Tulane opens WNIT play Friday against Illinois State

Let's play a few more!

🔗 – https://t.co/d3vLEoT5og#NOLABuilt | #RollWave 🌊🏀 pic.twitter.com/BptS6R4ibq

— Tulane Women's Hoops (@GreenWaveWBB) March 16, 2021

When: Friday, March 19 | 8 p.m.

Where: Collierville, Tenn. | My Town Movers Fieldhouse

Watch: FloHoops

Radio: WRBH 88.3 FM | Listen Live

Notes: Tulane (PDF)

Live Stats: Sidearm Stats

Social: @GreenWaveWBB

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University women’s basketball team will open the 2021 WNIT on Friday, March 19, at 8 p.m. against Illinois State in Memphis, Tenn.

SERIES HISTORY – ILLINOIS STATE
• The Green Wave and the Redbirds have twice in program history with the series tied at 1-1.
• The teams last met in the 2008 Preseason WNIT with Tulane taking a 75-62 win in New Orleans.
• The first meeting came in came in 1982 with Illinois State winning 89-54.
• Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton has collected a 7-2 record against teams in the Missouri Valley Conference.

SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
• Illinois State enters the WNIT with a 15-7 overall record. The Redbirds finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference this season behind Missouri State and Drake.
• Illinois State is coming off a 61-60 loss to Loyola Chicago in Missouri Valley Conference.
• The Redbirds led the Valley in defense only allowing teams to score 56.5 points per game. Illinois State also held opponents to 37.8 percent shooting.
• On offense, the Redbirds were tops in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage at .373 and second in total field goal percentage at .450.
• Senior guard Juliunn Redmond leads the way with 14.0 points
per game to rank eighth in the conference. She also leads the team and ranks eighth in the conference with 6.3 rebounds a game.
• Redmond ranked second in the conference in shooting percentage at .470.
• Junior guard Terrion Moore adds 10.9 points per game.
• Redshirt sophomore guard Mary Crompton chipped in 10.8 points and led the Valley in 3-point field goal percentage at .453.
• Sophomore forward DeAnna Wilson snags 5.9 rebounds per game and adds 9.0 points.
• Illinois State head coach Kristen Gillespie is in her fourth season
on the bench for the Redbirds and has posted a 66-45 mark since arriving.
• She has also made stops at Lewis and Benedictine and owns a 171-110 career record.

CARDIAC WAVE
• The Olive and Blue have had 36 of their last 54 games decided by 10 points or less dating back to last season. The Green Wave are 15-20 in those games.
• Within those 35 games, 24 were decided by five points or less. Tulane is 14-10 in games decided by five points or less dating back to last season, including going 2-1 in games that finished with the exact final score of 64-62.
• Although the Wave have played many close games in the last two seasons, Tulane has only played two overtime games in that time. The Olive and Blue beat Tulsa Jan. 8, 2020 and fell to Houston Feb. 1, 2020 in overtime last season.
• The Green Wave also had a knack for mounting double-digit comebacks last season. Tulane started the trend in the second game of the season as it overcame an 18-point deficit at Washington to take a 64-62 win over the Huskies.
• The Green Wave mounted 17-point comebacks at both Southern Miss and SMU as well.

JOINING THE 600 CLUB
• Tulane women’s basketball coach Lisa Stockton became just the 77th NCAA women’s basketball coach to win 600 games in her career. Stockton is the 19th active Division I head coach with 600 wins.

JORDAN SETS RECORDS
• Freshman JerKaila Jordan won seven American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week awards this season.
• Jordan now holds the all-time conference record for freshman of the week awards by a single player.
• She joins Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers as the only freshmen in the nation to post back-to-back-to-back games of 28 or more points this season.
• Jordan and Bueckers are the only two freshmen in the nation averaging at least 16.0 points, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals while shooting 48.0 percent or better from the field.

