University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Close Out 2008 With Road Game At Gonzaga
December 29, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2008
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| December 30, 2008 - 8:00 p.m. ET McCarthey Athletic Center (6,000) - Spokane, Wash. | |||
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| GAME NOTES | |
THE GAME The #8/12-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols (9-2) are in the state of Washington for sophomore Angie Bjorklund's homecoming game at Gonzaga (11-3) on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at the McCarthey Center in Spokane. Tip-off will be at 5:00 p.m. PT and the game will be televised on FSN. LADY VOLS AT A GLANCE LADY VOLS AT A GLANCE This is the Lady Vols' 35th season under Head Coach Pat Summitt...She has compiled a staggering 992-184 overall record... Is just eight wins away from a remarkable 1,000 career victories...Collected her 900th coaching win with a 80-68 decision over #19-ranked Vanderbilt on Jan. 19, 2006... She passed Dean Smith (879 wins) for most NCAA collegiate basketball wins of all-time with a 75-54 victory over Purdue on Mar. 22, 2005 ...Her 2006-07 and 2007-08 squads were crowned as the NCAA Champions producing the program's seventh and eighth titles...Last season, UT fi nished with a 36-2 overall record and were also the SEC Tournament Champions... This season, UT returned fi ve letterwinners, a redshirt freshman and welcomed a talented six-pack rookie class...The 2008-09 season marked the Lady Vol debut for freshmen: #1 Briana Bass, a 5-2 guard from Indianapolis, Ind., #10 Amber Gray, a 6-1 forward/center from West Chester, Ohio, #15 Alicia Manning, a 6-1 guard/forward from Woodstock, Ga., #25 Glory Johnson, a 6-3 forward from Knoxville, Tenn., #33 Alyssia Brewer, a 6-3 forward from Sapulpa, Okla. and #40 Shekinna Stricklen, a 6-2 guard/forward from Morrilton, Ark. -- all have seen their fi rst action in the Orange and White this season. A redshirt freshman, #52 Kelley Cain, a 6-6 center from Atlanta, Ga., restarted her rookie season after undergoing surgery in December 2007. OUR SCHEDULE THIS WEEK Tennessee has two games this week following a four day break for the Christmas holidays. The Lady Vols started the week by traveling cross country to Spokane, Washington to take on Gonzaga for sophomore Angie Bjorklund's homecoming game on Dec. 30. The team then packs up and heads East for a Jan. 3, 2009 game at #15/14 Rutgers. ON THIS DAY IN LADY VOL BASKETBALL HISTORY UT is 7-2 all-time on December 30 featuring a 2-0 record at home, a 3-1 slate on the road and a 2-1 mark on neutral courts. The last time the Lady Vols were in action on this date, Tennessee came away with a 78-54 win over Notre Dame in Knoxville in 2006. LOOKING BACK Last year at this time, the #1-ranked Lady Vols were 10-1 on the campaign having defeated UT-Chattanooga in the season-opener, 76-56, #9-ranked Oklahoma 70-67, #21 Texas, 92-67, #15 West Virginia, 67-49, Louisiana Tech, 81-60, #5 North Carolina, 83-79, #25 Old Dominion, 83-51 MTSU, 84-61, Gonzaga, 96-73, UCLA, 82-70 and then losing to #5 Stanford, 73-69 OT in Palo Alto on Dec. 22. LADY VOLS ON TV Currently, 20 Lady Vol regular season games are slated for television this season. Upcoming TV games include: Gonzaga (FSN), at Rutgers (CBS) and South Carolina (FSN South). Last season, UT had a school record 36 television appearances. UT is 5-2 in TV games this year. COUNTDOWN TO 1,000 The much anticipated countdown to Coach Pat Summitt's 1,000th career victory continues tonight with a game against Gonzaga. Summitt (with 992 wins) now needs just eight victories to hit the magic mark and with such a young team, it will be awfully hard to predict when that could be in 2008-09. Summitt started the year needing 17 victories to reach 1,000. Last season, UT grabbed win number 17 on Jan. 24 vs. Arkansas (98-55) and in 2006-07, win number 17 occurred on Jan. 18 with a victory over Miss. State. Traditionally, Tennessee has reached 17 wins in 20.5 games each season (on average). SEC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK Tennessee freshman Shekinna Stricklen (Morrilton, Ark.) was named Southeastern Conference (SEC) Freshman of the Week for the fi rst time this season, after leading the Lady Vols to a 79-69 upset overtime win over #3/4-ranked Stanford on Dec. 21. After missing the game at Old Dominion on Dec. 18 due to illness, the rookie came back strong to lead the Lady Vols over the Cardinal. She scored a career high 25 points including the first eight of the Lady Vols 11 points in overtime. For good measure, she grabbed seven rebounds, snagged three steals and registered a career high four assists. So far this season, she has played and started in 10 games, is averaging 13.6 points and 5.4 rebounds. In 30.3 minutes of action per game, she is also grabbing 2.6 steals and dishing out 2.5 assists per game. Stricklen joins teammate Glory Johnson who has been named SEC Freshman of the Week twice this season. THE 4-1-1 ON GONZAGA In Gonzaga's last outing, junior Heather Bowman poured in a game-high 19 points to lead the Zags to a 67-38 win over the University of Wyoming at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Wash., on Dec. 22. The Bulldogs improved to 11-3 going into the Christmas break and the Cowgirls dropped to 6-5. Gonzaga held an impressive 35-13 halftime lead, holding Wyoming to just 5-for-22 shooting in the opening half and forcing the Cowgirls to turn the ball over 15 times. The Bulldogs, who had nine players score in the victory, were