Wake Forest Athletics
Women's Hoops Prepares to Host Clemson on Thursday
1/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2002
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
WFU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NEWS & NOTES
Game #17
Thurs., Jan. 17, 2002
Wake Forest (7-9, 1-5 ACC) vs. Clemson (10-6, 2-3 ACC)
Joel Coliseum (14,665)/Winston-Salem, N.C.
Tipoff: 7:00 pm
Broadcast: Worldwide on the internet at WakeForestSports.com. Carter Blackburn calls the action with Roper Halverson providing color commentary.
Records: Wake Forest is 7-9 after falling to Virginia on the road, 65-51, last Sunday. Clemson is 10-6 overall with a 2-3 mark in league play. The Tigers have lost two straight to Duke and UNC.
The Series: Clemson leads the overalls series 36-7 and has won nine straight over the Deacons.
The Rankings: Neither team is ranked. Clemson is receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.
The Coaches: WFU head coach Charlene Curtis is 37-90 in her fifth season with the Deacons, and owns a 199-240 career mark in her 16th season as a head coach. Clemson's Jim Davis is 328-152 in his 16th season as a head coach and 309-143 in his 15th season with the Tigers.
Up Next: Wake Forest remains at home for a game with North Carolina on Monday, Jan. 21 at 7:00 pm. The game takes place in the Coliseum Annex.
Demon Deacons Look For Second Straight Win, Travel to UVa
The Wake Forest women's basketball team (7-9, 1-5 ACC) looks to improve its standing in the ACC as it takes on Clemson (10-6, 2-3 ACC) in a 7:00 pm tipoff on Thursday night at Joel Coliseum.
The Demon Deacons dropped its last game, a 14-point decision at Virginia, last Sunday. Clemson has lost two straight and three of its last four games. Most recently the Tigers fell to Duke and North Carolina to drop below .500 in ACC play.
Wake Forest has not defeated Clemson since Jan. 2, 1997, and have dropped nine straight to the Tigers since that game. Clemson leads the overall series 36-7. The Tigers won both of last year's meetings by an average margin of 19.5 points.
The 2001-02 campaign marks the 31st season of women's basketball at Wake Forest University. The Demon Deacons' all-time record is 322-446.
Injury Update
Wake Forest appears to be in its best shape of the season, as junior forward Heather Miller, who will miss this season with a stress fracture in her back, is the only player listed on the injury report right now.
Gunning for 200
Wake Forest head coach Charlene Curtis notched her 199th career victory against Florida State last Thursday night, and will be going for No. 200 against Clemson on Thursday. She would join seven other coaches in the ACC who have reached the 200 career win plateau.
Tonia Brown - The Three-Point Threat
Guard Tonia Brown has drained a team-high 37 three-pointers, including a single-game career best six versus Florida State on Jan. 10. Over the last seven games, Brown has connected on 26 three-pointers (3.7 per game) and is shooting 41.3 percent (26-of-63) from beyond the arc in that same stretch. For the entire season she is shooting 36 percent from long range (37-of-104).
Just midway through her sophomore year, Brown already ranks in ninth place on Wake's career three-pointers list (57), ninth in three-point attempts (180) and ninth in career three-point percentage (.317).
Brown ranks third in the ACC in three-pointers per game (2.31) as well as fifth in percentage. In conference games only, she leads the league in three-pointers per game (4.0) and ranks third in percentage (.421).
Brown finished her rookie season last year as the Deacons' leader with 20 total three-pointers, and had already passed that mark by the 13th game of this season.
Head Coach Charlene Curtis
Head coach Charlene Curtis (Radford '76) is in her fifth season at the helm of the Demon Deacon program and is just one win shy of reaching the 200 career victories plateau. Her career coaching record of 199-240 (37-90 at WFU) also includes stints at her alma mater, Radford, as well as 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 Tigers
Clemson has compiled a 10-6 record so far this season, 2-3 in conference play. After opening their ACC slate with a loss at Maryland, the Tigers then posted two straight wins over Florida State and Virginia. Last week, Clemson fell below .500 in the league with losses to Duke and North Carolina, both at home.
