UMBC

Matea Pender in Retriever wins is averaging 18.7 ppg.

Baltimore, Md. – The UMBC Women’s Basketball team (3-1) has a chance to tie their best start in the Retrievers’ Division-I era as they host Radford (0-4) on Tuesday night at UMBC RAC Arena.  Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. with play-by-play man Troy Green broadcasting live through UMBCRetrievers.com radio. 

RETRIEVER UPDATE:  UMBC enters this week with a three-game win streak after defeating Navy last week by a final of 59-46.  UMBC has scored over 55-points in each of their four games to date this season and are off to the best start since going 4-1 to open the 1989-90 season.  Against Navy, Brittnie Hughes hit a couple of career-highs, scoring 15-points and handing out seven assists.  Hughes scored 11 of her 15 points in the first half as UMBC went into the break tied at 27-27.  Hughes handed out five of her seven assists in the second half as UMBC heated up, shooting 55 percent from the floor in the second period.  Matea Pender scored 11 points and has scored in double figure in the last three games. 

RADFORD UPDATE: The Highlanders are still looking for their first win of the season after a 63-47 loss to Lafayette last week.  Leading Radford on the season is Jesse Brunjak with 13.8 ppg and Taryn Causey with 10.3 ppg.  Corrie Fertita off the bench in four games this season leads the team at 6.5 rpg.

Who’s Up Next:  The Retrievers continue their stretch of three games in five days when they travel to Lafayette on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m., before coming home to play American on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.

All-time Series vs. Radford

Last Meeting:       Dec. 29, 2003 (Radford 64, UMBC 56, OT)

First Meeting:       Jan. 7, 1984 (Radford 78, UMBC 45)

UMBC’s last win: Jan. 16, 1996 (UMBC 60, Radford 52)

Streak:    Radford has won the last six meetings

Series Record:       Radford leads the series, 11-5 

Retrievers On Three-Game Win Streak… UMBC Women's Basketball team is on a three-game win streak after defeating Navy, 59-46 last week.  UMBC’s streak started with a 59-55 win over Mount St. Mary’s and continued with an 87-52 victory over Morgan State.  The last time UMBC won three consecutive games was two seasons ago as the Retrievers from Feb. 10, 2003-Feb. 17, 2003 defeated Central Connecticut State, St. Francis (Pa.) and Robert Morris in UMBC’s final year in the Northeast Conference.  UMBC has not endured a four-game win streak since the 2001-02 season. 

UMBC Off To Best Start Since 1989-90 Season…The Retrievers are off to their best start since going 4-1 to start the 1989-90 campaign.  UMBC is 3-1 heading into their game against Radford and will be looking to tie that mark.  UMBC’s 4-1 start in 1989-90 is the Retrievers best start in their Division-I era, which began at the start of the 1986-87 season.  UMBC’s best start ever is when they went 9-1 to begin the 1985-86 season. 

Defense Wins Games…UMBC and the America East Conference are proving defense wins games.  The top three teams in the conference standings, Hartford (4-0), Albany (4-1) and UMBC (3-1) are also the best defensive squads in the league. The Hawks currently boast America East’s most stingy defense, allowing their opponents to score just 48.2 ppg, while the Great Danes (53.4 ppg) and Retrievers (55.0 ppg) are second and third respectively. UMBC also ranks third in defensive field goal percentage holding team’s to 36.8 percent.  UMBC averages 9.50 spg and has double-digit in steals as a team in three games compared to just once all of last year.  Sharri Rohde ranks seventh in the conference with nine steals, a 2.25 per game average.

Long Range Shooters...UMBC is becoming well known for their three-point shooting as they lead the league once again in three-point field goals per game.  The Retrievers have dropped 33 treys in four games, an 8.25 per game average which is tops in the AE charts by nearly two three-point baskets per game.  UMBC last year set new America East records in their first season from behind the arc, recording the conference’s all-time best three-point field goals made mark at 194 for the season and the attempted mark as well at 578.  Matea Pender leads UMBC with 10 treys in four games, a 2.50 average.

20 Field Goals Made/20 Assists...UMBC against Navy recorded an assist on all 20 of their field goals made for a 100.0 percent assist to field goal percentage.  Brittnie Hughes led UMBC with seven assists in the game.  The NCAA record for assist to field goal percentage is 32 assists on 32 field goals set in 1986 by St. Louis against Loyola (Ill.).

Pender's Second 20-Point Night Earns Her League Honors… UMBC Women's Basketball junior forward Matea Pender was named Wilson Co-Player of the Week for the week ending Nov. 28, 2004.  Pender, with a game-high 25 points, led UMBC to an 87-52 victory over Morgan State.  Pender over a two-game span averaged 22.5 ppg as she registered 20-point performances in both those contests.  Pender during that stretch went 17-of-27 (62.0 percent) from the field and 7-of-13 (52.8 percent) from three-point range. 

Retrievers Run At Record Books With Big Night Against Morgan State…UMBC's 35-point victory over Morgan State (87-52) is their largest margin of victory against a Division I opponent since scoring a 95-49 (46-point) victory over Coppin State on Feb. 1, 1988.  The 35-point  victory ties for second largest margin of victory against a D-I opponent as UMBC defeated Coppin State on Jan. 22, 1987 by a final of 91-56 (35-points). 

Retrievers Break Out The Offense…Shooting 55.6 percent (30-of-54) from the field, the UMBC Retriever scored 87 points against Morgan State.  The last time UMBC scored at least 87 points in a game was on Feb. 14, 2000 with an 87-56 win over St. Francis (N.Y.).  UMBC scored at least 80 points on one occasion since then, losing two years ago to Robert Morris, 85-82, 3OT.  The Retrievers are shooting 46.0 percent on the season, tops in the America East Conference to date.

