DePaul University Athletics
Women's Basketball Closes Exhibition Schedule
11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
CHICAGO - The DePaul women’s basketball team wraps up the exhibition portion of the preseason against the University of Chicago Friday evening at McGrath Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. with the DePaul men’s team hosting Lewis in the second half of the exhibition doubleheader.
Following Friday’s exhibition game, DePaul opens the 2008-09 regular season in Albuquerque, N.M., for the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Classic. The Blue Demons face Idaho State, Alcorn State and host New Mexico in the four-team, round-robin tournament.
DePaul opened the exhibition schedule with a 87-61 win over Saint Xavier on Oct. 31. The Blue Demons opened up the game midway through the first half with a 18-3 run and led by as many as 27 points in the second half. Deirdre Naughton led all scorers with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds while Natasha Williams added 15 points and Keisha Hampton chipped in 10 off the bench.
Checking on Chicago: The University of Chicago enters Friday’s game ranked 10th in the preseason USA Today ESPN Top 25 Division III Coaches’ poll and No. 11 in the D3hoops.com poll. A year ago, the Maroons put together the most successful season in program history with a school-record 22 victories. They finished the season with a 22-6 record and went 11-3 in the University Athletic Association while finishing the season in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen.
What’s Back: The Blue Demons aim for their seventh straight NCAA Championship appearance in 2008-09. DePaul finished last year with a 20-12 record for the program’s 16th 20-win season and the fifth in the last six campaigns. DePaul is just one of 17 programs to play in each of the last six NCAA Tournaments and the run is a program record passing the four-year NCAA streak from 1990-93.
With the loss of five seniors from last season, DePaul returns just 53 percent of its scoring from a year ago. However, two of the top three scorers are back with junior Deirdre Naughton averaging 15.1 points and senior Natasha Williams averaging 10.0 points per game. Naughton also led the Blue Demons with 67 three-pointers and was an honorable mention All-BIG EAST honoree as a sophomore. Williams led DePaul with 6.5 rebounds per game and 47 blocked shots while the team brings back 51 percent of the rebounding from last season.
Other returning players include seniors Erin Cattell and Holly Medley along with junior China Threatt and sophomores Felicia Chester, Taylor Pikes and Sam Quigley. Threatt and Quigley missed part and all of last season with knee injuries. Threatt played 26 games before her injury at Rutgers while Quigley missed the entire 2007-08 campaign. Pikes, the only true freshman a year ago, averaged 3.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in just over 11 minutes per game, and Chester was second on the team with 24 blocked shots. Cattell saw action in 28 games while Medley played in 25 contests.
What’s New: The Blue Demons welcome a six-member class of newcomers this season consisting of five freshmen and one transfer. Junior Rachel Pierson sat out the 2007-08 season after transferring from Iowa State. She played in 35 games for the Cyclones as a redshirt freshman in 2006-07. The freshmen class includes Keisha Hampton of Philadelphia, Danielle Havel from Carmel, Ind., Maureen Mulchrone and Deanna Ortiz of Chicago, and Courtney Webb from Benton Harbor, Mich. DePaul added Jennifer Juergens in September 2008 and she will sit out the 2008-09 season under NCAA guidelines. The Bourbonnais, Ill., native has two seasons of eligibility starting with the 2009-10 campaign.
Naughton Named Honorable Mention Preseason All-BIG EAST: DePaul junior guard Deirdre Naughton was named a preseason honorable mention All-BIG EAST honoree while the Blue Demons were picked by the league’s coaches to finish eighth.
Connecticut picked up 14 first-place votes to get the nod as preseason favorite. The Huskies were followed by Rutgers, Louisville, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh for the top five. Maya Moore of Connecticut was selected as the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year and Rutgers’ April Sykes was named the Preseason Freshman of the Year.
Who, When and Where: The Blue Demons open the season in Albuquerque, N.M., in the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tourney. DePaul faces Alcorn State, Idaho State and host New Mexico in the three-day round-robin tournament, Nov. 15-17. The home portion of the schedule opens with the annual DePaul Invitational, Nov. 21-22, at McGrath Arena. The Blue Demons host Southern, Hartford and nationally-ranked Duke. The Blue Demons visit defending NCAA Champion Tennessee and also travel to Loyola-Chicago, Missouri State and Illinois-Chicago. Home non-conference games include Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Northwestern, Northern Illinois and UW-Green Bay. A total of 13 2008-09 opponents played in the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Blue Demons face five teams that at least reached the Sweet 16 a year ago in the first six conference games. The league-opening stretch starts with two Sweet 16 opponents in a road game at Louisville followed by a home game against Notre Dame. DePaul then goes on the road at Pittsburgh (Sweet 16) and Connecticut before hosting Providence and Rutgers. The Huskies advanced to the Final Four last season after defeating Rutgers in an Elite Eight matchup.
Following the opening three-week stretch, the Blue Demons host Georgetown, Marquette, Seton Hall, USF and West Virginia while traveling to Cincinnati, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Syracuse and Villanova. All 16 BIG EAST teams venture to Hartford, Conn., for the 2009 BIG EAST Championship, Mar. 6-10.
Noting the Blue Demons: DePaul enters the 2008-09 season with a 609-364 (.626) all-time record... the 2008-09 campaign is the 35th season of women’s basketball at DePaul University... the Blue Demons have put together at least one 10-game winning streak in four of the last five campaigns... with a record-setting 252 three-pointers in 2007-08, DePaul has made at least 200 three’s in a season in nine straight years... since the start of the 2003-04 season (159 games), the Blue Demons have held 62.3 percent of their opponents to less than 70 points (99-of-159)... in that span, DePaul is 86-13 (.869) when holding opponents to less than 70 points... in the last four seasons, the Blue Demons are 92-37 (.713)... in the last 45 home games against conference opponents, DePaul has posted 37 victories... over the last eight seasons (252 games), DePaul has scored at least 80 points in 92 games... the Blue Demons hold an 87-5 (.946) record in those games... in the same span, DePaul is 40-1, including 38 straight wins, when scoring at least 90 points.
Marching Along: DePaul has tallied six straight NCAA Championship appearances and 13 appearances overall. The current six-year streak is the longest in program history ahead of DePaul earning four straight berths from 1990-93. That four-year run was followed by three straight appearances from 1995-97. The program is 7-13 all-time in NCAA action and 4-6 since 2003, including the 2006 NCAA Regional Semifinal in San Antonio, Texas. The program is one of 14 schools to play in the postseason in at least 17 of the last 20 years and is just one of 17 programs to play in each of the last six tournaments.
