Feb. 22, 2013

Ole Miss Game Notes

OLE MISS REBELS (9-17, 2-11 SEC)
Acting head coach: Brett Frank (SOSU, 1995)
Career record: 9-17 (1st yr.) Record at Ole Miss: Same

No. 12 GEORGIA LADY BULLDOGS (22-4, 10-3 SEC)
Head coach: Andy Landers (Tennessee Tech, 1974)
Career record: 899-293 (39th yr.) Record at Georgia 899-272 (35th year)

Date/Time: Sunday, Feb. 24/ 1 p.m. CT
Site: Oxford, Miss. | Tad Smith Coliseum | (8,867)
TV: CSS | Talent: Matt Stewart (PxP), Joe Ciampi (Analyst)
Radio: 105.5 FM
  Talent: Graham Doty (play-by-play)
Gametracker: OleMissSports.com
Twitter Updates: @OleMissWBB
Series:
    Overall: UGA, 29-11    
      Oxford: UGA leads, 8-7    
     Athens: UGA leads, 15-1
      Neutral: UGA leads, 6-3    
      Last meeting: UGA, 87-52, at Athens, 2/23/12
      Frank vs. Georgia: 0-0

NOTES:
• Ole Miss will host No. 12 Georgia Sunday at 1 p.m.  The game will be televised on CSS.
• Sunday’s game marks the 41st all-time meeting between Ole Miss and Georgia. The Lady Bulldogs lead the all-time series, 29-11.  
• Ole Miss is coming off an 82-53 loss at No. 10 Texas A&M Thursday night.  
• Two of Ole Miss’ final three games of the year are against top-25 teams (No. 12 Georgia and No. 7 Kentucky).
• Tia Faleru recorded her fourth career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds against MSU. Faleru is Ole Miss’ active career leader in double-doubles.
• Diara Moore has scored in double figures a team-leading 17 times this season, most recently 16 points at No. 12 Tennessee on Feb. 10.
• Tia Faleru and Valencia McFarland have each scored in double figures 16 times this season.
• Tia Faleru leads the team in scoring, averaging 11.8 points per game, followed by Valencia McFarland, 11.5 points per game Diara Moore, 10.7 points per game.
• Courtney Marbra leads the team in rebounding, averaging 5.4 rebounds per game.
• Valencia McFarland, who has scored in every career game she has played in, recorded her 1,000th career point with 24 points at Florida. She is the 25th player in school history to score at least 1,000 career points.

UP NEXT:
Ole Miss host No. 7 Kentucky on Thursday, February 28 at 7 p.m. on Senior Night. Ole Miss will close-out the 2012-13 season at Arkansas on Sunday, March 3 at 2 p.m.

SCOUTING NO. 12 GEORGIA
No. 12/13 Georgia enters Sunday’s game with the Rebels 22-4 overall and 10-3 in the SEC. The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a 66-34 win over Arkansas on Thursday night. Jasmine Hassell leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.3 points per game while Jasmine James is second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.3 points per game. Hassell also leads the team in rebounding, averaging 6.0 rebounds per game.

Georgia leads the all-time series between the two schools, 29-11. The Lady Bulldogs have won the last three meetings between the two teams. Ole Miss’ most recent win over Georgia was a 66-65 win in Athens, Ga., on Jan. 24, 2010.

ABOUT OLE MISS
Ole Miss is coming off a 82-53 loss at No. 10 Texas A&M Thursday night.  Valencia McFarland scored 11 points in the loss with four rebounds and four assists while Monique Jackson tied her career-high with eight points and six rebounds.  For the year, Ole Miss is led by Tia Faleru (11.8 points per game), Valencia McFarland (11.5 points per game) and Diara Moore (10.7 points per game). Courtney Marbra leads the team in rebounding, averaging 5.5 rebounds per game followed by Danielle McCray who is averaging 5.2 rebounds per game.  Brett Frank is in his first year as acting head coach for the Rebels. He has a career record of 9-17 overall and 2-11 in the SEC.

