Islanders Ready For Southwest Tour

Women's Basketball | November 17, 2017

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi continues its road trip against UTEP this Saturday, followed by its first out of state contest of the year at New Mexico State. 
 


WHAT TO KNOW
Who: Islanders at UTEP
When: Saturday, 8 PM
Where: Don Haskins Center | El Paso, Texas
Watch: CUSA.tv
Listen: Islanders Digital Network powered by AEP Texas

WHAT TO KNOW
Who: Islanders at New Mexico State
When: Monday, 7 PM
Where: Pan American Center | Las Cruces, N.M.
Listen: Islanders Digital Network powered by AEP Texas

SERIES HISTORY

• The Islanders are 1-2 against UTEP all-time with the two sides last meeting nearly 10 years ago  to the date (11/15/07)
• The Blue and Green met with New Mexico State in a more recent bout, losing to the Aggies in December of 2015
• NMSU is 2-0 against Corpus Christi all-time but is yet to face the Islanders at home, with both meetings taking place at neutral sites
• This will be the first time the Islanders have played either of this weekend's teams since the start of the Royce Chadwick era
• Coach Chadwick twice beat the Miners while coaching at Marshall from 2001-2012 

HOW THEY MATCHUP

• New Mexico State enters this weekend with a 1-1 record while the UTEP Miners are sitting at 1-0
• All three teams have outrebounded their opponents this season, with the Islanders margin sitting at a plus 8.3 per game
• The Islanders have been tenacious on defense this season, causing over 20 turnovers and averaging 27.7 points o of turnovers for the year
• The Miners have caused just 20 turnovers between both of their games, and have scored just 22 points off of those turnovers
• The Islanders' 34 steals rank 11th in all of Division I women's basketball, while the Aggies and Miners have a combined total of 20
• The ability of the Islanders' and Aggies' benches to produce points have been a pivotal part of the two teams results this season. Corpus Christi's bench has scored an average of 32 points in victories, while NMSU's subs scored 39 in the team's win over Permian Basin and just 14 in their loss to Western Michigan
• The Aggies will play their first road contest of the season against New Mexico on Saturday before playing the Islanders the following Monday
• With their advantage in the turnover department, the Islanders hold a distinct advantage over NMSU and UTEP in the defensive points per game at 51.7 points allowed
• The Islanders were 8-8 coming off a loss the previous season, while UTEP was 1-6 after a win during the 2016-17
• New Mexico State is one of two opponents the Islanders will play this year that participated in last season's NCAA Championship Tournament

ISLANDER NOTES

• Brittany Mbamalu dropped 20-plus for the second time this season, with a career-high 26 points against UTRGV
• Mbamalu buried eight three pointers against Vaqueros, the most any Islander has had in a single game in program history
• Emma Young became the first Islander to record a double-double in the 2017-18 campaign, against McMurry on Saturday. She joins Mbamalu as one of two active Islanders to record a double-double in their career
• Young recorded a career-high 11 rebounds against the War Hawks and tied a career-high with 17 points
• With another nine boards against UTRGV last week, Young leads all Islanders with 25 rebounds on the year
• Six players have already recorded double-digit performances in the Islanders' young season, with four players scoring 10-plus against TLU to open the year
• Sophomores Dae Dae Evans and Tiara Matthews earned their first starts of the year against the Vaqueros, while senior guard Brianna Jackson made her first appearance of the season off the bench
• Dalesia Booth has recorded multiple steals in all three games this season, recording a pair of steals at UTRGV. She leads all Blue and Green players with nine on the year
• After their loss to the Vaqueros, the Islanders have held opponents to under 60 points in two of three games this season, a feat they accomplished 12 times during the 2016-17 campaign

COMING UP NEXT
The Islanders will head back to Edinburg next Saturday, but this time to compete in a pair of neutral site matches in the UTRGV Feast of Sharing Tournament. Corpus Christi will matchup with Prairie View A&M and Florida A&M during the four-team competition, neither of which the Islanders have seen in over a decade.

STAY SOCIAL
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