The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Host Defending C-USA Champion Tulsa On Friday
1/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB women's basketball team got off to a great start on January 2 by defeating Memphis, 75-59, and moving to 1-0 in Conference USA play. Now, the Blazers look to build on that victory as they host defending C-USA champ Tulsa on Friday, January 5 in Bartow Arena, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
Friday's matchup will mark the third meeting between the two programs on the hardwood, with the all-time series tied at one-all. UAB holds the most recent win, outdoing Tulsa 60-57 on January 13, 2006 in Tulsa, Okla.
The Blazers, who began the 2006-07 season 0-6, have turned things around and gone 6-1 in their last seven games to hold an overall record of 6-7 and a 1-0 mark in league games.
Tulsa, who was chosen to repeat as conference champions in the preseason coaches' poll, is 5-8 on the year and 0-1 in C-USA play. In their C-USA opener, the Golden Hurricane fell to SMU by a count of 64-54 in Dallas, Texas.
UAB is being led on the floor by senior Carmen Guzman, who is putting up a conference-best 21.5 ppg, which ranks 10th nationally in Division I scoring. Guzman, who has tallied 279 points this season, ranks 12th on UAB's all-time scoring list with 1,314 points and needs just 19 points to pass Felicia Jackson for the 11th spot.
Diamond Rogers is also coming up big for the Blazers during her junior season, averaging 14.1 ppg and a team-high 6.2 rpg, which ranks 10th and 14th respectively in the league.
Leading the way for the Golden Hurricane is 2006 C-USA Player of the Year and 2006-07 C-USA Preseason Player of the Year Jillian Robbins, who is averaging 18.5 ppg, which is second in the conference standings. Robbins is also grabbing a team-high 13.3 rebounds per contest, which is tops in Conference USA.
