Women's Basketball Travels To No. 2 Connecticut

Jan. 22, 2001

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ABOUT THE GAME: This will be the 20th meeting between Miami and UConn and the second meeting of the season for the two teams…The Huskies defeated UM 77-53 in Coral Gables in the BIG EAST season opener…The Huskies lead the all-time series with Miami 14-5, including a 14-game win streak over UM…This will be the 17th game of the season for both teams.

ABOUT THE HURRICANES: Miami is an interesting mix of youth and veterans…The Hurricanes return their leading scorer, junior Sheila James (11.7 ppg), and leading rebounder, Alicia Hartlaub (6.4 rpg)…UM also returns four starters from last season’s 14-15 club…Miami returns 85 percent of its scoring and 92 percent of its rebounding from last season’s young team.

LAST OUTING FOR MIAMI: Western Kentucky 82, Miami 75Miami fell 82-75 in overtime to Western Kentucky…Sophomore Meghan Saake led Miami with a career-high 19 points and five steals…Freshman Chanivia Broussard added 17 points and four blocked shots…Miami played the Lady Toppers evenly through the opening minutes of the game, as the two teams combined for four ties and three lead changes in the first 10 minutes of action…Miami took a 40-27 lead into the locker room at halftime, after Camilla Osth hit a 35-footer to beat the halftime horn…WKU came out strong in the second half, going on a 14-0 run over the first 5:51 to take a 41-40 lead…Miami answered back going on a 19-7 run to regain an 11-point lead (59-48) with 7:54 to play…The Lady Toppers used an 14-3 scoring surge over the final seven minutes of regulation putting WKU back into the game…Leading scorer Natalie Powers drilled the game tying three-pointer with 12 seconds left in the game…The Hurricanes took a two-point lead just over a minute into overtime, but that would be the last time Miami would have the lead in the contest…Kristina Covington nailed her fourth three-pointer of the game to put WKU on top by one (69-68) with 3:25 remaining in overtime…The Lady Toppers were on top for the remainder of the game, including hitting 7-of-8 free-throws in the final 28 seconds to seal their second overtime victory of the season.

ABOUT THE HUSKIES: The most potent offense in the BIG EAST hosts Miami on Tuesday…The Huskies are undefeated in 26 games at Gampel Pavilion, dating back to a loss at home to Tennessee on Jan. 10 1998-99…This season Svetlana Abrosimova leads UConn with 13.5 points per game…Swin Cash followes with 12.4 ppg and leads the team with 6.9 rebounds per game…The Huskies are 5-1 in BIG EAST action after falling (92-76) to Notre Dame…The conference loss marked the first time since the 1998-99 season that the Huskies were beaten in a regular BIG EAST game.

LAST OUTING FOR UCONN: Kelly Schumacher scored 20 points in 27 minutes and Swin Cash added 14 and eight rebounds as top-ranked Connecticut posted an 83-43 triumph over Big East Conference rival Pittsburgh…Connecticut (15-1, 5-1 Big East) undoubtedly will drop from the top spot when the new poll is released on Monday…The Huskies dropped a 92-76 decision to Notre Dame on Monday but rebounded with wins Thursday over Old Dominion and Saturday’s effort against the Panthers…Sue Bird had 13 points for Connecticut, which led 36-19 at the half and was never challenged…The Huskies held Pittsburgh to 28 percent (6-of-21) shooting in the first half and took advantage of 35 turnovers by the Panthers…Schumacher made 9-of-11 shots and added four blocks for Connecticut…The only thing the Huskies did not do well was shoot free throws, making just 14-of-25 attempts…Sheila Stufflet and Jackie Campbell led Pittsburgh (8-9, 2-4) with eight points apiece…The Panthers’ Laine Selwyn had a forgettable outing, making 1-of-6 shots and committing 10 turnovers.

MIAMI VS UCONN: This will be the 20th meeting between Miami and Connecticut…UConn leads the series 14-5, including a 14-game winning streak over UM…The Hurricanes are 3-5 all-time when playing in Storrs…UM fell 77-53 earlier in the season to UConn in Coral Gables.

