Waves Visit Titan Gym to Open Home Schedule

Nov. 15, 2011

FULLERTON, CA -

Complete Weekly Release - Pepperdine

THIS WEEK...
Pepperdine at Cal State Fullerton
Nov. 16, 2011 | 7 p.m. PST
Titan Gym (4,000)
Coverage: Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video

TIP-OFF: After rolling to a double-digit win in its season-opener, the Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team (1-0 overall) opens the home portion of its 2011-12 schedule this Wednesday night (Nov. 16) at 7 p.m. as the Titans welcome Pepperdine in the first of back-to-back contests against West Coast Conference schools at Titan Gym.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: For our Arizona faithful, the game time for Fullerton's contest at Northern Arizona on Dec. 4 has been moved to 1:05 PST.

BE A FOLLOWER: Fans can keep up with the latest in Titans athletics by following us on Facebook (CSUF.Athletics), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) and Vimeo.com (vimeo.com/fullertontitans). In addition, the women's basketball team has established its own official Facebook fan page, just search for Cal State Fullerton Women's Basketball.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? GOOD!: Thanks to a partnership with Arizona-based Stretch Internet, select Cal State Fullerton women's basketball contests will be broadcast live over the Internet at FullertonTitans.com. To access the links, click on the headphones icon in the upper right-hand corner of FullertonTitans.com.

I SEE YOU: For the sixth consecutive season, live streaming video for all of Cal State Fullerton's home regular season contests and selected road games will be available (on a subscription basis) live over the Internet courtesy the Big West TV platform. For a monthly subscription of \$9.95 or an annual subscription of \$79.95, fans can catch all the exclusive action from the comfort of their home computers. For more information, please visit www.BigWest.org/TV or access the video player at www.fansonly.com/schools/bigw/allaccess/index.html.

I NEED STATS, STAT!: For the third consecutive season, Cal State Fullerton men's and women's basketball will feature live stats via CBS College Sports' Gametracker interface for all of the Titans' home games as well as select road contests. Links will be available on both the men and women's basketball schedule pages at FullertonTitans.com.

PEPPERDINE BRIEFLY: The Waves enter Wednesday's contest at 0-1 overall after falling in their season opener, 89-57, at No. 3 Tennessee in Knoxville on Nov. 13... Jazmine Jackson led Pepperdine with 17 points (the only player in double figures) as the Waves were held to just 28 percent shooting from the floor... Pepperdine returns 10 letter winners and all five starters off of last season's team that finished 18-12 overall and 9-5 in the West Coast Conference (third place) while advancing to the first round of the WNIT before falling to Oklahoma State, 81-74, in Stillwater, OK... Jackson led the team with 14.0 points per game a season ago while ranking second at 6.1 rpg... the Waves return their top seven scorers from a year ago, including returning starters Lauren Bell (11.5 ppg) and Katie Menton (10.7), who joined Jackson in double figures for the season.

SERIES NOTES: Pepperdine leads the all-time series with Cal State Fullerton, 12-8... the Waves have won the last seven meetings with the Titans, including an 80-52 victory at Firestone Fieldhouse last season... the closest decision during that streak was in 2007 as the Titans fell 68-64 at Pepperdine as, in the other six games, the Waves have posted margins of victory of 6, 29, 48, 13, 18, and 28 points... Fullerton's last win in the series was on Dec. 29, 1994, in Malibu as the Titans edged Pepperdine, 61-59... Fullerton is 3-5 against the Waves at home, but the Titans have lost the last four meetings in Titan Gym dating back to a 74-72 win on Dec. 14, 1991... Cal State Fullerton is 34-52 (.395) all-time against West Coast Conference schools, having lost the last four meetings with league members dating back to a 69-66 win over San Francisco on Nov. 18 last year.

HOME COOKIN': Cal State Fullerton is 27-15 in home openers dating back to the 1969-70 season, having won four of its last five such games, including a 69-66 win over San Francisco last year... the Titans have never opened a home schedule against Pepperdine, but they are 5-6 when opening the home portion of their schedule against WCC squads: 1-0 vs. Gonzaga, 1-2 vs. Loyola Marymount, 0-1 vs. Saint Mary's, 0-3 vs. San Diego, 2-0 vs. San Francisco, and 1-0 vs. Santa Clara.

