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Bobcat Women Look for Momentum in 2006-07
Texas State Preseason Release in PDF Format Texas State plays Houston Elite in Exhibition play Tuesday at 5 p.m. inside Strahan Coliseum. The Bobcats open the regular season Nov. 12 in Austin against Louisiana-Lafayette. Nov. 6, 2006 SAN MARCOS - For the second straight season in San Marcos, Texas State's women's basketball program must find a way to replace an MVP. Tamara Thompson, who answered the call last season, is one of five letter winners gone from the 2005-06 basketball season, in addition to fellow outgoing senior Ally Kelly and juniors-to-be Jenna Hoffman, Hallie Lee and Jeana Hoffman. Texas State will attempt to atone for its losses with four returning upper classmen and three more sophomores, and the `Cats should also see production from an eight-member rookie class that includes five junior transfers. THE SENIORS Putnam established a career-high for points to open last season, scoring 17 in a landmark win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla. The Eagle River, Alaska, native finished the year with averages of 6.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and four times Putnam pulled down double-digits on the glass, including a career-high 15 against Texas-Pan American. Ashley Riley will also provide a senior-spark in the post, with the Cartersville, Ga., native being asked to make a Texas-sized impact on the Bobcat post defense. Riley made two starts in last year's late stages, compiling averages of 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. A career 62.2 percent free throw shooter, Riley was 60.9 percent from the line last season one year after finishing with an 81-percent mark in her sophomore season.
Wright could see more time on the perimeter, a year after providing bench depth in the post. Wright's biggest bright spot last season came in Texas State's record-breaking win over UTSA, when the transfer from Central Arizona set the game-tying screen that cut Thompson loose for the tying-basket. ALL-LEAGUE JUNIOR Joyce Ekworomadu is Texas State's lone representative on the Preseason All-SLC squad, returning a points-per-game average of 13.7, the highest in Texas State's returning lineup. Ekworomadu was listed in a host of Southland statistical categories, while leaving the 2005-06 campaign as Texas State's leader in steals with 45. Last season, Ekworomadu upped her point average by 7.4 points per game, going from 6.4 as a freshman to nearly 14 per game as a sophomore. Ekworomadu's has scored 560 points in her 56-game career to average ten per game. Ekworomadu enters 2006-07 as one of the Southland's top candidates for first-team post-season honors and could contend for player-of-the-year honors by season's end. THE SOPHOMORES Ashley Leffingwell leads the list, coming in as one of the league's top deep shooters and free-throw performers. Leffingwell shot 33.3 percent from outside the three-point arc, and as a freshman, the Allen, Texas, native was Texas State's top free-throw shooter at 80 percent from the stripe. She was also the team's top scoring freshman at 5.8 points per game. Texas State's only returning point guard is also a sophomore, as Ryann Bradford gained valuable starting experience making seven starts as the club's defensive point guard late in the year. Bradford, who comes from Fort Worth, could be asked to up her scoring abilities after averaging only 2.3 points per game and attempting only one three-point shot on the season. Kia Palmer finishes the returning sophomore class as the team's only sophomore post player and the only non-Texan sophomore, hailing from Miami, Fla. Palmer will provide depth for the Bobcats in the post and especially on the glass, after topping four rebounds in her first seven games and averaging 2.3 boards per game. Texas State's three sophomores could be a large key for the `Cats, who will break in eight newcomers, seven of which are eligible to play this season. THE NEWCOMERS Aimee Hilburn comes with a laundry list of accolades, including being named the Albuquerque Journal's New Mexico Female Athlete of the Year. Hilburn is joined in the freshman class by Fort Worth guard Victoria Davis and Houston-wing Zenetta Potts. Hilburn and Potts could provide scoring minutes early in the season, while Davis could challenge for time in the backcourt with her ball-handling and defensive abilities. Texas State has one junior - Topeka, Kan., native Sarah White - who must sit out the 2006-07 season to fulfill transfer requirements from the University of Nebraska. Janesha Washington and Ashley Banks come to Texas State from Chicago, Ill., by way of Compton (Calif.) Community College and could both end up being Southland Conference scoring threats. Marie Moser comes with a junior college national title under her belt, helping Illinois Central College to the NJCAA Division II national title last season. Moser, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is one of Texas State's more cerebral players and will provide solid depth in the paint this year for Texas State. Texas State's final cog in the newcomer regime is Brooke DeGrate, a native of Amarillo, who played for a national title as a freshman and