up from C'eira Ricketts would tie the game for the seventh time, 54-54, with 33 seconds to go.
Georgia benefited from a pair of late Arkansas fouls and went 3-for-4 from the line in the final 13 seconds to earn the win.
Looking good, not so good
The Lady Bulldogs have been polar opposites on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor of late.
In the last three games, Georgia has successively supplied its lowest first-half scoring marks of the 2010-11 season. The Lady Bulldogs scored 23 first-half points at South Carolina, followed by 21 at LSU and 20 against Arkansas.
Georgia's final output of 48 points in Columbia represented the lowest production of the year...for three days until the Lady Bulldogs scored 41 at LSU.
Georgia defeated Arkansas despite shooting a season-low 28.6 percent from the floor.
Speaking of 28.6 percent shooting for a winning team, that's exactly what LSU produced from the field in their victory over the Lady Bulldogs.
All told, Georgia has held the Gamecocks, Lady Tigers and Razorbacks to 33.3 percent shooting, which is even better than the Lady Bulldogs' 35.6 percent FG defense that ranks fourth in the SEC.
On the bright side, the Lady Bulldogs' offense has produced considerably good looks during the stretch. According to shot charts, Georgia has missed 48 lay-ups and shots in the paint in the last three contests.
Upon further review...no record
Following the Arkansas game on Feb. 3 it was announced that Porsha Phillips' 18 rebounds versus the Razorbacks represented the most ever by a Lady Bulldog against Southeastern Conference competition. Unfortunately, that was an erroneous statement.
While attempting to determine the second-most boards in SEC play, a 23-rebound effort by Wanda Holloway against Vanderbilt on Feb. 16, 1981 was discovered. Still, Phillips' effort ranks No. 2 in Georgia history versus an SEC foe and was the most boards by a Lady Bulldog in league action in 13 days shy of two decades.
Valuing the rock
Georgia committed a season-low eight turnovers in the Lady Bulldogs' longest game of the season, their 57-54 overtime decision against Arkansas on Feb. 3. The previous low was 12 against LSU, Florida and Georgia Southern.
In fact, that tally is Georgia's fewest TOs in a game since committing seven against Iowa in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tourney.
Major doses of PT
Meredith Mitchell, Porsha Phillips and Jasmine James all logged more than 40 minutes of action in the Lady Bulldogs' overtime win against Arkansas.
Mitchell played 44 minutes, equaling her career high established against Oklahoma State in the second round of last season's NCAA Tournament.
Phillips was on the floor for a career-high 42 minutes, besting her previous most minutes played of 38 set three times - against Louisana Tech, TCU and Southern Cal.
James garnered 41 minutes of action, a season-best. She had played all 40 minutes of four regulation games this season - versus Arkansas in Fayetteville, South Carolina, FIU and Louisiana Tech.
A happy homecoming
A rather large and vocal group supporting Meredith Mitchell was in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 20...and she certainly did not disappoint.
Mitchell is a native of Midfield, Ala., near Birmingham and less than an hour from Coleman Coliseum. With Georgia trailing 13-4 early, she scored five points in a 12-0 run that put the Lady Bulldogs ahead for good. Mitchell eventually finished the night with 10 points, nine rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal.
Mitchell's play was vital to Georgia's solid start in SEC play.
After averaging 6.5 ppg and 4.6 rpg against non-conference opponents, Mitchell contributed 10.3 ppg and 7.3 rpg versus the opening five league foes. She had two double-digit outputs in 13 non-conference dates but reached that mark in each of the first five SEC games.
High school reunions common
For the seventh time this season - and the fifth time in SEC play - a Lady Bulldog will face a former high school teammate on Sunday.
Georgia's Jasmine Hassell and Alabama's Tierney Jenkins played together for two years at Wilson Central High in Lebanon, Tenn.
Hassell and Jenkins were teammates during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 campaigns. In 2005-06, the duo helped the Wildcats to the Tennessee AAA title and a 32-7 finish. The following season, WCHS was 30-4 and won the Region 5AAA crown.
