Women's Basketball Opens ACC Slate Against 18th-Ranked UNC
12/4/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2001
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WFU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NEWS & NOTES
Game #6
Wed., Dec. 5, 2001
Wake Forest (2-3) vs. #18/20 North Carolina (7-1)
Carmichael Auditorim (10,180)/Chapel Hill, N.C.
Tipoff: 7:00 pm
Broadcast: Broadcast on the flagship station of WFU athletics, WBRF 98.1 FM. Carter Blackburn calls the action with Roper Halverson providing color commentary.
Records: Wake Forest is 2-3, while North Carolina is 7-1 and riding a five-game winning streak. After opening the season with two wins at home, WFU has dropped three straight.
The Series: UNC is one of Wake Forest's oldest rivals, as the Tar Heels own a 46-10 lead in a series that began in 1974.
The Coaches: WFU head coach Charlene Curtis is in her fifth season with the Deacons, and owns a 194-234 career mark. Tar Heel head coach Sylvia Hatchell is 311-161 in her 15th season at Carolina, and owns a career record of 583-241 in her 27th year overall.
Noteworthy: The teams have split their two meetings in each of the last two seasons after UNC won 18 straight from 1990-99.
Up Next: Wake Forest returns home to host UNC Wilmington on Friday, Dec. 7 at 5:00 pm in the first gme of a Deacon doubleheader at Joel Coliseum. The WFU men host South Carolina State following the women's game.
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Probable Deacon Lineup vs. UNC
Pos. # Player Ht. Cl. GP/GS PPG RPG Noteworthy
F 22 Tracy Alston* 5-10 So. 5/1 3.0 4.4 Had first career start at WCU
F 24 Tiffani Listenbee** 6-1 Jr. 5/5 6.8 4.6 Scored 12 of WFU's first 20 pts. vs ASU
C 34 LaChina Robinson*** 6-4 Sr. 5/5 7.6 9.0 Ranks second in ACC in rebounds (9.0 pg)
G 30 Tonia Brown* 5-10 So. 5/5 11.8 3.0 Set career-high with 19 points vs App St.
G 3 Bianca Brown* 5-8 So. 5/5 3.2 1.8 Had career best five steals in opener
Wake Forest Looks to Halt Skid with Win in ACC Opener
The Wake Forest women's basketball team looks to halt a three-game losing streak as it opens ACC play with a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on nationally-ranked North Carolina (7-1).
The Deacs have had a six-day break from any games after opening the 2001-02 campaign by playing five contests over an 11-day span. After beginning the season with two home victories (App State and Radford), the Deacs fell to UAB on the road, suffered a home loss to No. 1 Connecticut, then dropped a road game to Western Carolina.
North Carolina is the Demon Deacons' most familiar rival, as the two teams meet for the 57th time on Thursday, more than any other Wake opponent. UNC owns a 46-10 lead in the series that began in 1974, but the teams have split their meetings in each of the last two seasons.
The Tar Heels, ranked 18th by AP, 20th by USA Today/ESPN, are opening their ACC slate as well, bringing a five-game winning streak into Thursday's contest.
The 2001-02 campaign marks the 31st season of Wake Forest women's basketball. The Demon Deacons' all-time record is 317-440.
Injury Update
* The team's leading scorer, Eafton Hill, will miss at least the next two games with a broken bone in her right foot. Hill, who played with pain in her foot against UAB and UConn, will be re-evaluated in mid-December.
* Junior forward Heather Miller remains out of action with a nagging back injury. She will also be re-evaluated later this month.
Demon Deacon Details
Wake Forest returns 11 letterwinners and three starters from last year's squad which produced an 11-17 record, its best in four seasons. The team's top returning scorer a year ago, 6-0 forward Eafton Hill, returns for her sophomore campaign after earning ACC All-Freshman honors. Although she is currently sidelined with a broken foot, Hill is still the team's leading scorer (12.5 ppg). A strong shot-blocker, Hill is averaging an ACC-high 2.0 blocks per game.
The senior class consists of two point guards and two centers. LaChina Robinson, who stands 6-4, is the most experienced Deacon in the middle with 91 appearances and 72 career starts. She reached a milestone in the Deacs' win over Radford, posting her first double-double with 15 points and 20 rebounds. Another 6-4 senior, LaTisha Pearson, has seen limited action in her career but has shown flashes of strong rebounding and defense. Val Klopfer, a 5-4 senior, is the team's most experienced point guard (2.4 apg last season), but classmate Adell Harris has presented a strong challenge for playing time at the point as well as the shooting guard position, currently averaging 5.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and a team-high 2.6 assists.
Junior Tiffani Listenbee has already stepped into a much larger role this season. A 6-1 forward, Listenbee was the team's Most Improved Player last season and already broke her career scoring record with 15 points in the season opener versus ASU. Junior Johanna Bj?rklund is the tallest player on the team (6-5) and will provide depth at center as she is returning from an ankle sprain suffered in preseason. A third junior, 5-10 forward Heather Miller, is sidelined in the early goings with a nagging back injury.
In addition to Hill, the sophomore class consists of three other players who saw significant action last year. Point guard Bianca Brown has gotten early starting nod, although she has been challenged by the two seniors. Brown is averaging 2.0 assists per game and owns a 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio through five games. Two guard Tonia Brown will be counted on for point production, and has already delivered with a career-best 19 points in the season opener. She is currently the team's second-leading scorer (11.8 ppg) and is also averaging 2.6 assists. Forward Tracy Alston, a 5-10, is a smothering defender and strong rebounder at the small forward position who got her first starting nod in place of Hill at Western Carolina. Alston had a career-best night against UConn, pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds and dishing five assists.