able to hold their lead above 20 points for the entire second half. Gonzaga largest lead of the contest was 32 and came with 1:10 remaining in the contest when sophomore Claire Raap made a layup, off an assist by junior Vivian Frieson, to put the score at 66-34. Gonzaga outshot Wyoming 33.3 to 26.8, and held a slight 49-45 rebounding advantage. The Zags forced the Cowgirls to turn the ball over 24 times and scored 17 points off those turnovers. The Bulldogs were impressive at the free throw line, sinking 21-of-28. LAST MEETING WITH THE ZAGS Rookie Angie Bjorklund came out on top against her sister, Jami, and helped top-ranked Tennessee remain perfect with a 96-73 victory over Gonzaga on Dec. 16, 2007. The Bjorklund sisters from Spokane Valley, Wash., faced off against each other for the fi rst time in their playing careers, with Angie scoring a team-high and career-best 23 points for the Lady Vols to help them to a 9-0 start in the 2007-08 season. Older sister Jami had 19 points for the Bulldogs. Angie Bjorklund also tied Shanna Zolman's school record with seven three-pointers. She had several chances to break the mark late in the second half, but couldn't connect against her sister's defense. The matchup of the two sisters posed a wardrobe problem for parents Jim and Kris Bjorklund, which was solved with a pair of scissors. They cut t-shirts for each school into halves and sewed the disparate parts together, creating what Jami called "Tenn-zaga" wear. Candace Parker scored 18 points and Nicky Anosike had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Vols, picking up her sixth career double-double. Anosike also cracked into the top-10 for career starts (104). Alexis Hornbuckle (13) and Vicki Baugh (11) reached double figures for the Lady Vols as well. Shannon Bobbitt handed out 13 assists, the most by a Lady Vol since Dawn Marsh on Jan. 11, 1987. With the game tied at nine, Tennessee used a 15-0 first half spurt to take a 24-9 lead eight minutes into the game. The advantage grew to 20 points at the break and as many as 33 during the second half. UT held a narrow rebounding margin (37-35) but scored 28 points off of 23 Gonzaga turnovers to remain perfect against schools from the West Coast Conference. SOLD OUT The Gonzaga-Tennessee game sold-out in advance and will be the fi rst Bulldog women's basketball game to be played in front of a sold out crowd. The Zags-Lady Vols showdown sold out on Oct. 27. The largest crowd for a Zags contest at the McCarthey Athletic Center is 5,825 set against Portland on Feb. 26, 2005. OLDER SIS HURT -- WON'T PLAY Gonzaga University senior Jami (Bjorklund) Schaefer won't get the rematch with little sister Angie, a Tennessee sophomore starting guard. Unfortunately, Schaefer tore the Posterior Cruciate Ligament in her right knee against the University of Wyoming Dec. 22 and will be out for at least six weeks. UT VS. THE WEST COAST CONFERENCE All-time, Lady Vol basketball has faced five schools from the West Coast Conference: Gonzaga (2-0), Portland (2-0), San Francisco (1-0), Santa Clara (1-0) and St. Mary's (Calif.) 1-0 for a 7-0 record. COMMON OPPONENTS Gonzaga and Tennessee share two common opponents this season. Tennessee defeated San Francisco, 68-39, and lost to #15-ranked Virginia, 83-82. Gonzaga will play USF twice in conference play this season and defeated Virginia, 69-62, on Nov. 30. GONZAGA SERIES This marks just the third meeting between the two schools dating back to 2005. In the first meeting between the two schools, the Lady Vols played Gonzaga in their second game at the Paradise Jam tournament in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and came away with a 79-65 victory. Last year in Knoxville, top-ranked UT grabbed a 96-73 decision. LADY VOLS PLAY IN SPOKANE This marks Tennessee's first trip to Spokane. In the state of Washington, the Lady Vols have played in two NCAA Final Fours in Tacoma for their only forays into the state. The Lady Vols lost to Louisiana Tech in the NCAA semis in 1988, 68-59. Tennessee returned to the Tacoma Dome a year later and knocked off Maryland (77-65) and then Auburn (76-60) for NCAA title number two in 1989. Besides facing Gonzaga, the Lady Vols have also recorded a win each over Washington (in the 1988 Rainbow Wahine in Hawaii) and Washington State (in the 1981 Giusti Tournament in Portland, Oregon). TENN-ZAGA Last year in Knoxville, Mom (Kris) and Dad (Jim) Bjorklund sported Tenn-Zaga t-shirts at the game. One-half was a Tennessee shirt and the other half was a Gonzaga t-shirt. BJORKLUND SCOUTING Angie predicts Jami is telling her teammates to pressure her and deny her the ball all over the fl oor. Last year against the Zags, Angie uncorked a (then) career high 23 points while hitting 7-12 treys. Jami tossed in 19 points for GU in the losing effort. SISTER ACTS This is not the first time a Lady Vol has had to face her sister wearing a Bulldog uniform. Back in the 1980's the Collins' girls from Colbert, GA -- Shelia playing at Tennessee and Cynthia playing for the hometown Georgia Bulldogs -- battled seven times from 1981-83 with Tennessee and younger sister Shelia coming out on top by a narrow 4-3 margin. They typically guarded each other and older sister Cynthia fouled out of all games, except one, when trying to contain little sis. On Dec. 12, 1997, UT's Tamika and Illinois' Tauja Catchings squared off in Knoxville with little sis Tamika and the #1 Lady Vols winning, 78-68. Last year in Knoxville, Angie Bjorklund got the better of the Gonzaga Bulldogs and sister Jami when the Lady Vols took a 96-73 win on Dec. 16, 2007. |
