Trojans Ready for Season Opener at Tulane

GM 1 >> Little Rock (0-0) at Tulane (0-0)
Friday, November 13 • 5:30 p.m. (CST)
New Orleans, La. • Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse
Live Video/Stats: TulaneGreenWave.com
Radio: Trey Schaap (PxP) on 920 AM
 
LITTLE ROCK – Coming off the best year in program history, the Little Rock women's basketball team will start the 2015-16 campaign on the right foot at Tulane on Friday evening. The Trojans and Green Wave will begin their seasons at 5:30 p.m.
 
TIP OFF

• The Little Rock women's basketball team is coming off its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in six seasons. The Trojans earned a No. 11 seed in last year's tournament and upset No. 6 seed Texas A&M in the first round.
• Little Rock nearly advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in team history but narrowly lost to No. 3 Arizona State on its home court to end the season. The Trojans led for more than 58 minutes of the game.
• The team's victory over Texas A&M was the 700th of Coach Joe Foley's career. Foley is entering his 13th season with Little Rock in 2015-16 and is eighth among active Division I coaches in career wins.
• Little Rock lost three valuable seniors in Taylor Gault, Ka'Nesheia Cobbins and Kiera Clark and will look to make up for their scoring and defense this season.
• Little Rock broke multiple program records for success in 2015-16 including wins in a season (29), wins in the regular season (25) and wins in conference play (18). Those 18 victories in league play also tied the all-time Sun Belt record.
• The Trojans finished 2014-15 third in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 51.3 points per game.
• Little Rock's top returners this year are seniors Shanity James and Alexius Dawn. Both were preseason All-Sun Belt selections.
• Tulane defeated Little Rock in Arkansas last year, the Trojans' lone home loss of the season.

ABOUT THE TROJANS
Little Rock opens the 2015-16 following the best year in program history. The Trojans won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships, then went on to upset No. 6-seeded Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Joe Foley got his 700th career victory with the defeat of the Aggies in the second ever NCAA Tournament win for Little Rock. The Sun Belt regular-season championship was its first outright, and the team won the league tournament for the third time.
 
The Trojans are riding a huge wave of success over the last decade, making the national postseason for seven of the last eight seasons including four NCAA Tournament berths and three WNIT trips. Little Rock was picked third in the Sun Belt's preseason coaches poll and received two first-place votes.
 
ABOUT TULANE

• The Green Wave, who are based out of New Orleans, La., are coming off a strong year that saw them make the NCAA Tournament as a No. 12 seed. Tulane lost in the first round of the tournament to No. 5 seed Mississippi State in Durham, N.C.
• Tulane went 22-11 last year, posting an 11-4 record at home and going 11-7 in the American Athletic Conference. That record gave the Green Wave a sixth-place regular-season finish in the league, and they went on to lose in the semifinals of the AAC Tournament to South Florida.
• The Green Wave returns two starters from last year's team and six lettermen overall out of 13 on the team. Six newcomers will join the roster in 2015-16. Leading scorer Kolby Morgan is back on the squad as is top blocker Chinwe Duru.
• Lisa Stockton is in her 22nd season leading the Green Wave and holds a 501-242 record overall. She is 438-215 at Tulane.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST TULANE
The Trojans and Green Wave have met only twice in their history, and the Green Wave claimed victories in both games. The teams first met in 1988 when Tulane came away with an 18-point win. The spread was nearly as bad last year as the Green Wave came to the Jack Stephens Center and defeated the Trojans by 16, 74-58.
 
A WIN AGAINST TULANE WOULD…
…be the team's sixth consecutive win to open a season…be the team's second consecutive win in its first road game of the year…be the program's first-ever win against the Green Wave…be the team's seventh straight win in the state of Louisiana…be Joe Foley's 701st career win.
 
LITTLE ROCK VS. THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
The Trojans have played 26 games against current AAC teams, but most of those contests have come against Tulsa and Memphis, two teams that just joined the AAC last year. Besides Little Rock's 9-1 record against Tulsa and a 3-7 mark against Memphis, the Trojans are 1-1 against South Florida, 1-1 against SMU and 0-2 against Tulane.
 
LITTLE ROCK IN SEASON OPENERS
The Trojans are opening their 36th season overall on Sunday and their 16th at the NCAA Division 1 level. Dating back to 1978 (the oldest records for individual games), the Trojans hold a 16-10 record (.615) in their first game of the season. Since joining Division 1, that record improves percentage-wise to 12-4 (.750). The Trojans last lost a season opener on Nov. 13, 2009 at Oklahoma State and will be going for their sixth straight season-opening win on Friday.
 
700 CLUB
Little Rock coach Joe Foley had a historic night against Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, earning his 700th victory as a coach. Foley is now one of just 11 active women's basketball coaches in the country across all three NCAA divisions two have earned 700 wins in his or her career and one of just eight currently in Division I. Foley earned more than half of those victories at Arkansas Tech, and he has 244 with the Trojans.
 
SUN BELT PRESEASON HONORS
Little Rock was selected to finish third in the league by the Sun Belt Conference coaches when the league announced its preseason poll in late October. The Trojans earned two first-place votes despite finishing third overall. On the individual side, Alexius Dawn was named Preseason All-Sun Belt First Team and Shanity James was named to the All-Sun Belt Second Team. Dawn was all-Sun Belt Second Team last year, while James has never earned a league season-ending award before.
 