FRESHMAN LEADS THE WAY
• Freshman JerKaila Jordan currently leads the Green Wave with 16.6 points, 31 made threes and 54 steals.
• She is second on the team with 66 assists and 18 blocked shots.
• Jordan has scored in double figures in 21 of the Green Wave’s 25 games.
• The New Orleans native is third all-time in total points among freshmen in program history. She currently has 416 points on the year. Her 16.6 points per game are first all-time among freshmen.
• The freshman guard had a career day against UCF on Feb. 17. She scored a then-season-high 28 points on 9-17 from the field and 4-9 from three. This is the most points a Tulane freshman has scored since stats were readily available.
• Jordan followed that performance up with 29 points on 11-21 shooting and 6-7 from the free throw line at USF.
• She continued her hot streak with 29 points on 13-22 shooting from the floor and 3-5 from three at Memphis.

TULANE FRESHMEN SCORING RECORDS
Player, Year – Points (# of Games)
1. Barbara Farris, 1994-95 – 438 (28)
2. Grace Daley, 1996-97 – 432 (32)
3. JerKaila Jordan, 2020-21 – 416 (25)
4. Stacey Gaudet, 1983-84 – 415 (28)
5. Kolby Morgan, 2014-15 – 401 (33)

FREEMAN NAMED ALL-CONFERENCE
• Senior Krystal Freeman was named Third Team All-AAC after the 2020-21 regular season. This marks the third time in her career the conference has honored her with an all-conference award.
• Freeman previously earned second team all-conference in both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. She became only the sixth player in program history to earn all-conference honors three times in their career. She joined the likes of Barbara Farris, Grace Daley, Janell Burse, Danielle Blagg and Kolby Morgan.

AMBASSADOR CHEATHAM
• Senior Sierra Cheatham was named the Ambassador Award winner by the American Athletic Conference the past three seasons.
• Cheatham is the only person to win the award three times in conference history.
• The award is given annually to the student-athlete who most exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship on the court – ethical behavior, fair play and integrity – along with community service off the court.

FREEMAN JOINS THE 1,000-POINT CLUB
• Senior Krystal Freeman scored the 1,000th point of her career as she connected on a jumper from the wing against UCF in the third quarter of the Green Wave’s league opener on the road.
• Freeman became the 29th player in program history to surpass 1,000 points. She currently ranks 13th in scoring in program history with 1,253 points.
• The Pineville, La., native currently sits 10th all-time in program history with 701 rebounds. She became just the eighth player to score 1,000 points and grab 700 rebounds in program history with her 10th rebound against USF on March 10.

STOCKTON THE LEGEND
• Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton has amassed 602 NCAA wins in her 30-year coaching career. This number currently ranks 19th among all active Division I coaches. Stockton has the most wins of any coach in the American Athletic Conference.

WINS AMONG ACTIVE COACHES
1. Tara VanDerveer, Stanford – 1,119
…
17. Delaney Smith, Harvard – 617
18. Mike McLaughlin, Penn – 606
19. Lisa Stockton, Tulane – 602

MORE THAN A QUARTER CENTURY WITH COACH
• Now in her 27th year with the Green Wave women’s basketball program in 2020-21 it’s hard to imagine anyone else at the helm besides Coach Lisa Stockton. Her numbers are staggering: three different conferences, four conference tournament championships, two conference regular-season championships, six All-Americans, 11 NCAA Tournament berths, seven WNIT spots and 539 wins. No one in the history of Tulane women’s basketball is even close to Stockton’s career numbers.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Coming up soon:
• Krystal Freeman is 49 rebounds from 750.
• Sierra Cheatham is 96 points from 800.
• Kaila Anderson is 18 assists from 300.
• Arsula Clark is 65 rebounds from 700.
• Clark is two assists from 300.

THANK YOU, SENIORS
• Tulane seniors Arsula Clark, Kaila Anderson, Krystal Freeman and Sierra Cheatham will be honored for senior day. Anderson, Freeman and Cheatham have spent four seasons with the Green Wave, while Clark has played two seasons Uptown.
• The four seniors have combined for 2,976 points, 1,452 rebounds and 648 assists in their careers for the Green Wave.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS
• The Green Wave will face either Ole Miss and Samford in the next round of the WNIT.
• Tulane and Samford have met twice in program history with both teams winning one game. The Green Wave took the last meeting between the two teams 58-56 in the 2014 Tulane Classic.
• The Bulldogs won 64-55 in the 2005 Tulane Classic.
•Tulane holds a 3-2 advantage over Ole Miss. The Green Wave’s won the last game between the two teams 61-59 in 2015.
• Ole Miss won 89-66 in 2013 for its last win in the series.

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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