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Tarleton Basketball Tournament Central
Tarleton TexAnns (23-6) vs. No. 15 Emporia State Lady Hornets (24-5)
Friday, March 11, 2010 at 6 p.m. | First United Bank Center | Canyon, Texas
LET'S GO DANCING
The Tarleton women's basketball will travel to Canyon this Friday, March 11, to take on No. 15 Emporia State in the first round of the NCAA South Central Regional Championships. The TexAnns are making just their second appearance ever the NCAA Tournament and first trip since 2006. The TexAnns and Lady Hornets are scheduled to tip-off at 6 p.m. on Friday inside First United Bank Center in Canyon.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Tarleton received an at-large bid into the tournament, earning the No. 5 seed in the south central region after going 23-6 overall and 9-3 in the Lone Star Conference South Division. Emporia State, too, received an at-large bid into the tournament, earning the No. 4 seed in the region.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN
West Texas A&M secured the region's No. 1 seed and the right to host the tournament and will take on No. 8 seeded St. Mary's at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. The winner between the Lady Buffs and Rattlers will move into the semifinals to face the winner between the TexAnns and Lady Hornets.
Washburn earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will play No. 7 seeded Central Missouri at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. No. 3 seeded Northeastern State will play No. 6 Central Oklahoma at noon on Friday and the winner between the RiverHawks and Bronchos will move into the semifinals to play the winner between the Lady Blues and Jennies.
LAST TIME OUT
The TexAnns fell behind by as many as 14 points to Northeastern State in the LSC Championship Semifinals last Saturday and it proved to be more than enough as the RiverHawks came away with a 74-62 win over Tarleton. The TexAnns pulled to within five points of NSU with 7:46 left to play, but thanks in large part to three Tarleton consecutive turnovers, the RiverHawks were able to close out the game and end Tarleton's run in the tournament.
The Lady Hornets were bounced in the semifinals of the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), falling 79-74 to Central Missouri in Kansas City, Mo., last weekend. ESU was down 11 points before streaking back to within a point late in the second-half, but the Lady Hornets were unable to complete the come-from-behind victory.
THE SERIES
Friday's match-up will be just the third game ever played between the TexAnns and Lady Hornets with ESU leading the all-time series 2-0. ESU won the first meeting 81-35 in Emporia, Kan., back on Nov. 14, 1997 and later defeated the TexAnns, 85-67, in Tarleton's first-ever NCAA South Central Regional Tournament back on March 10, 2006, in Topeka, Kan.
SCOUTING THE LADY HORNETS
Emporia State opened the 2009-10 campaign with an 85-45 exhibition loss to then No. 20-ranked Kansas out of Division I. The Lady Hornets countered though, opening the regular season with a five-game winning streak before dropping their MIAA opener, 88-76, to Northwest Missouri. Again, ESU rebounded well, collecting 14 straight wins and improved to 19-1 on the season.
ESU then lost a close game (64-60) to Central Missouri and closed out the season winning just five of its last nine. The Lady Hornets finished the season 24-5 overall and 16-4 in the MIAA.
ESU finished the regular-season ranked No. 15 in the USA Today/ESPN Division II Coaches Poll. The Lady Hornets ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation three different weeks this season. This week's ranking marks the 104th straight week that ESU has been inside the top-25.
Emporia State is led by Daktronics All-South Central Region Player of the Year Cassondra Boston, who averages 19.7 points a game and leads the Lady Hornets with 114 assists and 37 steals on the season. Alli Volkens is the other ESU player to average double-figures (10.8 ppg), but leads her team with 7.3 rebounds per outing. She leads the way also with a .500 field goal percentage this year. While Boston leads ESU with 76 three-pointers made, it's Jamie Augustyn who leads the squad with a .405 shooting percentage from beyond the arc.
COACH SCHNEIDER
ESU head coach Brandon Schneider is in his 12th season with the Lady Hornets. He is the all-time winningest coach in ESU women's basketball history with a 300-72 (.806) record and has taken the Lady Hornets to 11 NCAA Championship tournaments in his 12 years.
Schneider was just named the RUSSELL ATHLETIC South Central Region Coach of the Year by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) league office earlier this week.
ABOUT THE TEXANNS
The TexAnns finished off the regular-season with a 22-5 record overall and a 9-3 mark in the south division. Tarleton earned the No. 2 seed out of the south division and went 1-1 in the LSC Championship Tournament.
Tarleton's 23 wins are the most wins by a TexAnn team since the 1991-92 season when the TexAnns notched 30 wins as a NAIA member school. The 23 victories are the most ever since becoming a part of the NCAA Division II and Lone Star Conference.