WINNING BIG: The Huskies have beaten Miami by 20 or more points in the last six meetings…The last time Miami got under a 20 point loss was during the 1996-97 season, UConn beat UM by a margin of 18 points.NEW YEAR: Miami is 3-3 when playing in January this season.

LAST MEETING WITH UCONN: Connecticut 77 Miami 53Swin Cash scored 20 points and Svetlana Abrosimova added 16 as top-ranked Connecticut beat Miami 77-53 on Tuesday night in the Big East opener for both teams…The Huskies overwhelmed Miami with their full-court pressure defense and fast-break offense…Chanivia Broussard had 15 points for Miami, which has lost 14 straight games to the Huskies…Abrosimova, wearing a protective brace on her right ankle after injuring it in practice Friday, made a layup just three seconds into the game and had 10 points in the first half…In the first half, Connecticut shot 47 percent from the field and held Miami to 29 percent. Miami had 14 turnovers in the half…Connecticut pushed its margin to a game-high 27 points in the second half. But Miami used a 14-2 run to close the gap to 15 on Alicia Hartlaub’s short jumper.

LABATI VS THE HUSKIES: Labati is 5-14 all-time versus the Huskies…Labati has not defeated UConn since the 1992-93 season…Labati is 3-7 when facing the Huskies in Storrs, and has not beat UConn in Gampel since the 1992-93 season.

ON THIS DATE: Miami is 2-3 all-time when playing on Jan. 23…UM fell 56-54 at Villanova during the 1998-99 season on Jan. 23.

WINNING WAYS: The Hurricanes have had 18 winning season’s in 28 year’s of women’s hoops…Ferne Labati holds nine of those winning season’s to her long list of accomplishments.

REBOUNDING THE KEY: The Hurricanes have not lost a game this year when outrebounding an opponent…They are 8-0 when outrebounding an opponent, 1-1 when having the same number of rebounds as an opponent and 0-6 when being outrebounded…According to the stats Miami is averaging 4.7 rebounds per game, while the Huskies are averaging 43.0 per game.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Miami is 2-3 on the road this season and 2-1 in conference on the road this season…The Hurricanes have not won a conference game at home yet this season…UM is riding a two-game BIG EAST road win streak into tonight’s game.

STARTERS MORE CONSISTENT: Through the last seven contests the starters have stepped up and become an offensive threat…The starting five scored 54 of the 65 points in the win over BC and 58 of the 67 points in the win over St. John’s.

CLARKE, ROAD WARRIOR: Dalia Clarke recorded back-to-back double-double’s in Miami’s last road outing…Clarke was named BIG EAST Player of the Week after scoring a career-high 24 points and 13 rebounds in the win over Boston College…Clarke followed that performance with 20 points and 11 rebounds at St. John’s.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Listed at a mere 5-5, guard Sheila James is the smallest player on the UM roster but her play is anything but small…James led the team in scoring last season averaging 11.0 points per game…She scored a career-high 28 points in the win over Radford…James is right behind Broussard in scoring averaging 10.6 points per game.

ROOKIE TO WATCH: Chanivia Broussard, a Miami native, leads the team in scoring with 12.0 points per game…Broussard has scored in double-digits in 12 of the 15 games she has played in…She has scored in every game she has played in…She has scored in double digits in the last seven games.

WHIGHAM, PEAVEY TO REDSHIRT: Labati announced that Lonnie Whigham and Lindsey Peavey will redshirt this season.

TUESDAY: Miami is 2-1 this season when playing on Tuesday…Miami defeated Radford 83-48 on Tuesday January 2…The only loss Miami suffered on a Tuesday this season was at the hands of Connecticut.

TURNOVERS, TURNOVERS: Miami has forced 410 opponent turnovers so far this season…The Hurricanes forced a season-high of 42 turnovers in the game with Florida Atlantic and a season-low of 19 against Fairfield…Miami has only turned the ball over more times than its opponent in only one game..Miami leads the BIG EAST in turnover margin with +6.88.

SUPER SAAKE: Sophomore Meghan Saake is the only player on the UM roster to start all 16 games so far this season…She leads the team in steals (46), and assists (57)…She tallied a career-high of 10 assists in the win over Radford…She is tied for first in the BE standings with Svetlana Abrosimova averaging 2.88 steals per game.