Unbeaten Titans Host LMU Looking to Continue Roll
Nov. 18, 2011
FULLERTON, CA -
THIS WEEK...
Loyola Marymount at Cal State Fullerton
Nov. 21, 2011 | 7 p.m. PST
Titan Gym (4,000)
Coverage: Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video
TIP-OFF: A busy Thanksgiving week opens with a non-conference contest on Monday night (Nov. 21) at 7 p.m. as the Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team (2-0 overall) plays host to its second straight West Coast Conference opponent in Loyola Marymount 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.
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT BRIEFLY: The Lions have opened the season 0-2 overall following losses to Denver and Cal State Northridge with a contest at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday (Nov. 19) looming before their visit to Orange County... LMU is shooting 39 percent from the field and averaging 58.5 points per game while opponents are averaging 75.0 ppg and shooting 43 percent from the floor... junior forward Alex Cowling leads the offense, averaging 22.5 ppg and shooting .528 from the field to go with 8.0 rpg... freshman forward Emily Ben-Jumbo (10.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and junior guard Monica DeAngelis (10.0 ppg) are also in double figures... Julie Wilhoit is in her 17th year as head coach at LMU, owning a 224-241 (.482) mark with the Lions, posting double-digit win totals in each of the last 12 years... LMU returns three starters and six letter winners off of last year's squad that finished 11-18 overall and 5-9 in the WCC (t-6th).
SERIES NOTES: LMU leads the all-time series with Cal State Fullerton, 8-5... after winning five of the first six games in the series, the Titans have lost the last seven-straight meetings with the Lions... Fullerton's last win came in 1997, posting an 80-66 victory at Titan Gym, where it is 2-4 all-time against LMU... the Titans have lost the last three meetings with the Lions at home dating back to that victory... Cal State Fullerton is 35-52 (.402) all-time against West Coast Conference schools, snapping a four-game losing streak with its win over Pepperdine on Wednesday night.
START ME UP: Wednesday's win over Pepperdine improved the Titans to 2-0 to start a season for the second time in the last three campaigns, but only the third time in the last 15 years. A win Monday night over Loyola Marymount would give Fullerton its best start since the 1996-97 season when it opened 3-0 and went on to post wins in five of its first six contests en route to a 10-16 overall record. The Titans have opened 3-0 only four times (1981-82, 1982-83, 1991-92, and 1996-97) since the NCAA began sponsoring women's championships with the 1981-82 season.
LUCKY SEVEN?: Cal State Fullerton's win over Pepperdine on Nov. 16 snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series with the Waves and hopes that luck holds out for Monday night's contest against Loyola Marymount. The Titans enter the contest also having lost seven-in-a-row to the Lions dating back to 1997.
I'LL TAKE CAREER HIGH'S FOR 15, ALEX: When sophomore Alex Thomas led the Titans with 18 points in an exhibition win over Biola in late October, we were hoping it was a sign of things to come. Wednesday night, Thomas proved us right as she hit on 6-of-10 from the floor and added three rebounds to go with her career-best 15 points in 27 minutes as Fullerton topped Pepperdine, 65-51. The performance was four points better than her previous career high of 11 set against Pacific on Jan. 2, 2011, and marked only the third time in her Division I career that she reached double figures in scoring after her night against the Tigers and 10 points against Long Beach State on Jan. 19, 2011.
OLIVIER DOUBLES UP: Just five days after setting a new career high with 15 rebounds at Sacramento State, redshirt sophomore Mya Olivier took another step in her recovery from injury against Pepperdine, tallying her fourth career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in the Titans' 14-point victory over the Waves. She became the first Fullerton player with a double-double since Ashley Richie scored 10 points and grabbed 11 boards in a 58-56 win at UC Davis on Jan. 2 last season and notched her first double-double since scoring 10 points and 11 rebounds on Nov. 24, 2010, at San Diego.
FUNNY, SHE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A FRESHMAN: Even though she's only two games into her collegiate career, freshman Kathleen Iwuoha has made quite an impression on the Titans' coaching staff, immediately breaking into the starting lineup and providing Fullerton with a reliable scoring and rebounding threat down low. Iwuoha has scored 12 points in each of her first two contests and set a new career high with eight rebounds (six of those on the offensive glass) against Pepperdine on Nov. 16. Of her 14 total rebounds thus far this season, 11 of those have come on the offensive end, while she has hit a team-best 11-of-17 (.647) from the field to go with four assists and three steals.
MILLENIUM WATCH UPDATE: A rather quiet six-point night against Pepperdine has redshirt senior Lauren Chow inching her way toward becoming the 21st player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. Chow, who enters Monday night's game against LMU with 972 points to her name, would join teammate, and fellow senior, Megan Richardson in the club with 28 more points and would move into 20th place on the list with 33 more points, surpassing Joey Ray, who scored 1,004 career points from 1988-92.
SPEAKING OF POINTS: Richardson also had a quiet night in her quest to move up the school's all-time scoring list, scoring just six points to give her 1,275 for her career. Richardson, who currently ranks 10th on the list, needs just 16 more points to surpass Andrea Thieme, who ranks ninth on the list with 1,290 points from 1995-99.
THIS NOTE BROUGHT TO YOU BY WINDEX: Fullerton has done a bang-up job of cleaning the glass this season, outrebounding both opponents thus far this season by double digits and nearly doubling-up the opposition overall, 100-58. The Titans, who are averaging a robust 50.0 rebounds per game as a team through two games, have outrebounded opponents in back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 26-29, 2011, against Cal State Bakersfield (+3) and Long Beach State (+4), ending a string of eight consecutive games of being beaten on the boards in the process. Fullerton's 56 rebounds in its season-opening win over Sacramento State on Nov. 11 marked the team's highest single-game 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.
BALANCING ACT: Despite returning three of their top four scorers from last season, the Titans have done well to spread out the scoring load thus far in 2011-12. Every Fullerton player who played at Sacramento State finished with at least two points and the Titans almost replicated the effort Wednesday against Pepperdine as 10 of the 11 players in the game against the Waves finished in the scoring column.
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.
IRON WOMEN: Chow stands two games away and Richardson is seven 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.
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 94 career games (70 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).
