2007-08 Releases

12/13/07
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SOUTHERN UTAH PLAYING AT HOME AND ABROAD THIS WEEK

CEDAR CITY, Utah – Dec. 17 – Southern Utah women’s basketball will return to the friendly confines of the Centrum Arena when the Thunderbirds host the Portland Pilots on Monday night. SUU will then head north for a game at Idaho State on December 20 before breaking for the Christmas holidays.

“We are not shying away from anybody this year,” head coach Steve Hodson said entering the two-game stretch. “Portland is a great team out of the West Coast Conference and Idaho State is picked to win the Big Sky. These games will be great for us as we continue to improve.”

Southern Utah enters the games on a seven-game losing skid after winning its home opener against Concordia. The Thunderbirds have relied on a freshman recruiting class with three true freshman in the starting line-up. The youth movement has proved to be a growing process for SUU, but the team has made strong strides throughout the beginning of the season.

Junior Anne Westwood has proved to be a leader on the team and is averaging the only double double in the Summit League with 11.8 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.

Portland enters the game with a 7-3 record and a game with Utah Valley State on December 15. The Pilots have some impressive wins on their resume, including victories over Washington State and Oregon.

Idaho State will enter the game with Southern Utah with a 5-3 record and games against Oregon State and Lewis-Clark State on December 10 and 14. The Bengals most impressive win this season came against UCLA in Reno, Nev. in a 76-64 victory.

Southern Utah will finish out the 2007 calendar year with games at Colorado on December 28 before ringing in the new year with a matinee game in Cedar City against Portland State on December 31.

Scouting Portland

Portland enters the game with a 7-3 record and a game with Utah Valley State on December 15. The Pilots have some impressive wins on their resume, including victories over Washington State and Oregon.

UP has two players averaging double figures in scoring led by Laiken Dollente with 14.9 ppg and Kendra Morris with 10.3 ppg. Rachel Warren is just behind with 9.9 ppg and leads the team in rebounding with 6.3 boards per contest.

Portland is coached by Jim Sollars who will enter his 22nd year with the program. Over that span, Coach Sollars has amassed a 292-312 record with an overall career record of 469-403.

Portland holds the all-time series advantage with a 3-0 mark.

Scouting Idaho State

Idaho State will enter the game with Southern Utah with a 5-3 record and games against Oregon State and Lewis-Clark State on December 10 and 14. The Bengals most impressive win this season came against UCLA in Reno, Nev. in a 76-64 victory.

ISU is led by senior Natalie Doma, averaging a double-double with 22.3 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. Fellow senior Andrea Lightfoot is also averaging double digits in scoring with 15.5 ppg.

Head coach Jon Newlee is entering his sixth year with the program and has a 78-75 record over that span. Idaho State captured the Big Sky tournament title last year and fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Stanford.

Idaho State owns the all-time series record with a 27-7 advantage.

Last Time Against Portland

T-BIRDS TURNED BACK AT PORTLAND, 64-52

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Three Pilots scored in double figures to help lead Portland to a 64-52 home victory over Southern Utah Monday night at the Chiles Center. The Thunderbirds (0-3) dropped their third-straight to open the regular season, while UP improved to 3-1 on the year.

The Pilots led virtually wire-to-wire, taking early control of the game by outscoring SUU 25-7 through the first 14 minutes of play, including 13-straight points in one stretch as Portland held the Thunderbirds without a point for over six minutes, en route to a 35-19 lead at the half.

Portland would extend that advantage to as many as 21 points at 51-30 with 8:24 to play, but the Thunderbirds kept fighting as they trimmed the deficit to 11 points late, but the hole proved to be too deep to claw out of as the Pilots cruised to the win.