helped her team to a 25-win season as a sophomore at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. Texas State's incoming class will most certainly be asked to come up with valuable minutes, as the group represents better than half of the upcoming Bobcat roster. THE OPPOSITION Prior to beginning conference play, the Bobcats travel to UTPA and Miami, as well as one more trip to Edinburg for the Battle at the Border, where Texas State will play UTPA and Maryland-Baltimore County. SLC play begins Jan. 4 at Northwestern State. TEXAS STATE HEAD COACH Suzanne Fox Before to coming to Texas State, Fox was the head coach at Abilene Christian for five seasons. Fox also served as Senior Woman Administrator at ACU for her last four years with her alma mater. In her time as the Wildcats' head coach, Fox coached two National Players of the Year and two First Team All-Americans in addition to winning two LSC Titles. In addition to the conference titles and awards for her players, Fox brought home her own hardware in 1996, when she was named the 1995-96 WBCA National Coach of the Year. In her playing days at Abilene Christian, Fox was a four-time letter winner and still ranks seventh on the Abilene Christian all-time scoring list Presently, Fox serves as the chair for the Carol Eckman Award committee. The award will be given to an active WBCA coach who best demonstrates the character of the late Carol Eckman, the mother of the collegiate women's basketball national championship. Fox has served as a clinician for the NCAA's Youth Education Sports Program (YES) at the WBCA National Convention, and the Bobcat head coach was the WBCA Conference Captain for the Southland Conference for the last four years. 2005-06 IN REVIEW The Bobcats notched blow-out wins over Texas-Permian Basin, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, Huston-Tillotson and Schreiner before a dramatic two-point win over Texas-Pan American inside Strahan Coliseum. The game went back-and-forth into the final minute, before Jenna Hoffman nailed a three at the buzzer to clinch the 67-65 Texas State win. During the stretch, Texas State won by 30 or more points five times and produced four 80-plus point games, including one over 90 and one over 100. THOMPSON MVP Both totals ranked Thompson third in the Southland Conference, and the senior finished within the league's category leaders in three more categories, including the SLC's tenth-best field-goal percentage and the league's sixth-best blocked shot total. Thompson made 21 starts on the year and failed to reach at least ten points only twice, first against Nebraska on Dec. 20 and then again against Texas-Pan American on Dec. 29 in back-to-back contests on the road. Thompson finished the season with Texas State's 16th-best single-season scoring total, while her 29 blocks in 2005-06 ranked ninth all-time in the Bobcat record book. INJURY SIDELINES NO. 50 FOR NINE Putnam's rebounding average would have reached the SLC's top 15 had it stood, but the junior did not meet the league's 75-percent games played minimum to qualify for statistical categories. The Eagle River, Alaska, native finished the year with 129 total points and 124 rebounds, including 78 on the defensive glass. She also finished the season at 55 percent from the foul line and 42 percent from the field with ten blocks and 13 steals. `CATS CLOSE ON HOT NOTE The wins over Southeastern Louisiana and Nicholls State avenged earlier-season losses, which came in back-to-back Pelican State road games in February. The season-finishing streak was good enough to earn Texas State a share of the SLC's fourth seed, and after a tie-breaking situation was resolved, the Bobcats were awarded a final home game after splitting the seed with Louisiana-Monroe. The tournament appearance was the seventh-straight for the `Cats under Suzanne Fox. EKWOROMADU BREAKS OUT EARLY She also finished the year with Texas State's third-best field-goal percentage (.437), and the Coppell native was one of only five Bobcats to top 70 percent from the foul line in 2005-06. Ekworomadu earned Second-Team All-Southland Honors to end the season, narrowly missing the league's first team by compiling the second team's top number of all-league votes. BOBCATS 2ND IN SCORING OFFENSE Additionally, Texas State finished the season undefeated when topping the 70 points, going 12-0 when reaching 70 points and 5-11 when failing to hit 70 points in a game. Texas State was also undefeated in 2005-06 when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than its opponents (12-0) and when controlling the opening tip, which happened only six times in 28 basketball games.
LEFFINGWELL LEADS ROOKIE CLASS
The Bobcat freshman also finished with the team's top free-throw percentage, hitting 28-of-35 from the foul line to stand at 80 percent at the end of the 2005-06 season. COMEBACK SPARKS NCAA RECORD AT UTSA The comeback set an NCAA record, which had been previously held by Oregon, who erased a Arizona's lead to claim a spot in the record book. The record earned Texas State a spot in the `NCAA News', a publication put out by the NCAA, as well as stories on CNNSi.com, ESPN.com and several national publications.
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