FOLLOW THE REBELS
Ole Miss’ regular-season games can be heard on WTNM Supertalk Mississippi (105.5 FM) or Q93.7 FM with the pregame show starting 15 minutes before tipoff.  Graham Doty, in his second season calling Ole Miss women’s basketball games, will be on the call.

Game updates via Twitter will be available all season at @OleMissWBB. All home games that are not on TV will be streamed online through the subscription-based RebelVision.

SUNDAY PROMOTIONS
Sunday’s game is the team’s Tickled Pink at the Tad Pad game. The team will be wearing pink uniforms that fans are able to bid on online with proceeds going to the Baptist Cancer Center. The online jersey auction runs from Feb. 28 - March 3.  Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game and those that do will receive a door prize from Baptist Memorial Hospital.

OLE MISS IN THE SEC STATS (AS OF 2/21/13)
As a team, Ole Miss is third in free throw percentage (.704), fifth in rebounding offense (40.5 rpg), third in offensive rebounds (16.8), eighth in steals (9.5 spg) and sixth pointers made (4.7). Individually, Valencia McFarland is fourth in assists (5.1 apg), second in assist to turnover ratio (2.6), third in minutes played (34.3), eighth in free throw percentage (.745) and sixth in steals (2.5 spg). Gracie Frizzell is 10th in three pointers made (1.6), Diara Moore is sixth in free throw percentage (.761) while Courtney Marbra is tied for ninth in offensive rebounds (2.8).

McFARLAND LOOKS TO LEAD TEAM IN ASSISTS FOR THE THIRD YEAR
If Valencia McFarland, who led the team in assists as a freshman and sophomore, keeps this pace and ends the season leading the team in assists, it would be the first time since Carletta Brown (2003-06) that a player led the team in assists three consecutive seasons. McFarland would become just the fourth player in program history to lead the team in assists three consecutive seasons. No player in school history has led the team in assists all four years. She has recorded 398 career assists and needs 58 assists to crack into the career top-five.

As of Feb. 21, McFarland is fourth in the SEC in assists per game, averaging 5.1 and she leads Ole Miss with 133 assists. In a 12-game span from Dec. 21-Jan. 31, McFarland averaged 6.58 assists per game.  She has recorded 40 career games with at least five assists per game, including 16 games this year.  McFarland recorded a season-high 10 assists at Florida on Jan. 24.  

MOORE HOT FROM THE FREE THROW LINE
Diara Moore leads the team in free throw attempts and makes this season (83-109). In a seven-game span from Jan. 6-31, Moore went 33-42 from the free throw line. She went 6-6 against Vanderbilt, 4-4 against Auburn and 8-10 against Alabama, just 1-4 against Missouri, 4-6 at Florida, 4-6 at Mississippi State and 6-8 against Arkansas.  For the season, she is sixth in the SEC in free throw percentage, shooting .745 percent.  Moore’s 83 makes are the most by an Ole Miss player in a season since the 2009-10 season when Bianca Thomas ended the year 132-162 from the line.

McFARLAND SECOND IN THE SEC IN ASSIST-TO-TURNOVER RATIO
Ole Miss point guard Valencia McFarland is second in the SEC in assist to turnover ratio (2.6). In SEC play, McFarland has recorded 72 assists to 30 turnovers and for the season, she has recorded 133 assists to 64 turnovers in 26 games. McFarland has recorded 16 games this season with five or more assists including the 12 of the last 16 games. For her career, McFarland has 40 games with five or more assists and has recorded 398 career assists.

MOORE LEADS TEAM IN DOUBLE-FIGURE SCORING GAMES
Through 26 games this season, Diara Moore is leading the team in double figure scoring games with 17 followed by Tia Faleru and Valencia McFarland who have each recorded 16 double figure scoring games. Gracie Frizzell has scored in double figures in seven games.

McFARLAND LEADS THE TEAM IN STEALS
Valencia McFarland, who has recorded a team-leading 64 steals this year, is looking to become just the third player in school history to lead her team in assists three years times during her career.  If McFarland, who led the team in steals as a freshman and sophomore, ends this season leading the team in steals, she would be the first player to lead her team in steals three years in a row since Armintie Price led the team all four years (2003-06).