Southern Utah was doomed from the start by poor shooting and turnovers as the T-Birds shot just 26.7 percent (4-of-15) in the opening half, while the club committed 19 of its 28 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. SUU warmed to 45.8 percent (11-of-24) in the second stanza to finish the game at a 38.5 clip on the night. The T-Birds also extended the nation’s third-longest 3-point field goal streak to 293-straight games by going 4-of-7 (.571) from the perimeter and shot a season-best 85.7 percent from the line (18-of-21), while posting season-highs in both makes and attempts.

SUU got balanced scoring from its starting unit as Julie Stradling led SUU with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while Erin McClean chipped in nine points, and Anne Westwood and Charmaine Piula poured in eight points apiece.

Portland guard Laiken Dollente led all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including a 4-of-5 clip from beyond the arc, while Rachel Warren tallied 12 points and Laura Thomas finished with 10 points off the bench. UP shot 37.3 percent (19-of-51) from the floor and went 20-of-28 from the line (.714). The Pilot also outrebounded the T-Birds, 33-26, including a 13-4 count on the offensive glass.

In Case you Missed it...

LADY THUNDERBIRDS COMPLETE ROAD SWING WITH 78-56 LOSS AT OAKLAND

ROCHESTER, Mich. – Dec. 8 – Southern Utah women’s basketball dropped a 78-56 decision to Oakland University in the team’s final leg of a two-game road swing on Saturday night. Oakland used fresher legs, playing in its first game of the week to improve to 5-2 and 1-0 in the Summit League while the Thunderbirds fell to 1-7 and 0-2 in the conference.

Oakland utilized its home court advantage to build a lead of 18-9 midway through the half for its greatest advantage during the first 20 minutes. The Thunderbirds countered and slowly whittled the deficit to two (29-27) with 3:18 remaining on the clock.

However, the Golden Grizzlies capitalized on four steals down the stretch, building a 12-point spread with 21 seconds remaining. SUU’s Kaila Goff hit her second 3-poing field goal of the half with seven seconds left on the clock to put the score of 41-32 going into the halftime break.

Following the intermission Southern Utah got to within six points on Goff’s third 3-point field goal of the night, but it was the closest the ‘Birds came as Oakland built a double-digit lead and held on to the advantage for the rest of the game.

“I think the biggest factor of this game was the fact that this was our second game of the week and the first for Oakland,” head coach Steve Hodson said of the team fatigue. “We got tired, but I think we were able to play with them and sometimes outplay them for 30 minutes tonight.

“Last year they blew us out up here, but this year we put a little bit of fear into them,” Hodson finished.

Goff led all SUU scorers with 12 to set a new career high as Anne Westwood collected a game-high 15 rebounds. Freshman Jamie Sagers also turned in a new career high with eight points off the bench all in the second half.

April Kidd turned in 13 points to lead the Golden Grizzlies with Hanna Reising (12), Jessica Pike (12) and Melissa Jeltema (11) also in double digits. Jeltema also led OU in rebounds with 13.

SUU Quick Notes

• SUU’s fourth longest streak in the nation of 321 consecutive games with a 3-point field goal was snapped against San Diego State when the team shot 0-for-3 from behind the arc •

• SUU was picked to finish ninth in the Summit League in the annual pre-season coaches’ poll •

• Ten players set new career highs in scoring during the 2006-07 campaign •

• SUU began the 2006-07 Mid-Continent Conference season undefeated at home with a perfect 5-0 record. However, the Thunderbirds ended the season winless on the road with an 0-7 mark •

• Junior Anne Westwood and sophomore Aubrey Mackintosh garnered conference postseason awards with a second-team all-conference and all newcomer team honor, respectively •

• Westwood also received kudos to begin the 2007-08 campaign with pre-season all-conference second team honors •

• Freshman Challis Pascucci tied for second place all-time with six blocks against Utah Valley State on Nov. 15 •

• Anne Westwood’s 18 rebounds against Utah Valley State ranks sixth all-time on the record books at SUU •

• Anne Westwood is the only player in the Summit League averaging a double-double per game with 11.8 points and 10.9 rebounds per game •

• Pascucci is ranked fourth in the league in blocks per game with 1.63 swats per outing •

Mid-Continent Conference now The Summit League

ELMHURST, Ill. – May 15 – Mid-Continent Conference Commissioner Tom Douple announced a new direction for the conference in the form of The Summit Plan. A part of the plan included a complete name and logo change for the conference, now known as The Summit League beginning on June 1.

