Down By The Bayou: Orange Arrives At NCAA Tournament
3/20/2008 6:30:37 PM | Women's Basketball
BATON, ROUGE, La. – The Orange women's basketball team plane touched down in Baton Rouge, La., at 4:27 ET time on Thursday, 46 hours before the team plays Hartford on Saturday, March 22 at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET. The contest, which will be televised on ESPN 2, is the fourth NCAA Tournament game all-time for SU. Syracuse enters the 2008 tourney as a seven seed in the Oklahoma City Bracket after registering a program-best 22 NCAA regular season wins (22-8). Hartford, a 10 seed, qualified for its third tournament in four years with a 26-7 overall record.
"We're really excited to be here and have the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament," said veteran guard Cintia Johnson. "For me as a junior, I'm just so excited to be in this situation for the first time and I know our team is going to play hard, so hopefully we're playing some more games."
The Orange will enjoy the rest of the evening before getting back in the swing of things on Friday, which includes media day and the team's first practice in the Bayou.
"I expect our whole intensity level to be high at practice tomorrow," said freshman guard Tasha Harris. "We are here now, so we need to be ready to play and work hard to get ready for Hartford."
The last time the Orange was in Louisiana, it came away with the Taco Bell Warhawk Classic championship (Dec. 1-2) with wins against Eastern Kentucky (88-67) and Louisiana Monroe (69-56). Junior guard Chandrea Jones was named the tournament's most valuable player after posting a career-high 27 points against Eastern Kentucky and following up with 15 points and 10 boards at Louisiana Monroe.
Sophomore guard Nicole Michael joined Jones with tournament honors by being selected to the all-tournament team. The Queens, N.Y. native followed a 14-point performance versus Eastern Kentucky with 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocks at Louisiana Monroe.
Jones and Michael are two of four offensive weapons that are averaging in double-digits scoring. Jones leads the team with 15.2 points, while Michael is fourth with 12.0 points per outing. Freshman guard Erica Morrow is second with 13.8 points and senior forward Fantasia Goodwin is third with 12.2 points per game.
Behind the scoring power of those four and contributions from student-athletes such as sophomore Vionca Murray (7.1), senior Vaida Sipaviciute (4.7) and Harris (3.8 assists per game), this season's squad is second all-time in Syracuse history with 2,150 points and 71.7 points per contest in 30 games. The team trails only the 1980-81 club, which posted 2,447 points and 72.0 points per game in 34 outings.
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