Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

March 5, 2006

SAN MARCOS - After winning the Southland Conference tournament-seeding tie-breaker for the league's fourth and final hosting seed, Texas State will take on Louisiana-Monroe Monday at 7 p.m. inside Strahan Coliseum in the first round of the 2006 O'Reilly Auto Parts Southland Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.

Despite dropping the only meeting of the year between the two, Texas State (17-10, 9-7) won its two match-ups with Northwestern State, while ULM (17-10, 9-7) went 1-1 against the Lady Demons, who were the next highest seeded team that both teams had played twice in the season.

Louisiana-Monroe's last action came Wednesday night in a 65-62 overtime loss to league-champion Stephen F. Austin, and Texas State knocked off Nicholls State 65-52 Friday night in San Marcos.

The Lady Indians are led on the offensive end by LaJeanna Howard, who averages 11.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Michelle Biley leads the squad with 6.7 rebounds per contest, while Nedra Winston has recorded a team-leading 42 blocked shots on the year.

As a team, Louisiana-Monroe forces 18.4 turnovers per game while giving up 15.4, and the Lady Indians hold a slight 39-38 average rebounding edge over their opponents this year.

Texas State will counter with an offensive attack led by senior forward Tamara Thompson, who averages 16.8 points per game and has reached double-digits in 17-straight games this season.

Thompson is also the top performer on the glass for the Bobcats, pulling down 7.9 rebounds per game. Thompson's 420 points on the year post her 16th on the all-time single-season scoring list, and additionaly, Thompson's 29 blocks this season equal the ninth-best single-season total in Texas State's history.

Joyce Ekworomadu adds 13.6 points per game and a team-high 45 steals, while Jenna Hoffman has recorded 97 assists this year, placing her 16th all-time and one behind the 15th-best mark of 98 single-season assists.

Monday's match-up will be the 41st in the all-time series, with ULM holding a 24-16 advantage in the series. Texas State's last game against the Lady Indians came in late January, when ULM took a 69-63 win from Strahan Coliseum.

Texas State and Louisiana-Monroe have met twice all-time in the Southland Conference post-season tournament, with ULM winning both games.

In the 2004 Southland Conference tournament, ULM knocked off Texas State 73-59, and in the 1991 tournament, ULM (then Northeast Louisiana) beat Texas State (then Southwest Texas State) 62-54. Both games were opening-round contests.

SLC semifinal action will continue with the remaining highest two seeds hosting the lowest remaining seeds on Wed., March 8. The championship game will also be hosted by the highest remaining seed on Sat., March 11 at 3 p.m. This title game will be televised regionally by FSN-Southwest.