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TULSA, Okla. -- Looking to take the first step towards an historic NCAA Tournament berth, the IUPUI women's basketball team will face off against No. 6-seeded Southern Utah Sunday afternoon at the John Q. Hammons Arena in Tulsa, Okla. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT, with Greg Rakestraw on play-by-play.
IUPUI (15-15, 11-7 Summit) and Southern Utah (6-23, 4-14 Summit) split their season series with each team defending their home court. On January 5, 2008, the Thunderbirds held off the Jaguars down the stretch to win, 61-56, in Cedar City, Utah. IUPUI responded with a resounding 71-46 win on February 4 in The Jungle.
In that win, sophomore
Julia Whitted had a career-high 27 points for the Jaguars on 13-of-21 shooting. Whitted was also part a defensive effort that held the T-birds to just 12 first-half points.
Whitted's success down the stretch helped her achieve Summit League First Team recognition earlier this week. The 6-foot-5 center was honored along with
Jernisha Cann, who was also named to the first team and awarded The Summit League Defensive Player of the Year trophy for the second consecutive season.
Cann averaged 13.5 points and 10.2 rebounds in conference play, while also tying for The Summit lead with 3.11 steals per game. She was the only player in the conference to average a double-double. Whitted led the team with 15.3 points in Summit Leauge play, while her 9.7 rebounds were second only to Cann.
Nicole James was the third Jaguar to receive all-league honors, being named to The Summit League All-Newcomer Team after averaging 9.4 points in conference play.
The opening round contest can be viewed online via SummitTV at
www.thesummitleague.org. Fans can also listen to Greg Rakestraw describe all the action from Tulsa by clicking
here.
The winner of the IUPUI-Southern Utah game will move on to the conference semifinals, where they will face the victor in the Western Illinois-UMKC tilt. The semifinal is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on Monday, March 9.
