NEW ORLEANS - The Southeastern Louisiana women's basketball team will open a season-long four-game road swing by competing in the Four Points by Sheraton New Orleans Airport UNO Lady Privateer Invitational, which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Human Performance Center.
The tournament will open on Friday at 5 p.m. with Richmond (2-5) facing Appalachian State (3-3). The Lady Lions (3-3) and UNO (5-2) will follow at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the losers of Friday's games will play in the consolation contest at 1 p.m. The winners of Friday's games will play for the tournament championship at 3 p.m.
Friday's Southeastern game will be broadcast on the internet only at www.LionSports.net. Saturday's game will be broadcast live in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM and on the internet at www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern enters the tournament having won its last two games. On Tuesday, Southeastern put up its highest scoring output of the season, rolling past William Carey, 79-64. The Lady Lions led by as many as 28 in the second half and never trailed in the contest.
Senior forward Brenita Williams led all scorers with 17 points and was one of four Lady Lions in double figures. Senior center Jazmin Cain scored a career-high 13 points to go with her game-high totals of nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Sophomore forward Kristy Carlin added 11 points, while junior guard Brooke Necaise added 10 points.
Williams heads into the weekend leading the team and ranking near the top of the Southland Conference with 14.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.5 steals per contest. The Cedar Hill, Texas has scored in double figures in each of Southeastern's six games and has two double-doubles to her credit on the year.
Carlin gives Southeastern a pair averaging in double digits with a scoring average of 10.0 points per game. Necaise (8.0 points per game), senior guard Whitnee Miller (7.0 ppg) and senior guard Tina Wilson (6.8 ppg) are the other top scorers for the Lady Lions. Cain is second on the team with 8.3 rebounds per game and leads the Southland Conference with an average of 2.0 blocks per contest.
UNO is coming off a 60-50 win over Southeastern's Southland Conference rival Nicholls State in Thibodaux on Wednesday night. Talisha Young led the Lady Privateers to victory with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Nicholls State was the third SLC team UNO has defeated this season, having dispatched of McNeese State and Northwestern State earlier in the season.
Le'Della English is the leading scorer for UNO with a 17.7 point per game average. Young is right behind her with an average of 13.9 points per game and a team-high 8.8 rebounds per game average.
Friday's game will be the 28th meeting between Southeastern and UNO. UNO holds a 14-13 lead in the all-time series. The two teams last met during the 2001-02 season with UNO winning 94-75. In that contest, a school-record six Lady Lions fouled out and Southeastern had to play the final minute of the contest with only four players on the court. The last time Southeastern defeated UNO was the 1989-90 season with a 78-75 win in Hammond.
Depending on Friday's results, Southeastern will face either Richmond or Appalachian State on Saturday.
Richmond is coming off an 87-66 loss to Notre Dame in its last outing. After winning their season opener, 59-48, over Fairfield, the Lady Spiders have lost five of their last six games.
Christina Campion is the lone Richmond player averaging in double figures, scoring at a 12.1 point per game clip. Johanna McKnight (9.0 points per game), Katie Holzer (8.2 ppg), Kara Powell (7.9 ppg) and Sarah Williams (7.3 ppg) are the other main weapons in Richmond's balanced attack. Nikita Thomas paces Richmond with 6.4 rebounds per game and Powell averages a team-high 3.0 assists per contest.
Appalachian State snapped a two-game losing streak with an 84-61 home victory over Winthrop in its last game. In the victory, Jaime Bennett led four Appalachian State players in double figures, scoring a game-high 18 points.
Whitney Tossie leads the Mountaineers with a per game average of 17.3 points. Tossie, Maria Grimes (13.7 points per game). Bennett (12.3 ppg) and GiGi Thomas (11.5 ppg) give ASU a quarter of players with double digit scoring averages. Bennett leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game and Tossie has dished out 5.2 assists per contest.
Southeastern has never faced Appalachian State or Richmond in school history. The two teams are the only teams on Southeastern's 2006-07 schedule that the Lady Lions have not previously faced.
Following the tournament, the Lady Lions will take off next week to concentrate on fall semester finals, before returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. against Centenary in Shreveport.
