The University of Mississippi Athletics
Lady Rebels Host Athletes In Action In Exhibition Game
11/9/2005 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 9, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team will open the 2005-06 season on Thursday with their lone exhibition contest when they play host to Athletes In Action at Tad Smith Coliseum. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
"This game will give us a chance to see where we are," said Ole Miss head coach Carol Ross, who owns a 36-25 record in her first two seasons at the helm of the Lady Rebel program. "We can play against some body other than ourselves and get a solid evaluation of where we are and where we need to be. Fortunately we will then have another week after the game to get some of those kinks out."
Ross returns for her third season leading the program after spending the summer with the gold medal-winning USA Basketball U19 World Championship team. She has guided the Lady Rebels to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and a 15-13 mark in Southeastern Conference play.
The Lady Rebels return nine players, including two starters from last season's NCAA Tournament squad. Although replacing the four outgoing seniors will be no small task, Ole Miss returns some firepower.
The 2005 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Armintie Price, returns for her junior season. Price, who also earned First Team All-SEC honors last season, was recently named a top 30 preseason candidate for the Women's Wooden Award and preseason All-SEC by both the league coaches and the media. The 5-9 guard from Blue Mountain, Miss., led Ole Miss in scoring (16.7), rebounding (10.3), steals (3.2) and field goal percentage (.536) and ranked second on the team in assists (3.2) as a sophomore. Price has posted 27 double-doubles in her first two seasons at Ole Miss and is just 53 points shy of joining the 1,000-point club.
Joining Price as a returning starter is senior forward Ellen Buchanan. Buchanan started 22-of-30 games as a junior averaging 2.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest. Fellow senior guard Ashley Johnson, of Shelbyville, Tenn., averaged 4.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game with nine starts to her credit a season ago. LaTanya Jones a guard from Mableton, Ga., rounds out the senior class. Jones turned in 2.6 points and 1.\6 rebounds off-the-bench last season.
Ashley Awkward a junior guard out of Memphis will look to fill the shoes of departed senior Carletta Brown at the point guard position. Awkward averaged 4.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game as sophomore. Also returning at the guard position is a pair of sophomores in Tasi Worsham and Lindsay Roy. Worsham came off-the-bench to average 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds and Roy averaged 2.2 points and 0.5 rebounds per game last season.
Another pair of sophomores return at the forward position in Danetra Forrest and Jada Mincy. Both Forrest and Mincy had productive campaigns as freshmen with Forrest averaging 5.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game and Mincy tallying 2.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per contest.
Making her return to the court this season will be sophomore Carla Bartee. Bartee sat out the 2004-05 season after transferring to Ole Miss from Western Kentucky. She averaged 11.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game as a freshman with the Lady Hilltoppers. Bartee also posted nine double-doubles in her first season of collegiate basketball and will be another player on the roster who has some valuable experience under her belt.
Joining the mix at the forward position will be incoming freshman Brandi Tipton of Curryville, Mo. Tipton, 6-1, averaged 21.2 points, 13.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 5.0 blocks per game in leading Clopton High School to a state title as a senior.
Shawn Goff, of Tallahassee, Fla., joins the Lady Rebel program looking to provide solid play in the center position. Goff, a 6-3 freshman, averaged 17.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game as a senior at Leon High School.
Athletes In Action is 0-7 on their exhibition tour. They have fallen to the following schools prior to arriving in Oxford: Florida State, Michigan, Michigan State, Liberty, Richmond, Virginia Tech and North Carolina.
Ole Miss will open regular-season play on Friday, Nov. 18, when they play host to the Rice Owls, the 2005 Western Athletic Conference Co-Champions. The Owls, who lost to Georgia in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, return three starters and 12 letterwinners from last season.
Tickets prices for Ole Miss women's basketball games are as follows: reserved seating $7, general admission $5, student tickets are free with a valid student identification. Fans will receive complimentary admission to the season-opener versus Rice with their football game ticket for the Ole Miss-LSU game. The first 250 fans at the game will receive an "It's Time For Lady Rebel Basketball" souvenir desk clock courtesy of Coca-Cola.