DAWN OF A NEW SEASON
Little Rock senior Alexius Dawn enters her final year with the Trojans after making an incredible splash in her first year. Dawn drained 76 3-pointers last season, the second-most in a single year in Trojan history. She also broke the Sun Belt Tournament record with 15 3-pointers over three games. She was named to the All-Tournament Team, All-Sun Belt Second Team and finished with a 3-point percentage of .364. She was second on the Little Rock roster in steals and assists.
 
FUN AND JAMES
Shanity James, the lone fourth-year senior on the Little Rock roster in 2015-16, will have high hopes for her last season with the team. Little Rock's leading rebounder in 2014-15, she averaged 6.9 boards per game. Her scoring was in double figures for the year, reaching 10.7 points per game at season's end. She scored in double figures in 20 out of 33 games for the Trojans and had the most blocks on the roster.
 
NATIONALLY RANKED DEFENSE
Allowing just 51.5 points per game overall, Little Rock finished the 2014-15 season third in the nation in scoring defense. In Sun Belt only games, the Trojans gave up an impressive 47.8 points per game, 7.4 points fewer than second-place UT Arlington's 55.2 points per game allowed. The Trojans' third-place finish in that stat category was the best in program history.
 
RECEIVING VOTES
Little Rock is opening the 2015-16 season receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Trojans have picked up two votes, the most among Sun Belt Conference schools. The team finished the 2014-15 season just outside the top 25, earning 51 votes to finish 28th. In this year's opening Mid Major Top 25, the Trojans are eighth, receiving 467 points. Arkansas State is also in the top 25, rounding out the group with 84 points for 25th place.
 
CHALLENGING SCHEDULE AHEAD
The 2015-16 non-conference slate for Little Rock may be among the most challenging in the nation. Little Rock is set to play four teams from major conferences: LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas. Three of those four teams are ranked in the preseason top 25. Of the Trojans' nine non-conference opponents, five made the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15 while two more reached the Women's NIT. The nine opponents won 58 percent of their games last year.
 
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
Little has had an incredible home-court advantage over the last two seasons, going 13-1 each year for a .929 winning percentage. The Trojans were also 9-0 at home in conference play in 2014-15, finishing their Sun Belt slate undefeated at home. The team has done this four times in its history now under Joe Foley, going 9-0 in 2007-08, 2009-10, 2013-14 and 2014-15. Overall at the Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock is 126-22, a winning percentage of .851. The Trojans last lost a home conference game in January 2013, a streak of 24 straight wins.
 
FOLEY'S SUN BELT GREATNESS
In his 12 completed years at Little Rock with continued excellence, Joe Foley is climbing the rankings of the best coaches in Sun Belt Conference history. Foley now has 140 Sun Belt victories, the second-most in league history. The only other coach ahead of Foley for Sun Belt wins is Arkansas State's Brian Boyer with 153 and counting. Boyer, though, has had four extra years to pile up those 13 extra wins. Foley is averaging 11.7 league wins per year while Boyer has only 9.6.
 
LOUISIANA DOMINANCE
During the 2014-15 season, the Trojans were perfect playing games in the state of Louisiana. Little Rock knocked off LSU, Louisiana and ULM in their home buildings and then proceeded to win three consecutive games in New Orleans during the Sun Belt Tournament. A win on Friday would give the Trojans their seventh straight in The Bayou State.
 
LOUISIANA NATIVES
During the trip to New Orleans on Friday, Little Rock will have a homecoming of sorts for four of its players. Junior Kaitlyn Pratt hails from New Orleans while freshman Kiara Scott is from Houma and freshman Deja McKinney is from Ville Platte.
 
NEW KIDS IN THE ROCK
With three seniors lost and only seven players returning from the 2014-15 squad, the Trojans have plenty of new faces in their 2015-16 edition. One junior college transfer – Autummn Williams – will be making her Little Rock debut this season after time at Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. She will be joined by six freshmen: Kiara Scott and Deja McKinney out of Louisiana, Ronjanae and Raeyana DeGray out of high school in Tennessee, Amber Landing from Mississippi and Kira Shepard from Arkansas. Six freshman is the most to join Little Rock since the 2010-11 season.
 
NEW RECRUITS SIGNED
While those newcomers are with the team now, the Trojans added four more future members of Little Rock's team during the signing period on Wednesday. Alex Murray and Kyra Collier from Arkansas, Emily Lytle from Tennessee and Anna Hurlburt from Texas will be the newest Trojans for the 2016-17 season.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Coming soon:

• Shanity James will reach 400 attempted free throws with two more. She is one block away from tying for sixth all-time and four away from fifth all-time in Trojan history.
• Keanna Keys will reach 250 points with 4 more.
• Kaitlyn Pratt's next point will be No. 350.
• Alexius Dawn is three rebounds shy of 100 in her Little Rock career. She is two made 3-pointers away from ninth all-time at Little Rock.

 
UP NEXT
Little Rock's schedule doesn't get any easier next week as the Trojans prepare to take on Southeastern Conference foe LSU for the third time in three years. The teams will play as part of a doubleheader with the Little Rock men's team on Wednesday at the Jack Stephens Center at 7:30 p.m.