Game Notes

No. 3 Lady Blues hit the road for the first time to face the Tritons and two familiar faces ... 
The No. 3 Washburn Lady Blues will hop on the bus for the first time this season for as regular season game as they travel to take on the University of Missouri-St. Louis on Dec. 4. Washburn enters the game with a 5-0 record while the Tritons are 1-4 this season. The Lady Blues will also see some familiar faces on the Tritons' bench in head coach Lisa Curliss-Taylor and assistant coach Lora Westling.

vs Missouri-St. Louis
Matchup: Washburn (5-0) vs Missouri-St. Louis (1-4)
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 4
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Site: Lee Arena (4,179)
Radio: KTPK 106.9 FM / Topeka with play by play with Mark Elliott and Bruce Steinbrock
Online Audio: Through wusports.com
Live Stats: not available
Video Webstream: not available
Coaches: Washburn head coach Ron McHenry is 193-37 (.836) in his eighth season - McHenry is 0-2 against Missouri-St. Louis.
UMSL head coach Lisa Curliss-Taylor is 1-4 in her first season at the school and 58-52 in her fifth season overal..
Rankings: Washburn is ranked No. 3 WBCA/USA Today/ESPN Preseason Coaches Poll.
Series Record: WU leads the all-time series 12-2
Last Meeting: UMSL 63-60, 12/2/01
Last WU win: 70-57, 2/1/96
Last UMSL win: 63-60, 12/2/01
Worth noting: This is the first time Ron McHenry has ever faced one of his former assistant coaches.
Lady Blues on radio . . .

The Lady Blues game will be broadcast on KTPK 106.9 FM radio with Mark Elliott and Bruce Steinbrock calling the action. The games will also be streamed live online by clicking the live audio button under Lady Blues Basketball on the WU web site at www.wusports.com by clicking the live audio link under Lady Blues Basketball.

The coaches . . .
Washburn head coach Ron McHenry has posted a 193-37 (.839) record overall and 98-26 (.790) record in the MIAA with four MIAA regular season championships from 2003-06 and the 2005 NCAA National Championship. He was named the Lady Blues head coach prior to the 2000-01 season. He is second among active women's NCAA Division II Coaches in winning percentage. McHenry was named the MIAA's Coach of the Year in 2005 and in 2006 and the Division II Bulletin National Coach of the Year in 2005. (complete bio on page 2 of notes.)
UMSL's head coach Lisa Curliss-Taylor Lisa Curliss-Taylor was named the 10th coach of the Tritons women's basketball program in May. Curliss-Taylor comes to UMSL from East Texas Baptist, where she spent the last four years serving as the head coach. During that time, she compiled a 58-52 record, including a 40-14 mark in her final two seasons at ETBU.
Prior to her head coaching job at ETBU, Curliss-Taylor was an assistant coach at NCAA Division II Washburn University for two seasons. The team went 53-11 in those two seasons, including a 30-4 record in 2002-03 while winning a conference and regional championship, and earning a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. In the 2000-01 season, she was an assistant coach at Norman (Okla.) High School.
Curliss-Taylor spent two seasons as a student-assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma for head coach Sherri Coale, where the team went 25-8 during the 1999-2000 season and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Originally from Oklahoma City, Okla., Curliss-Taylor played collegiality at the NCAA Division I level at Oral Roberts University, before transferring and coaching at Oklahoma.

Last Time Out for the Lady Blues . . .
Nov. 23, 2007 - #6 Washburn 74, Evangel 60 • TOPEKA, Kan. -- The No. 6 Washburn Lady Blues led from beginning to end in a 74-60 win over Evangel.
Washburn opened up a 16-6 lead midway through the first half after Brette Ulsaker hit a 3-pointer, but the Lady Crusaders cut the lead back to two at 18-16 with 5:12 to go in the opening frame. Washburn finished the half on a 13-5 jolt to take a 31-23 lead into the break as Corkey Stiger scored seven straight points for the Lady Blues.
In the second half, Evangel would get no closer than seven as Washburn led by double digits the majority of the half taking the 14-point win.
Washburn was led by Stiger, who scored 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting and 5 of 7 from behind the arch. Janice Bright scored 17 points and Amanda Holmes scored 13. Holmes also had a game-high nine rebounds and Jessica Mainz had a career-high eight assists.
The Lady Blues outscored the Lady Crusaders 34 to 16 in the paint, but were outscored by their opponent's bench 35 to 16.
Washburn shot 47 percent from the field hitting 27 of 57 attempts.

Washburn/Missouri-St. Louis series notes . . .
Washburn leads the all-time series 12-2, but UMSL has won the last two meetings. The two teams have not played since Dec. 3, 2001 in St. Louis when the then-Riverwomen topped the Lady Blues 63-60.