MILLENIUM WATCH UPDATE: Thanks to her game-high 15 points last weekend, redshirt senior Lauren Chow is inching her way toward becoming the 21st player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. Chow, who enters Wednesday night's game against Pepperdine with 966 points to her name, would join teammate, and fellow senior, Megan Richardson in the club with 34 more points and would move into 20th place on the list with 39 more points, surpassing Joey Ray, who scored 1,004 career points from 1988-92.

SPEAKING OF POINTS: Richardson's somewhat mundane 11-point night against Sacramento State vaulted her into 10th place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,269 career points, surpassing Marlene Kline and her 1,259 career points from 1979-83. Next up for Richardson: Andrea Thieme, who ranks ninth on the list with 1,290 points from 1995-99.

MY, OH MYA: After missing all but eight games following a season-ending leg injury last season, redshirt sophomore Mya Olivier (Laguna Beach, CA/Mater Dei HS) shined in her 2011-12 debut last weekend at Sacramento State, dominating the boards to the tune of a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with seven points, a block, and two steals in Fullerton's, 81-64, victory. Olivier's total edged out her previous high of 14 set at Cal State Bakersfield on Feb. 17, 2010, and helped the Titans to a, 56-32, advantage on the boards - the team's highest rebounding total since grabbing 58 rebounds in a 90-68 win against the Hornets almost two years ago to the day on Nov. 15, 2009.

AWW, SHOOT: Fullerton's offense was on the mark last week at Sacramento state, shooting just under 48 percent (47.7% to be exact) for the contest from the floor en route to the 17-point win - the team's best shooting night since shooting .483 against Cal Poly at home on Jan. 13, 2011 (a span of 14 games).

NAILED IT!: What a debut for freshman forward Kathleen Iwuoha last week against Sacramento State as the rookie finished with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, six rebounds and a pair of assists and steals while playing 17 minutes in her first career start. She led a group of four Titans making their Division I debuts against the Hornets: Tailer Butler finished with four points and five rebounds, Chante Miles added three points and seven rebounds, and Natalie Williams had two points and two rebounds, helping a Fullerton bench that outscored its Sacramento State counterparts, 27-14, for the game.

HOMETOWN HERO NOT NICE TO HOMETOWN TEAM: Junior Alicya Crisp, a Sacramento native (Grant HS), did not treat her hometown team very kindly in her second trip home to Northern California as she finished with 13 points on 4-of-6 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the line to go with three steals in 20 minutes off the bench in last weekend's 17-point Titan victory. Crisp has been dominant against the Hornets in her career, averaging 11.3 ppg and shooting .722 (13-for-18) from the field against Sacramento State, while also averaging 2.3 rebounds and 4.0 steals per game in three career games against the Hornets.

DOUBLE-DIGIT DOMINATION: You know the old saying, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes?" We'd like to add a third -- senior Megan Richardson and double-digit points. The Titans spectacular scoring guard has reached double digits in points in 66 of her 93 career games (71 percent), including 19 career 20-point contests and a 33-point effort against Cal Poly on Jan. 13, 2011. She is one of only three active Fullerton players with at least 10 career double-digit games (Lauren Chow and Mya Olivier) and is one of two active Titans who have reached 20 points in their collegiate careers (Chow).

IRON WOMEN: Chow stands three games away and Richardson is eight games away from playing in 100 career contests -- something only 33 players in the history of the program has accomplished. Last season, Ashley Richie set the all-time record with 122 career games while teammate Lyndsey Grove was right behind her, finishing her career with 119 appearances to both break Genia Miller's previous record of 118 games that had stood since 1991.

THE STREAK CONTINUES: We know we're tempting fate here, but senior Megan Richardson is on a streak. Richardson enters the 2011-12 season having made her last 22 consecutive free throws dating back to last season, not missing since the second half of the Titans' contest at UC Riverside on Feb. 5, 2011. The Manhattan Beach native shot .837 from the line as a junior last season -- the third-best single-season performance in school history -- and, if her career ended today, her mark of .819 (258-for-315) over the last three seasons would be the program's second-highest mark behind only Lyndsey Grove's school-record .828 (256-for-309) performance from the line from 2007-11.

TITANS TABBED FIFTH IN BIG WEST MEDIA POLL: The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the 2011-12 Big West Conference race according to a vote of league media members released by the conference on Oct. 19. The Titans received 107 points to finish just ahead of Orange County rival UC Irvine, which was sixth with 91 points. Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara each received 11 first-place votes, but the Mustangs finished atop the poll with 200 points overall, just nine points ahead of their Central Coast neighbors. UC Davis, which received two first-place nods, and UC Riverside round out the top four with 169 and 120 points, respectively. Cal State Northridge (73 points) in seventh, Pacific (66 points) in eighth, and Long Beach State (63 points) in ninth finish out the poll.