Retrievers Go With Pender…UMBC is following the lead of junior Matea Pender as the Retrievers are 3-0 in games Pender has scored double-digits.  In UMBC wins, Pender is averaging 18.7 ppg, is shooting 55.3 percent (21-of-38) from the field and 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from three-point range.  Pender already has two 20-point performances, topping last season one 20-point performance the entire year.  Courtney Doughman produced that performance with a 22-point effort against Albany.   

Retrievers Dial Long Distance…UMBC's 11 three-point baskets against Morgan State was three treys off their school record of 14 set by the Retrievers last year at Northeastern.  Matea Pender led UMBC with five three-point baskets while Heather Luttrell had two treys and four others had one each.

UMBC Clearing The Glass…The Retrievers grabbed 46 rebounds in their game against Morgan State last week as Sharri Rohde led the Retrievers with seven boards.  UMBC never reach 40 total rebounds in their 28 games last year and 46 boards are the most rebounds by a UMBC team in the Stern era.

Retrievers Showing Unselfish Play…UMBC as a team has recorded 20 assists or more in each of their first four games, eclipsing their total amount of assists in any one game all of last year with 21 in each of the first two.  Leading the way is Brittnie Hughes with 25 assists on the season and Sharri Rohde with 16.  UMBC's school record for team assists in a game is 27.  The Retrievers have 82 assists on the season, a 20.50 assist per game average, which ranks 3.0 apg better than second place in the America East team statistics charts.  UMBC ranks second in assist/turnover ratio at 1.15.  Morgan Hatten with 13 assists and a mere two turnovers leads the conference at a 6.50 assist/turnover ratio.

Using The Bench…Head Coach Phil Stern has seen his bench log some quality minutes in the opening three games of the season.  Stern's bench scored over 15 points in each of the first three games, including a season-high 33 points against Morgan State.

Coming To Play…The UMBC freshman class has come to the play with three of UMBC's 10 double-digit scorers in the first four games coming from Retriever rookies.  Kristin Drabyn is averaging 9.8 ppg and has consecutive double-digit performances on the year while Morgan Hatten dropped 11 points in her collegiate debut.  Fellow freshman Amanda Robinson has recorded four blocks, four steals and cleared 13 boards to date.  The Retriever freshman have combined for 29.8 percent of UMBC's total scoring and 29.9 percent of UMBC's total minutes played.

Hughes Lending A Helping Hand…Brittnie Hughes, who saw action in 11 games last year, has handed out at least six assists in each of UMBC's four games this year, including a career-high seven assists against Navy.  At least six assists was only reached on two occasions all of last year.

Getting Ahead Early...UMBC has led at half in three of their first four games, including taking a 30-point advantage over Morgan State with 50-first half points.  Last season UMBC did not lead at half for the first nine games of the season and trailed in 24-of-28 games at halftime. 

Hughes Named to All-Tournament Team…Sophomore Brittnie Hughes was named to the UMBC Retriever Tip-Off Tournament All-Tournament team after finishing the opening weekend with 9.0 ppg and 6.0 apg.  Hughes also stole seven balls.  Hughes set a career-high for points in a game in the first half against Coppin State and went on to set her new mark at 12 points. 

Home Sweet Home...The Retrievers for the first time in their 36 seasons have 15 home games as UMBC welcomes six non-conference opponents and all-nine America East foes to RAC Arena in 2004-05.  The Retrievers best home mark was a 10-0 record at RAC Arena in 1993-94.  UMBC's career home record is 185-143.

No Charity Allowed...Over the last two seasons Head Coach Phil Stern's squads ranked in the top-five in the country in fewest fouls per game.  Last year the Retrievers as a team finished second nationally at 13.3 fouls per game.  UMBC finished fifth in the nation two years ago in fouls per game at 13.5. 

Hitting The Airwaves…With the newly launched umbcretrievers.com, the majority of home games and a few road contests will be broadcast live on the internet through www.umbcretrievers.com. Play-by-Play announcer Troy Green will bring the action on all contests via the web.  Umbcretrievers.com will also broadcast live stats for all men's and women's basketball home games.  In addition UMBC will play a home televised contest as part of the America East Television package when UMBC hosts Hartford on Feb. 26 at 12 p.m. at UMBC RAC Arena.  Currently the game is set to air on Metro TV NY and Fox Sports New England. 

Retrievers No Longer New Beast In The America East…The Retrievers are no longer the new kids on the block in the America East Conference as they open their second season in the mid-major conference.  Despite a full season in league play the Retrievers still received no love from their conference foes, being picked to finish 10th in the league for the second consecutive year.

Going Global…The Retrievers' 13-player roster contains three international players. 

Senior Anastasia Goncharova is from Russia junior Matea Pender is a native of Croatia and freshman Zuzana Kasanová hails from the Slovak Republic.  In addition to players from the around the world, the majority of UMBC's squad is from outside the state lines.  Tyecia Powell (Baltimore, Md.), Amanda Robinson (Lusby, Md.) and Morgan Hatten (Potomac, Md.) are the Retrievers' women's hoops only Maryland natives.

Infirmary Report:  UMBC prior to the season lost freshman Zuzana Kasanová to an ACL tear to her knee.  Kasanová will red shirt this season.

Retrievers Ink Three For 2005-06…UMBC head women's basketball coach Phil Stern announced the signings of three student-athletes to National Letters of Intent to attend UMBC for the 2005-06 academic year.  The list includes Melissa Book (Raleigh, N.C./Millbrook High School), Mackenzie Butler (Reno, Nev./Reno High School) and Suzanne Morris (Cleveland, Tenn./Walker Valley High School).