According to a press release from the conference offices: The Summit Plan, which places an emphasis on presidential leadership, seeks to advance the league to one of the premier mid-major conferences in the country. It focuses on student-athlete welfare, academic performance, increased home attendance and improving the league’s rating percentage index (RPI) in all sports.

The release continued: The league plans to recognize the academic achievements of its student-athletes at every opportunity, while seeking to improve the Academic Progress Report (APR) scores of each team. The marketing efforts will be focused on increasing the home attendance, which helps support the student-athletes and provides additional exposure. In addition, the Summit Plan will include a review of staffing, budgeting and scheduling by each member institution to be conducted with the goal of improving the RPI in all conference sports.

“We will be fine tuning the details of the plan during the presidential council meetings in June,” Douple said at a teleconference on Tuesday morning. “This new named fits in perfectly with the Presidents Council’s vision for the continued improvement and growth of the league.”

Southern Utah is one of ten schools that will be a charter member of the Summit League, including Centenary College, IPFW, IUPUI, UMKC, North Dakota State, Oakland, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State and Western Illinois.

Head Coach Steve Hodson

Steve Hodson, a three-time Utah high school coach of the year who has won four state 3A titles, and a Southern Utah University Coaching Hall of Fame inductee, was named the eighth head women’s basketball coach in Southern Utah’s 31-year history on April 26, 2006.

In his first season at the helm in 2006-07, Hodson led the Thunderbirds to a 9-20 record. His nine victories were second all-time at SUU for a first-year coach. Under his watch, two players (Anne Westwood and Aubrey Mackintosh) garnered post-season awards, including second-team all-conference and all-newcomer team honors.

Hodson joined the Thunderbird program following a nine-year stint as athletic director at Cedar City’s Canyon View High School, where he served as head boy’s basketball coach from 1998-00 before taking over the girl’s program from 2001-06. As head girl’s coach, he turned a program which had won 15 games in four years into a state championship team with a 24-1 record in 2006, earning him 3A coach of the year accolades. He led the Falcons to three-consecutive region titles from 2004-06, and posted a 90-26 overall mark, including a 64-9 record in his final three seasons on the Falcon bench.

Hodson was inducted into the SUU coaching Hall of Fame in 2005 and was the 2006 recipient of the SUU Alumni Carmen Rose Hepworth Award. In addition, he received the 2002 Utah High School Men’s Basketball Coaches Association Distinguished Coaches Award and the 1998 UHSAA Distinguished Service 3A Coach of the Year award. Hodson is also the only Utah high school coach to win state boy’s and girl’s titles with three different programs and is one of three Utah prep mentors to have won both boy’s and girl’s state basketball titles.

Hodson began coaching at the prep level as an assistant at CHS in 1977 before moving on to Salt Lake City’s Granite HS in 1978. He then returned to Cedar City the following year to serve as junior varsity head coach at SUU (1979-80) and as an assistant at Dixie College (1980-83) prior to his first head coaching stint at CHS.

Practice Schedule:

Practices are held Monday-through-Friday from 4:30-6:30 p.m., at the Centrum. All practices are open to the public and media, though media members are asked to contact SUU Sports Information Director Neil Gardner with any interview requests both prior to and after any practice session.

SUU On The Air:

All Southern Utah home games and selected road games can be heard live on campus station KSUU-Power 91 FM. The games can also be heard on the World Wide Web at “www.suu.edu/ksuu”.  Video streaming is available during each home game through "www.thesummitleague.org".