Colorado State University Athletics
Women's Basketball To Battle Portland Sunday
12/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2005
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Up Next: Colorado State will play Portland in Moby Arena on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2:00 p.m. MT. The game with can be heard on the Colorado State Sports Network on 600 KCOL in Fort Collins. Brian Roth will serve as the play-by-play announcer and Corbu Stathes will be the color analyst for the broadcast.
Rams Now 3-1: The Rams defeated Colorado in Moby Arena on Nov. 30 by a score of 86-83. Vanessa Espinoza scored 23 points and Melissa Dennett and Sara Hunter each added 17 points. Colorado State trailed by as many as six in the game before overtaking the Buffs in the second half. Marilyn Moulton scored five of the last six points for Colorado State. The Rams are now 10-27 all-time vs. the Buffs.
Portland Matchup: Colorado State enters the game with Portland leading in the series 3-0. The Rams are 2-0 at home with the most recent game between the two coming in Moby Arena on Dec. 8, 1990. Colorado State won that game 68-61.
Canned Food Drive: Colorado State will be offerring discounted tickets to men's and women's basketball games with the donation of canned food. On Dec. 3 the men's basketball team will face IUPUI at 7 p.m. MT and on Dec. 4 the women's basketball team will take on Portland at 2 p.m. MT. Anyone who brings in two canned items will receive a discounted ticket to the game. Fans taking advantage of this promotion and attending the men's game will receive $6 admission ($4 off regular price) and those attending the women's game will receive admission for $4 ($2 off regular price). The offer is valid only at the door on the day of the game. All donation will go to the Fort Collins Food Bank.
Second Half Scoring: The Rams are averaging 49.3 points in the second half while allowing an average of 40.5 points in the second half.
Bench Scoring: Colorado State's bench outscored Concordia 24-0 in the Rams one win and was outscored 36-2 in Colorado State's one loss.
Game CSU Pts. Opp. Pts.
Concordia 24 0
South Dakota State 2 36
UC-Irvine 37 25
Average In CSU Wins 25.3 17.3
Average In CSU Losses 2.0 36.0
Paint Problems: The Rams have been ouscored this season 78-44 in the paint.
Game CSU Pts. Opp. Pts.
Concordia 24 28
South Dakota State 20 50
UC-Irvine 38 24
Colorado 40 44
Average In CSU Wins 34.0 32.0
Average In CSU Losses 20.0 50.0
Perfection (Or Near It): The Rams have two players that have started the season perfect from the free throw line. The Rams also have two players who have missed only one shot from the charity stripe.
Player FT Made FT Attempts
Sara Hunter 8 8
Lindsay Thomas 7 7
Molly Nohr 12 13
Casie Shepherd 9 10
Scoring 80: The Rams have scored 80 points in three of the first four games and are 3-0 in those games. Colorado State is 165-12 all-time when scoring at least 80 points in a game. The last time Colorado State lost after putting up 80+ was on Jan. 22, 2004 when the Rams lost to UNLV 83-92 in Las Vegas, Nev.
Assist Leader: Molly Nohr leads the team with 23 assists through four games this season and she is averaging 5.8 assists per game. Entering this season ohr had compiled only 66 assists in 50 games for an average of 1.3 per game.
Scored On: Colorado State is giving up an average of 74.8 points per game compared to a season ago when the Rams allowed an average of 60.5 points per game.
Defending The Three: The Rams are allowing only .254 from three-point range this season. The all-time record for three-point percentage defense is .261 set during the 1996-97 season.
Television Trouble: Last season Colorado State was 0-6 in games that were televised. This season the Rams are 1-0 on t.v. picking up a win against Colorado on Nov. 30 in Moby Arena.
Keeping The Ball: The Rams are averaging 16.5 turnovers pergame this season compared to last season when Colorado State turned the ball over 19.0 times a game. Colorado State opened the second half with Colorado without a turnover in the first 12:30 of the half.
