Feb. 16, 2010

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA's top two teams, Tulane and Memphis, are slated to square off Thursday night inside Fogelman Arena at 7 p.m. for top honors in the league standings. The Tigers and the Green Wave are knotted up with identical 8-3 conference records. Tulane sports an overall record of 19-5, while the Tigers stand at 15-9.

C-USA Women's Basketball Notebook & Statistics_Feb. 16

Tulane has won three-straight and eight of its last 10 games heading into Thursday night's match-up, while the Tigers bounced back from a road loss at Houston by wrapping up a pair of conference series sweeps against Southern Miss and UCF, the two teams from last year's C-USA championship game, last weekend.

The Thursday night game will feature two of the conference's top defenses. Tulane leads the conference in scoring defense, giving up just 61.7 ppg, while Memphis is sixth with 64.1 ppg given up. Much like the league standings, the two teams are tied in the league stats in steals per game (12.1 spg), and rank one (Memphis, +4.7) and two (Tulane +4.5) in turnover margin.

Overall, Thursday will feature 10 C-USA teams, including one CBS College Sports game. Houston (13-11, 7-4 C-USA) is set to travel to Southern Miss (7-17, 3-8 C-USA) for an 8 p.m. CBS C tip. Calling the action will be Ann Schatz and Jason Knapp.

The Cougars may be without 12th-year head coach Joe Curl. Coach Curl was admitted to a Dallas hospital Saturday night with chest and stomach pains. He remains under observation in Dallas. Fourth-year assistant coach Wade Scott has stepped up in Curl's absence.

UPCOMING GAMES (all times central)

Thur., February 18
Rice at UCF 6 p.m.
Memphis at Tulane 7 p.m.
SMU at Tulsa 7 p.m.
UAB at UTEP 7 p.m.
Houston at Southern Miss (CBS C) 8 p.m.

Sat., February 20
Rice at Southern Miss 4 p.m.
UAB at Tulane 4 p.m.
Houston at UCF (BHSN) 6 p.m.
Memphis at UTEP 8:05 p.m.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
LARRISSA WILLIAMS, TULSA
6-3, SR, F (Little Rock, Ark.)
Williams led Tulsa to a pair of C-USA home wins over Houston and Rice. She also led the league for the week in points, rebounds and blocks per game, while collecting her 40th career double-double. The 6-3 forward accounted for 25.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game. She also contributed 2.5 steals and 2.0 assists on the week, while shooting a 57.1 clip from the field. Williams finished with 22 points and 18 rebounds, a C-USA weekly best, against Houston and tallied a career-high 29 points and had 11 boards against Rice. Her 29 points against the Owls was the second most in C-USA play last week. In both games, she shot 50.0-percent-or-better and had three-or-more blocks. This is William's first Player of the Week honor this season and second of her career.

FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
TALEYA MAYBERRY, TULSA
5-6, G (Tulsa, Okla.)
Mayberry quarterbacked Tulsa to a pair of C-USA home wins over Houston and Rice last week. The 5-6 guard averaged 18.5 points and shot .452-(14-of-31) from the field, .455-(5-of-11) from behind the arc and .800-percent (4-of-5) from the charity stripe. For the third time this season, Mayberry scored 20-or-more points in a single game. She posted 20 in the win against Houston, with the assistance of four 3-pointers. The Tulsa native followed that performance by recording 17 points en route to the team's 34-point win over Rice Sunday. This is Mayberry's second career Freshman of the Week honor. She also earned the award on Dec. 14.

2009-10 C-USA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY HONORS
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
N16 Pauline Love, Southern Miss
N23 Courtney Taylor, Houston
N30 Brittany Carter, Memphis
D7 Jackie Stanley, Rice
D14 Sviatlana Trukshanina, UTEP
D21 Emma Cannon, UCF
J4 Larrissa Williams, Tulsa
J11 Tynikki Crook, Marshall
J18 D'Frantz Smart, Rice
J25 Brittany Gilliam, SMU
F1 Kendra King, Marshall
F8 Courtney Taylor, Houston and Dietra Caldwell, UTEP
F15 Larrissa Williams, Tulsa

FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
N16 Jala Harris, UAB
N23 Nicole Dickson, Memphis
N30 Danielle Johnson, Southern Miss
D7 Jessica Goswitz, Rice
D14 Taleya Mayberry, Tulsa
D21 Gevenia Carter, UCF
J4 Amber Jones, UAB
J11 Jala Harris, UAB
J18 Jala Harris, UAB
J25 Jala Harris, UAB
F1 Jala Harris, UAB
F8 Anete Steinberga, UTEP
F15 Taleya Mayberry, Tulsa

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