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Cougars Look to Continue Postseason Run

Women's Basketball USF Athletics

Cougars Look to Continue Postseason Run

The Game
The Cougars and Wildcats will square off a third time this season with Wayne State having won the first two meetings by an average of 9.0 points per game. The final scores did not reflect the closeness of the two games as USF trailed by two points with two minutes left in the first meeting and trailed by only four points with under a minute and a half left in the game. The Cougars and Wildcats have faced each other eight times with WSC winning seven of those eight games. The lone Cougar victory came in 2013 at the Stewart Center in Sioux Falls where the Cougars won 81-63. Laura Johnson helped guide the Cougars to victory as she recorded a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The Cougars enter the game as the No. 5 seed in the South Division while Wayne State enters as the top ranked team from the South Division.

About Wayne State
The Wildcats enter Saturday's game with only three losses on the season. WSC opened up the year with 11 straight wins before dropping a three-point game to Concordia-St. Paul. The Wildcats then won five straight before they fell again to Concordia-St. Paul 69-50. Wayne State then returned to their winning ways as they won 11 of their next 12 games before entering Saturday's game against the Cougars. The Wildcats are led by Jordan Spencer who averages 15.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game this season. Ellen Hansen has also been key for WSC as she averages 8.9 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting 45.5% from the field.

Spencer vs. the Cougars
In the two matchups with the Cougars this season, forward Jordan Spencer has been effective for the Wildcats on offense as she has averaged 22.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game in the two victories. One bright spot for the Cougars in regards to guarding Spencer has been the 5.0 turnovers she has averaged in the two games including a season-high seven turnovers in the second matchup with the Cougars.

Cougar Defense Against Wildcat Offense
The Cougar defense enters the weekend ranked as the number four defense in the NSIC in Field Goal Percentage Defense. Over the season the Cougars have held their opponents to shooting just 38.3% from the field. The Cougar defense will be put to the test in Saturday's game where they will face the top shooting team in the NSIC in Wayne State. The Wildcats have shot an average of 46.9% in their games this season and will look to carry that shooting over in the matchup with USF.

Three-Ball
The Cougars have relied on the three-point shot in their victories this season as they have won seven of the nine games where they have made ten or more three-point shots as a team. USF enters the game with the sixth best three-point shooting team in the conference and also have made more three-point shots than any other team in the NSIC (8.63/game). USF will look to overcome a tough 3pt Defense in Wayne State as the Wildcats average allowing their opponents to shoot only 26.5% which is the best mark of any NSIC team. One other intriguing matchup comes between Laura Johnson of USF and Ellen Hansen of WSC. Johnson is sixth in the conference in three-point shooting with her average of 40.8% from behind the arc while Hansen ranks fifth in the conference by making 41.4% of her three-point attempts.

Second Chance Shots
One key to a Cougar victory will likely be grabbing offensive rebounds and creating second chance shots. The Cougars have grabbed 11.33 offensive rebounds per game while the Wildcats only pull in 7.90 offensive rebounds per game.
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Players Mentioned

Laura Johnson

#32 Laura Johnson

G/F
6' 0"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Laura Johnson

#32 Laura Johnson

6' 0"
Freshman
G/F