Clemson Women’s Basketball To Kick Off 2008-09 Season At Furman On Friday

Nov. 13, 2008

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson women’s basketball team will kick off the 2008-09 season on Friday night as the Lady Tigers make the short trip to Furman University. The teams are scheduled for a 5:00 pm tip from Timmons Arena.

Broadcast Notes The game will be aired on WCCP (104.9 FM) in the Upstate Roy Philpott will call the play-by-play with Kanetra Queen providing color commentary Livestats will be available on www.clemsontigers.com

Clemson Quick Notes Clemson owns a 23-10 record in season openers The last time the Lady Tigers opened a season on an opponents’ home court was the 2002-03 season against South Carolina Cristy McKinney is entering her fourth season at the helm of the Clemson women’s program Furman Head Coach Sam Dixon served as a Clemson assistant coach under Jim Davis from 1999-2002 Tasha Taylor currently ranks 10th with 338 career assists Taylor and Christy Brown both rank in the top 10 for career assists per game Lele Hardy’s 181 career steals are eighth in school history Hardy holds the school record with a 2.97 career steals per game average The Lady Tigers were predicted to finish ninth in the preseason ACC poll First-year assistant coach A.G. Hall will be making his debut on the sidelines on Friday night Clemson returns nine letterwinners and has six freshmen for the 2008-09 season Sthefany Thomas spent her offseason traveling with the Argentinean national team to the South America Championships and the FIBA Olympic Qualifier The 2008-09 Clemson women’s basketball roster has quite the athletic lineage. Six players have parents and/or siblings that also played a sport at the Division I level McKinney and her staff signed North Carolina point guard Keyrra Gillespie on Wednesday. Gillespie will join the Lady Tiger program for the 2009-10 season.

Series Notes Clemson leads the all-time series with Furman, 19-2 The Lady Tigers have won the last three meetings, including a 58-52 decision last season at Littlejohn Coliseum Clemson also owns a 9-1 advantage in games played on the Paladins’ home court Furman last defeated the Lady Tigers during the 2004-05 season.