Colorado State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Preparing To Take On Pioneers
12/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2005
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Up Next: Colorado State will travel for the first time this season to take on Denver at 7:00 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 Pick Up Fourth Win: The Rams defeated Portland on Dec. 4 by a score of 70-58 in Moby Arena. Vanessa Espinoza lead the Rams scoring 19 points. Lindsay Thoams added 14 points and Melissa Dennett chipped in 13 points. Dennett also pulled down 11 rebounds and recorded her third double-double of the season. The Rams are now 4-0 all-time vs. the Pilots.
Denver Matchup: Colorado State enters the game with Denver with a 13-2 record all-time vs. the Pioneers and 5-1 all-time in meetings in Denver. The Rams have won the last ten meetings with Denver including the last three in Denver. The last time the Rams face the Pioneers, Colorado State won on Jan. 4, 2005 in Moby Arena 67-47. The last time Colorado State faced Denver on the road was on Dec. 11, 2003 when the Rams came away with an 80-63 victory. The last time Colorado State lost to Denver was on Nov. 14, 1978 in Fort Collins by a score of 70-72.
Television Trouble: Last season Colorado State was 0-6 in games that were televised. This season the Rams are 1-0 on television picking up a win against Colorado on Nov. 30 in Moby Arena.
Assist Leader: Molly Nohr leads the team with 29 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. Nohr is on pace to dish out 162 assists this season.
Second Half Scoring: The Rams are averaging 46.0 points in the second half while allowing an average of 38.6 points in the second half.
Bench Scoring: Colorado State's bench outscored Concordia 24-0 in the season opener for the Rams 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
Colorado 15 27
Portland 9 15
Average In CSU Wins 21.3 16.8
Average In CSU Losses 2.0 36.0
Paint Problems: The Rams have been ouscored this season 164-142 in the paint.
Game CSU Pts. Opp. Pts.
Concordia 24 28
South Dakota State 20 50
UC-Irvine 38 24
Colorado 40 44
Potrland 20 18
Average In CSU Wins 30.5 28.5
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
Lindsay Thomas 7 7
Sara Hunter 11 12
Molly Nohr 14 15
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.
On Dec. 7: The Rams are 3-4 all-time in games played on Dec. 7. Colorado State has an 0-1 record in road games on this date.
Scored On: Colorado State is giving up an average of 71.4 points per game compared to a season ago when the Rams allowed an average of 60.5 points per game. Colorado State had its best defense effort of the season vs. Portland allowing only 58 points.
Defending The Three: The Rams are allowing only .256 from three-point range this season. The all-time record for three-point percentage defense is .261 set during the 1996-97 season.
Keeping The Ball: The Rams are averaging 17.0 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. However, Colorado State committed the most turnovers it has so far this season last game against Portland with 19.
Distributing The Ball: Colorado State is dishing out 18.0 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.
Starting Lineups: Colorado State has used the same starting lineup in all five 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.
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 77 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.
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 four games this season. Colorado State is 3-1 in those games. Last season only six times did the Rams' finish the game with more assists than turnovers.
Century Mark: Vanessa Espinoza has now played in 100 games at Colorado State. Her teammate, Lindsay Thomas has seen action in 96 games.
3K: Never in the history of Colorado State women's basketball has one team had three 1,000 point scorers. Melissa Dennett (868), Lindsay Thomas (952) and Vanessa Espinoza (866) 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-28. Hunter is on pace to shoot 63-of-157. 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 150 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 4-1 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 three 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 108 made three's and is tied for ninth place all-time with Joy Jenkins. Espinoza needs 12 more made three's to move into a tie for eighth place with Jacki Campbell.
Block Party: Colorado State has recorded at least one blocked shot in the last 54 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 101 shots.
Opponent Threes: Colorado State allowed a season-high 19 three-point shot attempts vs. Portland. 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.