By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – After giving the home fans plenty to cheer about in its 88-55 season-opening win over Cumberland University, the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team will make the first stop on its 2018-19 road tour in Cincinnati for a Sunday evening matchup with Xavier.
Tech's 88-point performance vs. Cumberland – the highest total in Kim Rosamond's tenure as head coach – featured six scorers in double figures, including a game-high 19 points from senior forward Lacy Cantrell, a near-triple-double from fellow senior Kentoria Alexander (10 points., 10 rebounds., eight assists.), a .478 field goal percentage, and a .429 clip (9-21) from behind the three-point line.
Jordan Brock (4) and Megan Clark (3) accounted for seven of the nine Tech triples. While Brock's long-range abilities are well documented, it was the first meaningful playing time for Clark, who made the most of her 13 minutes with 11 points.
Tech's quality of opponent is sure to increase tremendously when it goes up against Xavier in the second all-time meeting between the two squads. Xavier won the first encounter, 64-47, back on Dec. 3, 2015.
TTU also had the defense turned up, as it collected 15 team steals, led by Akia Harris with six. The most well-rounded performer on the team was at it again, chalking up 11 points along with six assists as well.
Here's a closer look at this year's edition of the Xavier Musketeers:
Xavier Profile
Xavier competes in the Big East Conference, where it has compiled a 26-64 record in five seasons. TTU is 3-2 all-time against teams from the present-day Big East.
Xavier found much more success as a member of the Atlantic 10, its previous league affiliation, where it built a 185-69 ledger over 18 seasons.
The Musketeers produced a mark of 10-20 overall last year, to go with a 3-15 record in the Big East.
They also lost their top three scorers from last year in Jada Byrd (9.5 ppg), Imani Partlow (8.9 ppg) and Anniina Aijanen (7.9), who made up nearly 40 percent of
their scoring.
The fourth and fifth scorers, Na'Teshia Owens (7.5 ppg) and Aaliyah Dunham (6.1 ppg), are back in uniform. Owens was second on the team with 27 starts a season ago, and Dunham was one of four players to compete in all 30 contests.
Dunham, a 5-foot, 4-inch guard from South Charleston, W.V., led the team with 74 assists (2.5 per game), shot 41.4 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from the free throw line on her way to Big East All-Rookie Team honors.
Owens and Dunham also bring back XU's sweetest strokes from behind the arc, having paced coach Bryan Neal's club at 40.4 percent and 39.0 percent in 2017-18.
Both players started the Musketeers' season opener against Chicago State. Dunham tallied nine points, while Owens finished with six.
Deja Ross, a sophomore guard who played in 28 games last season, led the way with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting against CSU, while freshman forward Ayanna Townsend made all six of her field goals for 15 points. She also hauled down a team-high eight rebounds in her first 17 minutes of collegiate action.
Xavier was not efficient from the charity stripe in their opener, connecting on just 13 of 28 attempts for 46.4 percent.
The Golden Eagles will see a familiar face on their trip, that of former Tech assistant Crystal Kelly, who was a part of Kim Rosamond's original staff in 2016-17. She has been on the Xavier bench since May 2017.
Live Stats/Broadcast Information
TTU vs. Xavier Live Stats
Xavier All-Access Stream
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