Hassell also led the Wildcats to a state title as a junior in 2007-08 and was named Miss Tennessee Basketball for Class AAA as both a junior and a senior.
Meredith Mitchell has played against two former teammates from Midfield (Ala.) High School - Mississippi State's Brittany Young and Louisiana State's Courtney Jones.
Mitchell and Jones were classmates and the driving force behind Midfield's back-to-back Alabama state titles teams in 2007 and 2008. In 2007-08, the Lady Patriots finished 32-1 and secured a final ranking of No. 12 nationally by USA Today.
Young, a freshman at State, played two years with Mitchell and Jones.
On Jan. 9 in Lexington, Ronika Ransford was guarded by former H.D. Woodson High teammate Bernisha Pinkett, a freshman at Kentucky.
Ransford and Pinkett played together for three seasons, where they led Woodson's Warriors to back-to-back D.C. City Championships in 2008 and 2009.
Pinkett was the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) Player of the Year in 2008. Ransford captured the same honor in 2009.
Appropriately enough, playing against a former prep teammate started with the season opener when Tamika Willis faced fellow former Westlake Lady Lion Danielle Spencer of Georgia Southern.
Willis also met WHS alum Sharnea Boykin of Mercer.
Willis, Boykin and Spencer helped Westlake compile a stellar 75-8 record from 2006-09, including trips to the state semifinals in 2008 and the quarterfinals in 2007 and 2009.
Congrats to Watson family
Former UGA golfer Bubba Watson won the PGA's Farmer's Insurance Open last Sunday...and then kissed a former Lady Bulldog on national television.
Watson is married to the former Angie Ball, a letterwinner for the Lady Bulldogs from 1997-00 and a member of Georgia teams that won the 1997 and 2000 SEC Championships and reached the 1999 Final Four.
Angie attended Sir Oliver Mowat Collegiate Institute in Toronto, the same high school that produced the popular band Barenaked Ladies. And...after Watson collected a $1,044,000 check for winning at Torrey Pines, Angie can now answer the question "If I Had A Million Dollars."
Winning isn't everything...
but it is all Georgia's Lady Bulldogs have done under Andy Landers.
With a Jan. 23 victory over Mississippi State in Athens, the Lady Bulldogs guaranteed their 32nd straight winning season under Landers.
Landers' streak at UGA is the second longest all-time among Division I women's basketball head coaches.
Georgia's streak of 32 winning seasons is the fourth longest active stretch in the nation, behind Tennessee (38), Louisana Tech (37 and one win shy of a 38th entering Saturday's game with Fresno State) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (34).
Those also are the only programs to finish with a winning record every season since women's hoops came under the auspices of the NCAA in 1981-82.
Phillips a beast on the boards
Porsha Phillips hauled in a career-high 19 rebounds at Southern Cal on Nov. 23.
That equaled the ninth-best single-game effort in UGA history as outlined below and was the most by a Lady Bulldog in a game since Dec. 1986.
Phillips has led Georgia in rebounds in 17 games, has notched eight double-doubles and is averaging 10.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. When her rpg dipped to 10.0 after the LSU game, Phillips responded with 18 rebounds against Arkansas.
The last Lady Bulldog to average a double-double was McClain, who did so en route to winning National Player of the Year.
All told, four different Lady Bulldogs have averaged a double-double for a season on seven occasions - McClain in 1986-87 and in 1985-86 (21.3 ppg, 10.1 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).
UGA Single-Game Rebound Leaders
No. Player, Opponent (Date)
24 Katrina McClain, W. Carolina (2/10/86)
23 Janet Harris, S. Carolina (1/30/82)
23 Wanda Holloway, Vanderbilt (2/16/81)
22 Katrina McClain, Valdosta St. (12/4/86)
22 Wanda Holloway, Mercer (2/11/81)
20 Janet Harris, Clemson (2/28/83)
20 Janet Harris, Clemson (12/15/82)
20 Wanda Holloway, Pittsburgh (3/26/81)
19 Porsha Phillips, Southern Cal (11/23/10)
Porsha tops 1,000 points
Porsha Phillips scored her 1,000th career point on a jumper with 15:34 remaining at South Carolina on Jan. 27.
