| Elon Phoenix (2-0) vs. Hampton Lady Pirates (1-0) |
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ELON, N.C. – Looking to keep its hot start to the season rolling, Elon University women's basketball will welcome defending MEAC champion Hampton to Alumni Gym for a 7 p.m. matchup Friday night, Nov. 17. The contest will air live on Phoenix All-Access and can be heard on WSOE 89.3 FM.
THE SERIES
Elon and Hampton have met just once to date with the Lady Pirates taking a 78-73 victory over the Phoenix back on Dec. 28, 2001, in a neutral-site meeting.
ABOUT HAMPTON
Consistently one of the top teams in the MEAC, Hampton won the conference tournament last season to reach the NCAA Tournament. In six of the last eight years, the Lady Pirates have won either the MEAC regular season or tournament titles. It also swept the titles four consecutive years from 2010-11 to 2013-14. Hampton has played once this season, but it was a big 70-66 road win over ACC-foe North Carolina. Monnazjea Finney-Smith led the team with 25 points while three others also finished in double figures. Head coach David Six, in his ninth season with the program, used only seven players in the game.
LAST TIME OUT
Elon knocked down nine of its 10 shots in the first quarter Monday, Nov. 13, to race out to what would eventually be a 90-59 road victory over North Carolina A&T. In all, Elon hit 52.7 percent of its shots from the floor and converted 10-of-19 three-pointers.
Shay Burnett led the Phoenix with 15 points. She also had nine assists and eight rebounds on the evening. Burnett's 15 led six double-figure scorers with
Malaya Johnson adding 14 points,
Jaylin Powell 13,
Ra'Shika White 12 and
Lexi Mercer and
Jada Graves chipping in 10 apiece.
LEAGUE CHAMPION MEETINGS
The Elon/Hampton matchup marks the seventh game this season in which conference tournament champions from the 2016-17 campaign will meet. Other matchups between conference tournament winners include:
-Green Bay (Horizon) beat Chattanooga (Southern) 60-30
-Connecticut (AAC) beat Stanford (Pac-12) 78-53
-Maryland (Big Ten) beat South Carolina (SEC) 94-86
-Maryland beat Albany (America East) 91-58
-Montana State (Big Sky) beat Long Beach State (Big West) 62-51
-Notre Dame (ACC) beat Western Kentucky (C-USA)
EARLY-SEASON AWARD
Following a strong opening night, Ra'Shika Whte was named the first CAA Player of the Week on Monday, Nov. 13. The sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., poured in 29 points on 12-of-17 from the floor while pulling down eight rebounds. The award followed two Rookie of the Week awards earned during her freshman campaign in 2016-17.
PRESEASON ACCOLADES
Shay Burnett was tabbed the 2017-18 CAA Preseason Player of the Year by the league's head coaches on Oct. 19. She was also picked as a First Team All-CAA honoree and was joined by
Malaya Johnson earning Second Team All-CAA laurels. The defending champion Phoenix was selected second in the CAA this season, picking up 74 points in the poll and three first-place votes. James Madison was picked to take the crown with six first-place votes and 78 points. Drexel received the 10th and final first-place vote, but was picked to finish fourth behind William & Mary.
YOUNG BLOOD
Entering 2017-18, Elon has the sixth-youngest roster in the nation with 75 percent of its players freshmen or sophomores. The roster rounds out with just three seniors and zero juniors. On a national scale, UNCG checks in with a roster comprised of 87.5 percent freshmen and sophomores to rank as the youngest squad in the country. It is followed by Florida International (80 percent), San Jose State (80 percent), Utah State (76.9 percent) and Air Force (76.5 percent).
POLL WATCHING
In the preseason edition of the USA TODAY Coaches poll, Elon earned a vote toward the Top 25. It finished the 2016-17 season receiving two votes in the poll after picking up as many as four heading into the postseason a year ago. Elon is also No. 8 in the CollegeInsider.com Women's Mid-Major Poll released Tuesday, Nov. 14. It jumped previous No. 6 and current No. 10 James Madison to become the top-ranked CAA team in the poll.
HOME SWEET ALUMNI GYM
Since
Charlotte Smith took over the program in 2011-12, Elon has posted a 64-20 record in Alumni Gym. Last year, the Phoenix went 11-2 at home. It has not lost more than five games in Alumni Gym in a season under Smith and has won at least 10 in all six seasons to date she's led the program. Elon's only home losses last year came in a 76-70 defeat to James Madison on Jan. 20 and a Nov. 26 loss to ACC-foe Wake Forest, 78-68. The Phoenix plays two of its first three games of the season in Alumni Gym before playing three in a row in the state of Florida.
LOOKING BACK at 2016-17
Elon earned the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season and tournament championships in 2016-17, marking the first Division I conference championships in program history. To cap the regular season, Elon defeated UNCW 82-48 at home to claim the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. At the CAA Championships, Elon took down all three of its opponents in convincing fashion on the way to punching its first-ever ticket to the NCAA Tournament. As an 11-seed, Elon battled sixth-seeded West Virginia to the end, but the Mountaineers pulled away late in the fourth quarter for a 75-62 win in College Park, Md.
20-GAME WINNERS
With 27 victories last season, it marked just the second time Elon has reached the 20-win mark as a Division I program. Last time Elon reached 20 wins was in 2010-11, when the Phoenix finished 20-13 and made its first Division I postseason tournament appearance in the WBI.
MADE IT LOOK EASY
In the CAA Tournament last season, Elon defeated its opponents by an average of 24.7 points, defeating Hofstra in the quarterfinals by 28 (78-50), William & Mary in the semifinals by 28 (88-60) and James Madison in the finals by 18 (78-60). Elon shot 54.1 percent from the floor, hitting 91-of-168 shots it took across the three games. The Phoenix's 56.1 field goal percentage against William & Mary was the highest single-game percentage of the season. The stellar performance was the third-highest among the 32 conference champions and sat behind only UConn's 58.4 percent (104-178) in the AAC Tournament and Maryland's 54.6 percent (101-185) in the Big Ten Tournament.
UP NEXT
Following Friday's game, Elon will head to the state of Florida for three games in Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale. First, Elon will take on UCF on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. before going to Ft. Lauderdale for the Puerto Rico Clasico for a Friday, Nov. 24, meeting with Alabama and a Saturday, Nov. 25, date with Iowa. Both of Elon's games in the Puerto Rico Clasico are slated for 5 p.m. tipoff.
--ELON--