Distributing The Ball: Colorado State is dishing out 17.5 assists per game this season compared to an average 15.2 assists last year.
Going To The Stripe: The Rams attempted 44 free throws and made 33 of them against UC-Irvine. The 43 attempts ranks as the fourth most ever attempted by Colorado State in a single game and the 33 made ties for third all-time.
Double Your Pleasure: Lindsay Thomas and Melissa Dennett both tallied double-doubles in the games with South Dakota State and UC-Irvine. Thomas scored 12 and had 10 rebounds while Dennett racked up 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the game with South Dakota State. In the game with UC-Irvine Dennett scored 23 and grabbed 11 boards and Thomas had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Thomas and Dennett had double-doubles in the same game three times last season. The Rams are 4-1 when both Thomas and Dennett record a double-double in the same game.
Going The Distance: Lindsay Thomas played the entire game vs. South Dakota State. The last player to play an entire game was Becky Hammon. Hammon played all 40 minutes of the Colorado State 71-59 victory over CS Northridge in the NCAA Tournament on March 12, 1999.
Dynamic Duo: Lindsay Thomas and Melissa Dennett are on pace to go down as the most prolific shot blocking duo in school history. Dennett has 76 career blocks and Thomas has 70. The tandem of Shannon Strecker and Ashley Augspurger currently are the best blocking tandem in school history with a combined 175 blocks between the two.
Starting Lineups: Colorado State has used the same starting lineup in all four games this season (Nohr, Dennett, Thomas, Hunter, Espinoza). Last season the Rams used six different starting lineups. The combination of Nohr, Hunter, Dennett, Thomas and Espinoza went 1-2 in 2004-2005.
Opening With A Win: Jen Warden continued the trend on a first year coach winning his/her debut game. Both Tom Collen and Chris Denker won their openers. The last coach to lose the first game of his Colorado State career was Greg Williams in 1990. Williams suffered a loss at Weber State 57-75.
Moulton Is Money: Marilyn Moulton made a career-high 11 free throws on 14 attempts from the free throw line in the gamewith UC-Irvine. She scored a career-high 15 points in the game with UC-Irvine in only 10 minutes. In the game with Colorado, Moulton went only 2-6 from the stripe. However, she did make 1-of-2 in the final minute to help seal the Colorado State victory.
Take Care Of The Ball: Colorado State has finished with more assists than turnovers in three games this season. Colorado State is 2-1 in those games. Last season only six times did the Rams' finish the game with more assists than turnovers.
Century Mark: Two Rams are approaching their 100th game played at Colorado State. Vanessa Espinoza has played in 99 contests for the Rams and Lindsay Thomas has seen action in 95 games.
3K: Never in the history of Colorado State women's basketball has one team had three 1,000 point scorers. Melissa Dennett (855), Lindsay Thomas (938) and Vanessa Espinoza (847) all are poised to break the 1,000 point barrier in thier senior seasons.
On The Hunt(er): Last season Sara Hunter canned the second most three-point shots (47) in Colorado State history by a freshman. The only player to crank up more three's and make them in her first season was Becky Hammon with 88. This season Hunter has already made 9-of-21. Hunter is on pace to shoot 63-of-147. Hunter would rank in the top 10 in both three-point makes and attempts if she stay on this pace.
Fan Support: Colorado State has had at least 1,000 fans attend each of the last 149 home games. The last time the Rams played at home in front of fewer than 1,000 fans was Jan. 5, 1996 when Colorado State faced Idaho State.
Home is Where the Crowd is: The Colorado State women's basketball team kicks off its season with five consecutive home games. The last time this happened was during the 2002-03 season where the Rams won five out of their six opening home gams. Colorado State is 3-1 to start this season at home.
Third Time is the Charm: For the third consecutive year, the Colorado State women's basketball team is returning the same three starters; Melissa Dennett, Vanessa Espinoza and Lindsay Thomas. The last time this happened was in 1998 when the Rams returned Katie Cronin, Becky Hammon and Zenarae Pieters. These returners led the Rams to an impressive 24-6 record.