TEXANN SEASON LEADERS
The TexAnns finished the season with four players averaging double-digits. Shelby Adamson led the team with an 11.9 points per game average, while Brittnie Haley followed averaging 11.5 ppg. JoAnne Jones, the team's only senior, finished the regular season averaging 11.0 ppg while Morgan Stehling averaged 10.7 ppg in just 13 starts.
Jones led the LSC for most of the season in shooting percentage and finishes the regular-season shooting .593 percent from the field. Adamson follows making .505 percent of her shots from the floor. Sonya Sundberg led the team from beyond the arc with a .390 percentage. Tori Skarke followed with a .359 shooting percentage from the three-point line. Adamson led the TexAnns at the free-throw line as she converted .803 percent of her shots from the charity stripe.
Haley leads the team on the boards, averaging 6.5 rebounds a game. Jones follows averaging 5.7 rpg. Kelsey Benford averaged 4.0 rpg while coming off the bench for the TexAnns.
Haley also led the team with 36 blocks, while Jones added 33 blocked shots on the season. Adamson led the TexAnns with 62 steals and 107 assists.
Tarleton closed out the regular-season averaging 74.0 points a game on .459 shooting from the field and a .321 shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line. Tarleton converted .666 percent of its shots from the charity stripe.
SEASON ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Along with the 8-0 start and the 23 wins, Tarleton had a few more accomplishments to show for during the 2009-10 campaign.
The TexAnns broke the school record for margin of victory back on Nov. 24 against Concordia. The TexAnns defeated the Tornadoes 109-29, giving them an 80-point margin of victory that broke the previous mark of 78 that was set against Centenary back on March 8, 1981. The 100 points scored were the most by a TexAnn team since Tarleton defeated Dallas Christian 105-29 back on Dec. 31, 2004. The 109-point total was the most since Dec. 12, 2002 when Tarleton defeated Dallas Christian 117-54.
The TexAnns' 61-35 win over Angelo State back on Jan. 16, assured Tarleton its sixth consecutive winning season - all under head coach Ronnie Hearne. Hearne and the TexAnns went 15-15 in his first season giving him seven consecutive non-losing seasons as head coach of the TexAnn basketball program.
The TexAnns swept the season series over ACU for just the second time in school history and first time since the 2005-06 season.
With Tarleton's 66-64 win over ACU, head coach Ronnie Hearne earned his first 20-win season at the helm of the TexAnn basketball program. Hearne led the 2005-06 team to a 19-win season which had been his previous high in wins for a single-season.
Tarleton made its debut in the USA Today/ESPN Division II Coaches Poll for the first time in school history when the TexAnns received the No. 24 ranking back on Jan. 19.
JoAnne Jones became just the 19th player in TexAnn history to score 1,000 points in a career. She scored 11 points in Tarleton's 55-43 win over Eastern New Mexico, giving her exactly 1,000 points at the time.
The TexAnns notched the school's first-ever win in the LSC Tournament following a 71-66 victory over Texas Woman's in the first round of the championships.
DOWNTOWN ADAMSON
Shelby Adamson is 5-of-5 from three-point range in the past four games for the TexAnns. Over the last seven games she is 6-of-8 from just beyond the arc. Adamson is shooting just 25 percent from downtown on the season, but is shooting well over 40 percent in her last 12 games.
STEHLING STRIVING IN STARTING ROLE
Morgan Stehling has only started in 13 of Tarleton's 27 games and is averaging 10.7 points a game on the season. Stehling got her first start on Jan. 16, against Angelo State and kept the starting role throughout the remainder of the season. She scored a career-high 22 points against West Texas A&M back on Feb. 13, and has averaged just under 12 points a game since making her way into the starting role.
HALEY BACK ON TRACK
Brittnie Haley sat out all of the 2008-09 season to rehab a knee injury that she suffered mid-way through the 2007-08 season. Haley set career highs in field goal percentage (.491), rebounds (175), blocks (36) and assists (34) so far this season.
LSC HONORS
Four TexAnns were named to the all-Lone Star Conference South Division team last week at a banquet in Bartlesville, Okla. JoAnne Jones earned first team all-conference honors, while Brittnie Haley and Shelby Adamson each took home second team accolades. Adamson was also named the division's Defensive Player of the Year. Sonya Sundberg was named to the all-LSC Honorable Mention squad.
2010 NCAA Division II South Central Region
Tournament Schedule
Friday, March 12
Noon Northeastern State vs. Central Oklahoma
2:30 p.m. Washburn vs. Central Missouri
6:00 p.m. Emporia State vs. Tarleton State
8:30 p.m. West Texas A&M vs. St. Mary's
Saturday, March 13
Noon NSU/UCO winner vs. WU/UCM winner
2:15 p.m. ESU/TSU winner vs. WTAMU/SMU winner
Monday, March 15
1:00 p.m. Championship Game