SO, HOW `BOUT THOSE TITANS?: Cal State Fullerton returns three starters and seven letter winners overall from last season's squad that finished 9-21 overall and 5-11 in the Big West Conference for a seventh-place tie. The Titans were the No. 8 seed in last year's conference tournament, falling to Cal Poly, 73-70, in San Luis Obispo in the first round - snapping a streak of four-straight seasons of advancing to at least the second round of the league tournament. Fullerton returns three of its top four scorers from a season ago, led by senior Megan Richardson, who averaged 14.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game en route to her second-straight All-Big West First-Team honor. Sophomore Mya Olivier (7.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg, .450 FG%) returns after missing all but eight games due to a season-ending knee injury as does senior guard Lauren Chow, who averaged 7.1 points and 1.9 rebounds while pacing the team with 98 assists.

RICHARDSON EARNS PRESEASON HONORS: Senior guard Megan Richardson was one of six players voted to the league's preseason all-conference team for the second consecutive season, joining other Big West standouts Abby Bloetscher and Kristina Santiago from Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge's Jasmine Erving, UC Riverside's Tre'Shonti Nottingham, and UC Santa Barbara's Emilie Johnson. Richardson, who was also selected as an alternate to represent the United States on this fall's Pan American Games team, tied for third in the league in scoring, ninth in the league in assists (3.00 apg), fourth in free throw percentage (.837), sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0), and fifth in minutes (32.0 mpg) a season ago.

AN HONOR, INDEED: Richardson's first-team nod in 2011 makes her just the fourth Titan in school history to earn a pair of All-Big West First-Team honors in a career, joining Genia Miller (first-team selection from 1988-91), Claudette Jackson (1990-92), and Toni Thomas (2006-08).

BY THE NUMBERS: Cal State Fullerton returns just 53 percent of its 1,958 points scored, 40 percent of its rebounds, 52 percent of its field goals made, 54 percent of its three-pointers made, 57 percent of its free throws made, 69 percent of its assists, and 56 percent of its steals from a season ago. What does that all mean? We don't know, but numbers are fun.

THAT'S FRESH: Half of Cal State Fullerton's roster this season will have never stepped on the floor at the Division I level as the Titans welcome seven freshmen to the roster in 2011-12 -- the highest total since the 2009-10 squad featured the same number in a class that included current Titans Mya Olivier, Alicya Crisp, and Lauren Bushong.

TOURNEY TESTED: The Titans will face a schedule loaded with postseason participants in 2011-12 as they will face three (with a fourth possible depending out the outcome in Dallas during Thanksgiving weekend) NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago (Arizona State, Gonzaga, and Big West rival UC Davis) as well as five WNIT teams from 2011 in Nevada, Pepperdine, Cal Poly, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Barbara.

CONFERENCE CALL: Along with their requisite slate of eight home-and-home contests against their Big West Conference bretheren, the Titans will take on a diverse schedule that features four West Coast Conference opponents (Pepperdine, LMU, Gonzaga, and San Francisco), two -- perhaps three -- from the WAC (Nevada, Fresno State, and San Jose State), two from the Big Sky (Sacramento State and Northern Arizona), one from Conference USA (SMU), as well as Division I Independent Cal State Bakersfield. Fullerton may also face an Ohio Valley Conference school in Tennessee State depending on how things shake out at SMU's Thanksgiving Tournament in Dallas.

THE ROAD MOST TRAVELLED: Including this weekend's exhibition, the Titans will play three of their first four games within the friendly confines of Titan Gym. That home court advantage won't last for very long, however, as fans will be hard-pressed to catch Fullerton live locally before the end of the year. Following their game against LMU on Nov. 21, the Titans will compete eight of their next 10 on the road save for home contests against national power Gonzaga (Dec. 2) and Nevada (Dec. 10). The road has been unkind to Fullerton as of late as the Titans were just 3-14 in true road contests last season, having lost their last six straight dating back to a 77-65 win at Long Beach State on Jan. 19.

YOU CAN'T TEACH TALL: This year's Titan squad could be one of the longest in recent memory, featuring six players listed at six-feet or taller -- the tallest Fullerton squad since the 2007-08 squad listed seven players taller than six-foot.