Missing the Mark: The last time no Rams reached double figures in scoring was during the 2000-01 season. On March 10, 2001 no player reached double figures in a game against Brigham Young. The Rams won that Mountain West Conference Tournament game 59-56. Colorado State had five players reach double figures in the season opener. This season the Rams have had at least four players reach double figures in scoring in every game.
Dennett Scoring First: The Rams were 8-4 a season ago in games that Melissa Dennett scored the first points for Colorado State. Colorado State was 7-9 when any player other than Dennett tallied the first points for the Rams. The Rams are 2-0 this season with Dennett putting the first points on the board for the Rams and 1-1 when anybody else tallied the first Colroado State score bringing her two year record when scoring first for the Rams to 10-4.
Dialing Long Distance: Vanessa Espinoza is now only one of ten players in Colorado State history to drain 100+ treys in her career. Espinoza has racked up 104 made three's and is only four shy of ninth place Joy Jenkins.
Block Party: Colorado State has recorded at least one blocked shot in the last 53 games dating back to Dec. 11, 2003 at Denver. Last season Colorado State had 105 blocks ranking third all-time. This season the Rams are on pace to block 112 shots.
Opponent Threes: Colorado State allowed a season-high 18 three-point shot attempts in the season opener vs. Concordia. Last year the Rams had five games where the opponent launched at least 29 three-point attempts (at Northern Colorado - 48, vs. Wyoming - 41, vs. San Diego State - 29, at New Mexico - 30, at Wyoming - 32). Colorado State had only three games ever prior to last season that an opponent had taken more than 29 three-point attempts. The Rams were 6-2 in those games.
Home Sweet Home: The Rams have had seven straight seasons with double figure wins at home. The Rams averaged 70.3 points per game at home compared to 60.5 on the road while allowing an average of 57.4 at home compared to 64.7 on the road.
Four Sign With Warden: Colorado State Head Women's Basketball Coach Jen Warden announced four players have signed National Letters of Intent to play for Colorado State next season. Colorado high school standout Raysha Ritter will join the Rams for the 2006-07 campaign as well as Lindsay Laur and Emily Neal both hale from Minnesota. Juanise Cornell from Azusa, Calif. rounds out the signing class.
Juanise Cornell, 5'10", F, Azusa, Calif. - Juanise Cornell is a two-sport athlete (basketball and volleyball), with many honors in both. Her team has won the Del Rey League and CIF Championships the last two years in basketball and last season they took home the state championship and finished with a perfect record of 35-0. In 2004-05 Cornell was named to the first team Del Rey League. She was also CIF Co-Player of the Year out of all women's basketball player in over 540 schools. She was named offensive player of the year in volleyball by her teammates for three years.
Lindsay Laur, 6'0", F, Roseville, Minn. - The 6'0" forward from Minnesota has been highly recruited by teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin, Marquette and Minnesota. She was named to the all-conference team the last two seasons. Last season Laur was also named to the all-section team and the all-state team. She has also been named team MVP.
Emily Neal, 5'9, G, Minneapolis, Minn. - Two times Neal has been named to the all-conference team. The basketball and soccer team captain has won three conference championships in basketball. She was the starting point guard on the state championship team her sophomore season. Neal has been on the Headmaster's List every year of her high school career. The Headmaster's List is for students with a GPA higher than a 3.7. She has also volunteered for the Special Olympics the past two years. Neal was recruited by Boston College, Northwestern and Princeton in addition to Colorado State.
Raysha Ritter, 6'3", C, Grand Junction, Colo. - This 6'3" post player has been first team all-conference all three years she has played and was second team all-state her junior year. Along with the all-state honors, she was named Southwestern League Player of the Year, and was named an Adidas Top 10 All-American. Colorado State was chosen by Ritter over Texas Tech, Penn State, Colorado and Illinois. Currently, Ritter is only a few points shy of first all-time on the scoring list at her school, a record she is projected to hold by season's end.