Last Meeting Between Washburn and Missouri-St. Louis . . .
 Dec. 3, 2001 - The Lady Blues dropped their first game of the year in a 63-60 loss at Missouri-St. Louis.
After falling behind by as many as eight in the opening half, Washburn rallied to take a 29-26 halftime lead on Crystal Walker's jumper with nine seconds left.
The two squads struggled back and forth for the lead in the second half, before UMSL's Christy Lane made her first 3-pointer in six tries to give the Riverwomen the lead for good at 60-59 with 1:00 left.
The Lady Blues fell behind by three and had several chances to tie, before poor shooting 22 of 70 (31.4%) finally doomed the squad.

About Missouri-St. Louis . . .
The Tritons are 1-4 having snapped a four-game slide to open the season with a win over St. Joseph's on Saturday on the road. Tuesday's game against Washburn will be their home opener.

Last time out for UMSL . . .
RENSSELAER, IND., DEC. 1, 2007 – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team garnered its first win of the season, an 81-47 victory, at Saint Joseph's Saturday afternoon in Great Lakes Valley Conference action.
The win improves UMSL to 1-4 on the season, including 1-1 in the GLVC, and gives first-year head coach Lisa Curliss-Taylor, her first victory with the Tritons.
UMSL got a combined 41 points from its four seniors, including a 13-point performance from Courtney Watts (Harrodsburg, Ky./Mercer County). Watts also finished with team-highs of nine rebounds and five assists, while Taylor Gagliano (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) added 12 points and Amanda Miller (Brandenbrug, Ky./Central Hardin) chipped in 10.
The Tritons jumped out to a 22-9 lead in the game's first eight minutes 48 seconds with Gagliano scoring seven points during that stretch. A pair of free throws by Saint Joseph's cut the lead to 26-15 with 8:46 remaining in the half, but from there, UMSL went on a 14-5 run to take a 40-20 lead into halftime.
The Tritons finished the game shooting 48.6 percent from the floor, including 52.9 percent in the first half. The Pumas, which fell to 0-5 on the season, including 0-2 in league play, shot 40.5 percent and were led by Michelle Kiger's game-high 14 points.
UMSL forced Saint Joseph's into 25 turnovers and outscored the Pumas, 27-7, in points off turnovers. The Tritons also held a 41-26 rebounding advantage, including a 17-7 edge on the offensive end and outscored Saint Joseph's, 21-5, on second chance points.

Lady Blues notes . . .
#3 – Brette Ulsaker – 10 of 15 rebounds have defensive
#4 – Amanda Holmes – Averaging 13. 3 points per game in last three
#11 – Renata Germano – Hit at least one FG in four of five games this season
#13 – Jessica Mainz – Has started last two games averaging 5.0 pts, 3.0 rbs, 6.0 assists
#14 – Alyssa Mullen – Scored first collegiate points against Baker
#20 – Hadleigh Meek – Played season high 18 minutes against Baker
#21 – Corkey Stiger – 10 of 20 from 3-point land in last two games
#23 – Jacki Tipping – Both rebounds are offensive this season
#24 – Karla Tailele – Averaging 5.0 pts and 1.5 rebounds in last two games
#30 – Kalee Silovsky – Has hit both free throw attempts this season
#32 – Janice Bright – 12 of 13 from FT line in last two games
#33 – Hope Gregory – Had first double-double with 10 pts, 11 rbs against Texas A&M-Commerce
#44 – Emily Gibson – Had career high 7 points against C.W. Post on 11/22
#50 – Regiane Araujo – Has hit last seven FT's

Lady Blues in Lee Arena . . .
In their 24th season in Lee Arena, the Lady Blues are 293-55 (.841) overall at home. 
The longest winning streak was 44 games from Dec. 1, 1990 to March 20, 1993.
The Lady Blues have won 35 straight regular season non-conference games in Lee Arena. The last defeat by a non-conference team in the regular season was to Missouri-St. Louis in a 59-51 setback on Dec. 30, 2000.
Washburn is 101-10 (.910) in home games under Ron McHenry.

Lady Blues history . . .
Washburn is 674-320 (.678 in 991 games) in its 38th season of intercollegiate action.

WU in the national poll . . .
Washburn moved up three spots in the WBCA/USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 first regular season poll of the season. Washburn was ranked No. 6 in the preseason poll which was released on Oct. 31. The Lady Blues were ranked No. 8 in the final poll of the 2007-08 season after finishing with a 29-4 overall record. The poll marks the 89th consecutive week the Lady Blues have been ranked.

UMSL/WU Connections. . .
• UMSL's assistant coach Lora Westling was a four-year letterwinner for the Lady Blues and an all-region selection on the Washburn soccer team after not playing since high school. In addition to being a starting guard on Lady Blues' 2005 national championship team, she finished her career as Washburn's all-time leading 3-point marksman and was part of 114 of head coach Ron McHenry's 193 career wins.
• UMSL's head coach Lisa Curlis-Taylor is married to former Ichabod quarterback/wide receiver/running back Preston Taylor. Taylor played for the Ichabods from 1997-2000 and was a graduate assistant as well.

Up Next . . .
Washburn will continue its month-long hiatus from Lee Arena as they travel to Springfield, Mo., for a battle with the No.  6 ranked Drury Lady Panthers on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 5:30 p.m.