Phillips scored 143 points as a freshman at LSU before transferring to UGA.
In three seasons with the Lady Bulldogs, Phillips has scored 870 points in 88 games.
Phillips has an opportunity to reach 1,000 points in a Georgia uniform and would become the 32nd Lady Bulldog to reach the millennium mark.
Armstrong celebrates early
Anne Marie Armstrong started the celebrating her 20th birthday a day before she blew out any candles.
Armstrong, whose birthday was Monday, Jan. 24, scored a career-high 17 against Mississippi State on Jan. 23.
UGA 10th program to 800 "Ws"
The Lady Bulldogs secured their 800th all-time victory at No. 20 Arkansas on Jan. 13.
UGA became the 10th Division I women's basketball program to reach that plateau.
UGA has been ascending the ledger of women's basketball's winningest programs at a steady rate. The Lady Bulldogs were the 22nd team to post 500 wins on Dec. 1, 1998; the 17th school to 600 victories on Feb. 21 2002; and the 15th program to post 700 "Ws" on Nov. 29, 2006.
The nation's top-10 winningest Division I programs through games played of Jan. 13 (when UGA reached 800) are listed below.
Winningest Intercollegiate WBB Programs
Rk. School All-time Wins
1. Tennessee 1146
2. Louisiana Tech 987
3. Old Dominion 919
4. Stephen F. Austin 896
5. James Madison 890
6. Texas 859
7. Ohio State 846
8. Tennessee Tech 825
9. Stanford 810
10. Georgia 800
Next milestone: 850 for "A.L."
Andy Landers' enters Sunday afternoon's game with the Alabama one victory shy of securing his 850th win as a collegiate head coach.
Landers is the only full-time women's basketball head coach in the University of Georgia's history and has compiled a 766-253 record in 32 seasons in Athens.
Prior to arriving at UGA in 1979, Landers compiled an 82-21 record in four seasons at Roane State College in Harriman, Tenn.
To date, only four coaches - Pat Summitt, Jody Conradt, C. Vivian Stringer and Sylvia Hatchell - have reached the 850-win mark. Hatchell reached the mark with a Jan. 30 win over Virginia Tech.
And before you say "Huh?"
Anyone wishing to confirm the aforementioned numbers would probably consult the 2011 NCAA Records Book and say..."Hey, this has Landers with 750 wins entering 2009-10. What gives?"
Well in our mind, that total is not quite completely accurate. Georgia politely disagrees with the NCAA on what constitutes Landers' complete career record.
The NCAA does not recognize Landers' 82 at Roane State wins because they were not earned at a four-year institution.
Therefore, the NCAA says Landers' "career" includes only his efforts at Georgia.
UGA chooses - and has since 1979 - to include Landers' Roane State results as part of his record. In fact, Roane played numerous four-year schools during Landers' tenure and more than a third of his victories there - 33 wins - came against four-year colleges. Roane compiled a 33-1 record versus four-year institutions under Landers.
Lady Bulldogs back in AP poll
The Lady Bulldogs returned to the AP poll on Monday, Jan. 17 at No. 24.
Georgia won at No. 10 Kentucky on Jan. 9 and at No. 20 Arkansas on Jan. 13 to drive its ascent into the top 25.
"We played our way back into the rankings, which is satisfying," Andy Landers said.
The Lady Bulldogs began the season at No. 19 and climbed as high as No. 17. Georgia was ranked in the first five polls before dropping out on Dec. 13.
This week, Georgia is No. 24 and made its 457th appearance in the weekly AP polls. That tally ranks No. 2 in the nation.
The Lady Bulldogs were the first team in this week's poll to win successive games on the road against AP-ranked foes during 2010-11. Texas A&M equaled the feat after winning at No. 20 Iowa State on Jan. 22 and No. 13 Oklahoma on Jan. 26.
