Colorado State University Athletics
Women's Hoops Travels To San Jose State
12/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2005
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Up Next: Colorado State will continue on the road for the second road game of the season against San Jose State in San Jose, Calif. at 3:00 p.m. MT/2:00 p.m. PT. The game with the Spartans 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 for the broadcast.
Rams Fall To Pioneers: The Rams fell at Denver 58-77 on Dec. 7. Colorado State had only two players reach double figures in scoring. The Rams committed a season-high 21 turnovers in the game and shot below .400 for the first time this season.
San Jose State Matchup: Colorado State is 5-0 all-time vs. San Jose State. The Rams won the last game against the Spartans by a score of 108-56 in Moby Arena on Feb. 21, 1998. The Rams are 2-0 in San Jose, Calif. with the last win coming on Jan. 22, 1998 by a score of 70-56. Colorado State has won every game in the series by a minimum of 13 points.
From Deep: Colorado State has stuggled shooting the three-point basket in the last two games. Vanessa Espinoza shot 5-of-11 over the last two games, while the rest of the team combined for only 2-of-19 from three-point range vs. Portland and at Denver.
Out Of Range: Sara Hunter has now missed her last 14 three-point attempts dating back to Nov. 30 vs. Colorado. Hunter started the Colorado game 3-for-3 from beyond the arc before going on her current cold streak.
Thomas From The Field: Lindsay Thomas is shooting only .444 from the field this season. Thomas has never had a season where her feild goal percentage has finished below .500.
Bench Scoring: Colorado State's bench outscored Concordia 24-0 in the season opener for the Rams and was outscored 36-2 in one of Colorado State's two losses.
Game CSU Pts. Opp. Pts.
Concordia 24 0
South Dakota State 2 36
UC-Irvine 37 25
Colorado 15 27
Portland 9 15
Denver 9 15
Average In CSU Wins 21.3 16.8
Average In CSU Losses 5.5 25.5
Paint Problems: The Rams have been ouscored this season 194-166 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
Denver 24 30
Average In CSU Wins 30.5 28.5
Average In CSU Losses 22.0 40.0
Perfection (Or Near It): Lindsay Thomas is the only Ram that has remained perfect from the from the free throw line this season. Sara Hunter is the only player on the roster to have missed only one shot from the charity stripe.
Player FT Made FT Attempts
Lindsay Thomas 9 9
Sara Hunter 11 12
Scoring Leaders: Colorado State is leading the Mountain West in scoring offense at 76.2 points per game. Air Force is second at 72.6 points per game.
Stuffed: Melissa Dennett ranks as the top shot blocker in the confernce. She averages 1.83 blocks per game.
Tops In Scoring: The Rams have two players in the top ten in the conference in scoing. Both Melisa Dennett and Vanessa Espinoza rank in the top ten in the conference in points per game. TCU is the only other school to have two players in the top ten in scoring.
Television Trouble: Last season Colorado State was 0-6 in games that were televised. This season the Rams are 1-1 on television picking up the only win in the last two years coming against Colorado on Nov. 30 in Moby Arena.
Assist Leader: Molly Nohr leads the team with 30 assists through six games this season and she is averaging 5.0 assists per game. Entering this season Nohr had compiled only 66 assists in 50 games for an average of 1.3 per game. Nohr is on pace to dish out 140 assists this season.
Second Half Scoring: In Colorado State wins the Rams are averaging 45.5 points in the second half while allowing an average of 38.8 points in the second half. However, in the two Colorado State losses, the Rams average 40.0 points and allow an average of 45.0 points.
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. 10: The Rams are 1-4 all-time in games played on Dec. 10. Colorado State has an 0-2 record in road games on this date.
Scored On: Colorado State is giving up an average of 72.3 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 .286 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 17.7 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 Denver with 21.
Distributing The Ball: Colorado State is dishing out 17.2 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. Colorado State attempted a season-low eight free throws against Denver.
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 80 career blocks and Thomas has 71. 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. The Rams are 1-1 when they have more turnovers than assists.
Century Mark: Vanessa Espinoza has now played in 101 games at Colorado State. Her teammate, Lindsay Thomas has seen action in 97 games.
3K: Never in the history of Colorado State women's basketball has one team had three 1,000 point scorers. Melissa Dennett (876), Lindsay Thomas (960) and Vanessa Espinoza (877) 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-31. Hunter is on pace to shoot 63-of-145. 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 109 made three's and is in ninth place all-time. Espinoza needs 11 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 55 games dating back to Dec. 11, 2003 at Denver. Last season Colorado State had blocks ranking third all-time. This season the Rams are on pace to block 103 shots.
Opponent Threes: Colorado State allowed a season-high 20 three-point shot attempts at Denver. 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.