Clemson posted an 8-3 mark in non-conference play, with losses to Massachusetts, Furman and Virgnia Tech. Although the Tigers have not appeared in the Top 25 this season, they have been consistently receiving votes in the both the AP and coaches' polls.
The Tigers boast one of the nation's most experienced and talented backcourts with junior Chrissy Floyd and senior Krystal Scott. The duo currently ranks 1-2 as Clemson's top scorers, with Floyd putting up 17.4 points and Scott 11.5 points per game. Floyd ranks second inthe ACC in scoring, while Scott is one of the league's assist leaders (3.44 apg).
Sophomore forward/center Maggie Slosser leads a young inside game, ranking 10th in the ACC in rebounding, averaging 5.9 boards per game.
While Clemson and Wake Forest rank 8-9 in the ACC in field goal percentages (Clemson .394 to Wake's .381), a key task for the Demon Deacons will be to keep the Tigers off the free throw line, as Clemson is shooting nearly 70 percent (262-of-376) from the stripe. The Tigers have gone to the line more than any team in the ACC and have made nearly as many free throws (262) and Wake has made trips to the line (269).
The Series with Clemson
Wake Forest and Clemson have met 43 previous times on the hardwood, with the Tigers holding a 36-7 lead in the series ... Clemson has won the last nine meetings, with Wake's last win a 69-60 decision at home in the 1996-97 campaign ... during Clemson's current win streak,the Tigers have defeated WFU by an average of 16.6 points ... the Deacons have actually won more games (4) on the road at CU's Littlejohn Coliseum than they have at home (3) ... the two teams first met in the 1977-78 season ... Clemson dominated the series in the early years, winning the first 11 meetings by an average margin of 30 points ... the Tigers and Deacs have only played regular season contests, never meeting in the ACC Tournament or on a neutral court.
Deacon-Tiger Connections
* Clemson sophomore Kanetra Queen hails from Fayetteville, N.C. Queen played in the 2000 East-West All-Star Girls Basketball Game in Greensboro, and one of her teammates on the East team was current WFU sophomore Tracy Alston. Another Demon Deacon, Eafton Hill, played on the West squad in that game.
The Last Meeting with Clemson... Feb. 11, 2001
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Playing its fourth ranked opponent in a five-game span, the Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped its fifth consecutive game with a 72-55 loss against 22nd-ranked Clemson at Joel Coliseum.
Both teams knocked down 23 field goals, but Clemson held the edge on the free throw line. Wake committed 24 team fouls, sending the Tigers to the line 23 times. The Tigers converted on 21 of those 23 free throw attempts while allowing the Deacons just 12 attempts from the charity stripe.
Clemson's 91.3 shooting percentage from the line was a season high for a Wake opponent this year.
Wake Forest fell behind early, as the Tigers hit 40.6% of their field goal attempts in the first half and led 32-24 at the break. Clemson also owned the edge in rebounding, leading 23-17 at the half and finishing with 47 for the game, compared to the Deacons' 38.
"I was pleased with the intensity we had for the entire 40 minutes," said Clemson head coach Jim Davis. "The toughness of our forwards showed through today."
"We didn't get enough offense in the first half," said Wake Forest head coach Charlene Curtis. "We were very passive and you can't win games being passive. We weren't getting good looks and we needed to get the ball into the posts more. We didn't attack the basket."
Eafton Hill led the balanced offensive attack for Wake Forest, who had three players in double figures. Hill scored 12 points, while Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick and Olivia Dardy each tallied 10 points in the loss. Hill also topped the Deacon stat sheet with eight rebounds. Point guard Val Klopfer added a team-high five assists.
Clemson forward Nuria Forns led all scorers, netting 7-of-16 shots for a game-high 18 points, including 3-of-5 from three-point range. The Tigers' Krystal Scott added 16 points, including an 8-of-8 performance from the free throw line. Chrissy Floyd added 13 points while center Erin Batth collected a game-high 10 rebounds.
