Women's Basketball

Complete Game Notes

WACO, TEXAS - The Howard women's basketball team opens up its regular season today with a contest against Baylor at the Basketball Traveler's Tip-Off Tournament. The young Bison, featuring seven freshmen and the same amount of total newcomers on the active roster, look to get started on the right foot before facing Prairie View A&M and St. Mary's (CA) on day two and three of the tournament.

Head Coach Cathy Parson begins her eighth season at Howard with nine players from last season's team that finished 8-22 (7-11 MEAC). Baylor, members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), went 26-8 last season (11-5 conference).

The Lady Bears won an NCAA title in 2005 and come into Friday's contest with a #15 ranking in both the Associated Press poll and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.

Prairie View, members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), returns seven players from a 2006-07 squad that went 19-14 and 14-4 in conference.

St. Mary's, members of the West Coast Conference (WCC), posted a 14-14 (8-6 WCC) mark last year and returns eight letterwinners and three starters.

Probable Starters - Howard

No.  Name                              Pos.    Ht.    Cl.      2006-07 Stats
20    Shannon Carlisle             G        5-4    R-Sr.  16.0 ppg/4.0 rpg
32    Asha Santee                   G        5-8    Sr.      6.0 ppg/2.6 rpg
33    Jasmine Lipford               F        6-1     Jr.      2.0 ppg/2.4 rpg
24    Charae Baulkman           F         6-1    So.     0.8 ppg/2.1 rpg
31    Tamaya Daniels              C        6-2     Jr.      3.9 ppg/5.4 rpg

Scouting Baylor
Baylor is coming off an 82-56 preseason exhibition loss to the USA National Team. In that game, Jessica Morrow led the Lady Bears in scoring with 17 points while Ashley Tisdale followed with 14. Rachel Allison led all rebounders with 12. Five players scored in double figures in BU's 99-57 victory over Houston in its first exhibition contest. Tisdale led all scorers with 29 while Allison, Jhasmin Player and Jessika Bradley all collected double-doubles.

Baylor is coached by Kim Mulkey, who is in her eighth season at BU. She has an 183-53 record both at the school and in her career as a head coach.

Scouting Prairie View A&M
The Cougars are coached by Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, former Head Coach of the of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player. The Cougars are paced by Gaati Werema, who led the team last year with 14.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. The sophomore was named SWAC freshman of the year and also garnered all-conference first-team honors. Prairie View returns seven players from last year's team and adds six newcomers.

Scouting St. Mary's
St. Mary's 8-6 conference mark in 2006-07 was the best record by the Gaels in WCC play in five years. SMC enters the tournament with a preseason exhibition win over Loyola of New Orleans. Louella Tomlinson paced the Gaels that night with 22 points and nine rebounds. Jontelle Smith added 21 and Maija Lahde chipped in with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Pounding Pavement
Howard opens up its regular season with nine consecutive games on the road. The Lady Bison kicks off its season when they travel south to face perennial powerhouse Baylor in the Basketball Travelers Classic, hosted by the Bears, on November 9-11. Howard will take on Baylor on November 9, Prairie View A&M on November 10 and St. Mary's (CA) on November 11 during the three-day tournament.

HU is on the road again at Navy on Nov. 14 and takes on Longwood and Campbell at the Longwood Tournament on November 16-17. The Bison takes on non-conference foe Bucknell on November 19 before heading to Providence for the Brown Tournament on December 1-2.

Carlisle Returns for Senior Season
Senior Shannon Carlisle (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence Central) returns for her fourth season in a Bison uniform after earning All-MEAC First Team honors in 2006-08. Carlisle averaged 16.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 steals per game, which were all team highs season. Her 3.3 steals per game ranked second highest in the nation and she was named the 2006-07 MEAC Defensive Player of the Year for her efforts on the court.

Bison Picked Eighth in the MEAC
The Howard University women's basketball team has been picked to finish eighth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's annual preseason poll, as voted on by the League's Head Coaches and Sports Information Directors. The announcement was made on October 10 in Raleigh, N.C. as part of the 2007-08 Tip-Off Media Luncheon. Howard received 214 points in the preseason poll. Coppin State was picked first as the Lady Eagles garnered 12 first-place votes with 442 points. CSU was followed by Delaware State (437, nine first-place votes) while North Carolina A&T (356 points) rounds out the top three.

Howard has Lone Star Connections
Howard has one player from the State of Texas. Senior G/F Asha Santee (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) is from the Lone Star State.

Ticket Information
Tickets for all Lady Bison games are available through Howard's ticket office at Cramton Auditorium (202-806-7194), by calling 1-800-TICKETMASTER or visiting http://www.ticketmaster.com/.

Howard's Web Site
Fans can access all the latest news and notes about Bison Athletics by accessing Howard's athletic website at www.howard-bison.com. All of Howard's releases, results, statistics, box scores, schedules and coach and player information is available on the site. Game recaps and statistics are updated after each decision. To follow the Bison on the web, go to www.howard-bison.com.

A Look at The Mecca
The latest college ranking conducted by the U.S. News and World Report has again listed Howard University as one of the top schools for undergraduate students.

In the 2008 U.S. News and World Report annual feature on the nation's top colleges, Howard University remained in the top tier of the nation's "Best National Universities" ranking 96 out of 124 institutions. This position is shared with Auburn University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, SUNY-Stony Brook, University of Arizona, University of California-Riverside, University of Mass.-Amherst, University of Tennessee, University of the Pacific (CA), and the University of Vermont.

Howard is ranked third (behind Princeton and Harvard) in the category of students graduating with the least debt. Other institutions in this category include: Utah State, 4; University of Mass.-Amherst, 5; Louisiana Tech, 6; University of Hawaii, 7; University of California-Irvine, 8; Clark Atlanta, 9 and the University of Central Florida, 10.

Howard remains in the top 50 universities in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category with a 39^th place ranking.