Fort Meyers, FL–– One week after facing single digit temperatures in the Midwest, the UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team heads to the "Sunshine State" to play the Florida Gulf Coast Classic. On Thursday, the Highlanders face Samford in a 1 pm PT tip, and take on host FGCU on Friday, December 30 at 4 pm PT.
UC Riverside is coming off a pair of six-point losses at the hands of Missouri (68-62) and Kansas (90-84, OT) last week. In both games, the Highlanders had to overcome early deficits, 16-0 at Mizzou, and 11-2 at KU.
Simone DeCoud averaged 24.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists a game in last week's contests. At KU she had her first double-double of the season pouring a career-high 29 points, grabbing 10 boards, and matching her career-best with five makes from three-point range, including a buzzer beating three at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime (box score / recap).
The senior point guard, who entered the week averaging 12.9 points a game, raised her season average to 15.2 a game, and now ranks fifth in the Big West.
Réjane Vérin, who scored two points in just eight first half minutes (3-fouls) at KU, bounced back to finish with a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double in the loss. She leads the team in points (16.9), rebounds (7.7), assists (4.1), and blocks (1.2) per game. Her scoring and rebounding averages both rank third in the conference.
Shooting guard Lauren Holt is shooting over 36 percent (8-22) from long distance over her last four contests, and averaging 14.9 points a game–significantly higher than the 4.3 she averaged in the three previous games.
Malou De Kergret, who matched her career-highs of 11 points and four assists at Kansas, is averaging 8.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists as a starter in the last two games. She has connected on five of her 12 three-point attempts––her last start was in the season opener on November 11.
The Highlanders rank 23rd in the nation in assists averaging 17.7 per game, and 26th in assist to turnover ratio at 1.22, while shooting 37.0 percent from deep––which is good enough for 38th nationally.
Samford (Birmingham, AL) enters this week's classic having won four out of their last six games.
Last Thursday, they won at Georgia in a battle of the Bulldogs , 65-59, and were led by Samantha Fitzgerald, who is the teams top rebounder at 4.4 a game, with 14 points to lead four players in double figures.
Hannah Nichols has started just a pair of games for Samford, but is the team's leading scorer at 14.8 per contest, and has also made a team-best 24 threes this season. Kassidy Blevins is the squad's top shooter at .468 from the field and .370 from long range, where she has connected 20 times this year.
As a team, the Bulldogs shoot .727 from the free-throw line, however they get out rebounded by an average of 7.5 a game, and have 18 more turnovers than assists (180-162) through 12 games played.
Thursday afternoon's match-up will be the first in the history of the programs.
Florida Gulf Coast boasts a 6-0 record at home inside the Alico Arena, where they have notched their last two victories. The Eagles lost in the Championship game of the 2016 WNIT to South Dakota, who UCR played at home on November 25 (L, 61-55).
Depth has been also the key to success for this year's team, as they have seven players getting over 17 minutes a night, while no player sees more than 28 minutes a game on average. FGCU have five players averaging over 8.3 points a game, led by Rosemarie Julien at 10.4.
Taylor Gradnijian holds the team lead with 29 made triples, scores 9.0 points a game, and takes 77 percent (88-114) of her shots from deep.
As a team, the Eagles takes more than half of their shot attempts from three-point range (439-872), and have made 10 or more threes in eight of their 14 games––13 of the 14 players who have seen action this year have made at least two three-pointers.
Defensively, they pick up 9.6 steals a game, and force their opponents into 19.3 turnovers a night. Friday night's battle will also be the first meeting in the history of the programs.