"Krystal Scott's aggressiveness with the ball was the key to today's game," Davis said.
"Our goals were to outrebound Clemson and to get to the line more. We didn't do either," Curtis said.
Tonia Brown Stepping Up Her All-Around Game
Sophomore Tonia Brown's three-point shooting has already been mentioned, but it's also worth noting that the 5-10 guard has emerged as the team's top scorer this season, averaging 14.1 points per game (17.7 ppg in ACC contests). With last year's leading scorer, Eafton Hill, sidelined for eight games with an injury, Brown took on a greater responsibility of producing points and responded well.
After serving as a backup to senior starter Kristen Shaffer last season, Brown stepped into the starting shooting guard position this year and has been the team's top scorer in 11 of 16 games this season and has posted 12 double-figure outings, including a career-best 28 points in the win over Florida State on Jan. 10.
"We've been very pleased with her progress," said coach Curtis of Brown. "She showed moments last year ina support role, but thisyear we've really handed the reins to her as she's done well. The toughest thing for her is that we haven't gotten her any help. We're still looking for a consistent second and third option to go to."
Brown, who has natural point guard abilities as well, ranks second on the team with an average of 2.1 assists per game. She's also stepped up her rebounding numbers, averaging 4.7 boards - a mark which currently ranks second on the team. She also leads the squad with 32 steals.
Free Throw Woes
Wake Forest has struggled from the charity stripe this season, connecting on just 59 percent of its shots from the line. The Deacons' opponents are averaging over 69 percent from the stripe, and have gone to the line 77 more times than WFU (269-346).
Wake's best performance from the foul line this season came on Dec. 30 against NC State, when it shot over 78 percent (18-of-23). But the team followed that up with a 47 percent outing against Georgia Tech (7-of-15), its second-worst performance of the year. Wake shot right around its average - .583 (7-of-12) - against Virginia in its last outing.
Two Deacons - junior Tiffani Listenbee and sophomore Bianca Brown - gave clutch performances at the line in the closing seconds of the Florida State game to help seal a four-point victory. After missing two free throws earlier in the game, Listenbee hit two straight with 27 seconds left, then Brown followed up with two of her own at the 0:14 mark.
Harris Dishing the Assists
Senior guard Adell Harris leads the team with 67 assists, 33 more than anyone else on the team. She also owns a team-best 1.42 assist-to-turnover ratio (67-47), a mark which currently ranks seventh in the ACC. After bringing a career ratio of 0.92 into this season, Harris has improved her assist-to-turnover mark to a positive 1.04, a mark which ranks her eighth among Wake's all-time assist leaders. She also needs just 17 more assists to rank among the top 10 in that category as well.
Harris has led the team in assists in 11 games this season. Her total of 10 assists against Florida State was the most by a Deacon since Harris herself set a Joel Coliseum record with 10 dishes against Georgia Tech in 1999.
Among the League Leaders (as of January 15)
* LaChina Robinson ranks sixth in the league in rebounding (6.9 rpg) and is third in offensive boards (3.12). She also ranks fifth in blocked shots (1.2).
* Tonia Brown ranks 12th among the top scoring leaders with 14.1 points per game. She also ranks third in three-pointers per game (2.31), third in three-point percentage (.356) and fifth in steals (2.0).
* In ACC games only, Brown leads the league in three-pointers made (4.0) and is fifth in total scoring (17.7 ppg).
* Senior Adell Harris ranks sixth in assists (4.19 apg) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.43)
Coming Up Next
Wake Forest remains at home, but moves its base next door to the Coliseum Annex, where it will host nationally-ranked North Carolina on Monday, Jan. 21 at 7:00 pm. The game will also be televised on the ACC regional television package. Anyone who purchased tickets for the postponed "Jam Joel" game on Jan. 3 versus Georgia Tech are welcome to use those tickets for the UNC game.
