SU Women Host Notre Dame Wednesday Night
1/20/2004 7:25:24 PM | Women's Basketball
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Syracuse women's basketball team will try to win its third straight BIG EAST game when it hosts Notre Dame on Wednesday, January 21 at Manley Field House. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Orangewomen have won two straight games and stand at 6-8 overall and 3-1 in the BIG EAST. It is the first time since the 1995-96 campaign that Syracuse has won three of its first four conference games. Following Saturday’s 55-50 win at Providence, the Orangewomen are 2-0 on the road in league play for the first time since the 1989-90 season.
Three players did the majority of the damage at Providence. Julie McBride, Chineze Nwagbo and Lauren Kohn combined to score 50 of the Orangewomen’s 55 points. Nwagbo led the way with a career-best 18 points and 10 rebuonds, her third double-double in four conference games. Kohn hit for 17 points, including five three-pointers, while McBride added 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. The win snapped a two-game losing streak at Alumni Hall and marked the first SU win in the building since January 7, 1999. Syracuse led by as many as 15 in the first half and by 10 at halftime. SU built a 13-point second half advantage, but the Friars went on a 12-2 run to cut the leas to just three. Kohn hit both ends of a one-and-one with less than 30 seconds remaining to put SU ahed by five and seal the win.
McBride and Kohn were honored as the BIG EAST Player of the Week and Co-Freshman of the Week, respectively. McBride averaged 20.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the week, including a game-high 25 points versus Rutgers. McBride scored 15 points and added six rebounds and five assists at Providence. Kohn averaged 11.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in the Orangewomen’s two victories. Against Rutgers she scored six points on two three-pointers. Against Providence, Kohn hit for 17 points on 5-of-7 from three-point range.
Nwagbo has racheted up her play since the beginning of the BIG EAST season. In four conference games, the junior center is second on the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game, 10th best in the conference, and leads the squad and the BIG EAST with 10.5 rebounds per contest. Nwagbo and Notre Dame’s Jacqueline Batteast (19.2 points, 10.0 rebounds) are the only players to be averaging a double-double in BIG EAST play. For the season, Nwagbo is scoring a career-best 8.6 points per game and leads the Orangewomen at 7.0 points per game.
McBride is one of the conference’s most potent scorers. She is second in overall scoring at 17.8 points per game, and leads the BIG EAST with a 19.5 point scoring average in league play. She became only the third Orangewoman ever to cross the 1,400-point mark and now ranks second all-time at SU with 1,413 points.
Kohn is on the verge of averaging double figures, scoring 9.9 points per contest. In her first four league games, the rookie has scored 11.8 points per game and is hitting 41.9 percent of her three-point attempts (13-for-31). Rounding out SU’s top scorers are Rochelle Coleman (7.7 points) and Sarah Wegrzynowicz (6.3 points). Both were held scoreless for the first time this season at Providence.
Notre Dame is coming off an up-and-down week, defeating Connecticut, 66-51, at the Joyce Center on Janaury 13, and then losing on the road at West Virginia, 64-51 on Saturday. The Fighting Irish have been unbeatable at home, owning a 7-0 mark, but are just 2-7 away from home, including 0-2 in the BIG EAST.
Preseason All-BIG EAST first-team Jacqueline Batteast has been stellar in the last two games, averaging 22.5 points and 10.5 rebounds. For the season, she leads the Irish at 15.9 points per game. She is second behind SU’s Julie McBride in conference scoring at 19.3 points a contest. Batteast is also Notre Dame’s top rebounder at 8.3 boards per game. Megan Duffy is the only other UND player averaging double figures at 11.5 points. She also is the team’s main distributor, handing out 4.8 assists per contest. Duffy (28-for-65) and Jeneka Joyce (19-for-43) have combined to make 47 of Notre Dame’s 66 three-pointers this season.
Notre Dame will have a decided height advantage. SU’s starting five averages only 5-9 in height, while the Irish’s smallest player in the starting lineup against West Virginia was 5-7 guard Megan Duffy. UND has five players 6-2-or-taller on its roster.
Notre Dame holds a 14-2 all-time advantage versus the Orangewomen, including a 10-0 mark in BIG EAST regular-season play. The Fighting Irish won last year’s game at Manley Field House, 62-54. SU defeated the Fighting Irish in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament in 2002, snapping a 12-game losing streak to UND.