This year's freshman class consists of 5-9 shooting guard Meredith Bell, 6-0 post player Erin Ferrell and 6-1 guard/forward Jennifer Johnson. All three have seen significant action already this season and are making an impact. Bell is tied with Tonia Brown with a team-best six three-pointers this season, while Ferrell was the team's top scorer with a 16-point effort at WCU. Johnson is contributing 2.7 points and 4.0 rebounds an outing.
Head Coach Charlene Curtis
Head coach Charlene Curtis (Radford '76) is in her fifth season at the helm of the Demon Deacon program and just six wins shy of reaching the 200 career victories plateau. Her career coaching record of 194-234 (32-84 at WFU) also includes stints at her alma mater, Radford, and Temple.
Curtis' head coaching career began at Radford, where she posted a 121-53 mark in six seasons and was twice named Big South Coach of the Year. She then spent four seasons at Temple, producing a 41-97 record and four Atlantic-10 All-Rookie players. Before coming to WFU, Curtis spent two seasons at the University of Connecticut, serving as an assistant coach under Geno Auriemma and helping guide the Huskies to two BIG EAST titles and an NCAA Final Four appearance.
Curtis' coaching career also includes stints as an assistant coach at Virginia (1981-83), Georgetown (1984) and USA Basketball (1989-92, '94).
As a player at Radford, Curtis was the school's first 1,000-point scorer and was inducted as a charter member of RU's Hall of Fame in 1995. She earned a master's degree from UVa in 1982.
Scouting the Tar Heels
High-scoring North Carolina leads the ACC with 92.2 points per game, and is outscoring its opponents by 27.9 points an outing. Carolina also leads the league in three-point percentage (.380), while holding its opponents to an ACC-low .345 shooting from the floor and .244 from beyond the arc.
North Carolina and Wake Forest have already faced two common opponents this season, as the both teams lost to top-ranked Connecticut (UNC 94-74 and Wake 88-38). The Tar Heels defeated Western Carolina, 100-44, at home, while the Deacs fell to the Catamounts, 72-64, in Cullowhee. UNC has also posted wins over George Mason, Evansville, Howard, Winthrop, Kentucky and Old Dominion.
Senior guard Nikki Teasley, after a year's absence from the team, has returned to lead UNC and rank fifth in the ACC in scoring with 17.3 points per game. The Tar Heels have three other players averaging double figures in scoring, including junior guard Coretta Brown (16.8 ppg), freshman guard Leah Metcalf (13.8 ppg) and sophomore center Candace Sutton (12.4 ppg). Sutton also ranks second in the ACC (behind Wake's Eafton Hill) with 1.75 blocks per game.
The Series with North Carolina
North Carolina is Wake Forest's most-played rivalry, as the two teams meet for the 57th time ... after first meeting in the 1973-74 campaign, the Deacs and Tar Heels have played at least one time every year since ... UNC won the first 25 games, with Wake then reeling off six straight victories from 1987-1990, its longest winning streak in the series ... Carolina then won 18 straight from 1991-99 ... the home team has pulled off the victory in the last four meetings ... North Carolina owns a 21-3 advantage on its home court ... Wake's last victory in Chapel Hill came in the 1990-91 campaign, a 77-65 win ... Sylvia Hatchell is 23-10 versus Wake as UNC's head coach ... Wake's Charlene Curtis is 2-6 against the Tar Heels.
Youth Movement
Even with four seniors on the rosters, the overall makeup of the WFU women's basketball team is still quite young. Wake's starting lineup so far this season has consisted of one senior, one junior and three sophomores, while a pair of sophomores - Eafton Hill and Tonia Brown - lead the Deacs in scoring.
In fact, 26 of Wake's 38 points scored against top-ranked UConn were posted by either sophomores or freshmen. Also, a freshman or sophomore has led the Deacs in both scoring and assists in four of five games this season. Rookie Erin Ferrell has come on strong off the bench over the last two games, as she totaled five points and six rebounds against UConn, then followed it up with a team-high 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting, three assists and three steals at WCU.
Last year's freshman class of Hill, Brown, Tracy Alston and Bianca Brown is proving that the experience they gained last season is paying dividends this year, as all four have started at least one game this season and have each led the Deacs in either scoring, rebounding or assists at least once so far this year.
Among the League Leaders
* Eafton Hill leads the ACC in blocked shots (2.0 bpg).
* LaChina Robinson is tied for second in the league in rebounding (9.0 rpg) and leads the conference in offensive boards (4.2 rpg).
* Two Deacons ranks among the top 20 scoring leaders - Eafton Hill in 17th (12.5 ppg) and Tonia Brown in 19th (11.8).
* Tonia Brown ranks eighth in the league in steals (2.2 spg).
* As a team, Wake Forest ranks second in blocked shots (4.4 bpg) and offensive rebounds (17.2 bpg).
Tough Schedule
Wake Forest faces a tough schedule in 2001-02. Four opponents on this year's slate are currently ranked among the top 25 teams in the Associated Press poll and USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll. For the second straight year, WFU has faced No. 1 UConn. ACC opponents Duke (No. 11/9), NC State (No. 10/10), and North Carolina (No. 18/20) also appear in the polls.
Playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference presents a monumental task in itself as four other teams in the league - Maryland, Clemson, Florida State and Virginia - are among those currently receiving votes in the poll.
Coming Up Next
Wake Forest returns home to host UNC Wilmington on Friday, Dec. 7 at 5:00 pm. The game is the first of a Deacon doubleheader, as the WFU men host South Carolina State at 7:30 pm. Both games take place at Joel Coliseum. The Deacons will then break for final exams, playing their next game on Sat., Dec. 16 at High Point (2:00 pm).