RiverHawks Open With Arkansas

TAHLELQUAH, Okla. – Northeastern State women’s basketball team opens the 2009-10 season with an exhibition game Wednesday when the RiverHawks travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to play the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Tip-off at Bud Walton Arena is 7 p.m.

Head coach Randy Gipson will hit the floor running as the RiverHawks will follow the Arkansas game with a regular season opener on Friday, when the RiverHawks open play in the prestigious Disney Classic in Orlando, Fla., at 9 a.m.

Northeastern State’s opener will be against the 21st-ranked team in the nation, Gannon University at 9 a.m. (CST), followed by North Alabama on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (CST) and Sunday’s finale against Shippensburgh at 11:15 a.m.

But first the RiverHawks are looking at the University of Arkansas on Wednesday and Gipson sees the exhibition game as an opportunity for his club to prepare for the upcoming season.

”Ready or not its here,” said an excited Gipson. “We’ve been anticipating this for some time and we are excited about it and ready to get started. This is the first part of what I think will be a really nice trip and experience for our players and coaches,” said Gipson.

Gipson will take a squad to Arkansas that returns four starters from last season’s 16-12 club that surprised everyone by reaching the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament. Gipson who is in his 11th season at Northeastern State has named his starters after a very productive fall drills.

“Our attitude has been very good and our 16 practices we’ve made the most of our time. I think we are ready to go play. This team has higher expectations, understanding of what it takes to succeed,” said Gipson.

Starting for the River Hawks Wednesday night will Jasmine Webb, 5-11 junior forward, Crusty Nix, 5-11, sophomore forward, Jessica White, 5-10 senior guard, Megan Fraley, 5-5 junior guard, and Alex Perkins, 5-8 sophomore guard.

Webb, Perkins, Nits and White are all returning starters from a year ago, while Fraley is a junior college transfer from Northeastern A&M.

Webb is the anchor of the RiverHawks and the top returning point producer. She averaged 14 points a game, 6.8 rebounds and 17 block shots. Webb is followed in the scoring by Perkins, who was voted the Lone Star Conference North Division Freshman of the year last season. Perkins scored at an 11.3 clip and pulled down 4.0 rebounds a contest. She also dished out 80 assists.

Nitz, was a LSC All-Conference honorable mention selection a year ago, averaging 8.9 points and 4.4 rebounds with White, a three-year starter, returning with a 6.2 scoring average and 3.8 boards per game.

Fraley was a Bi-State Conference, Region II, and honorable mention junior college All-American selection last season with NEO.

Gipson said he was using the Arkansas exhibition game at Arkansas to get ready for the Disney Classic and the three-game regular season openers at Orlando.

“There’s no doubt about that,’’ said Gipson. “It has to be that way. It’s a practice in uniform and maybe on a little brighter stage than we are used too.

”A little more than 36 hours after that scrimmage we are in Orlando opening a Division II game that counts and the No. 21-ranked team in the country. As I have said before, these games you play outside your region is a great opportunity for you to gain some quality points if you are in the equation for an at-large NCAA tournament berth.

”Our preparation in practice has been totally focused on Gannon and then North Alabama and Shippensburg. We’ll do a walk through on Arkansas the day of the game,” said Gipson.

Arkansas women’s basketball team, who finished 18-14 last season and advanced to the third round of the WNIT, earned seven votes in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 poll released last week.

The Razorbacks return nine letter winners from a year ago. In addition Arkansas returns the services of all three Southeastern Conference honorees from 2008-09.

Arkansas sophomore C'eira Ricketts, 5-9 guard, was selected to the Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Preseason All-SEC First-Team.

Ricketts, a Louisville, Ky., native, was the SEC Co-Freshman of the Year last season and earned selection to the SEC Second-Team as well.

Arkansas head coach Tom Collen’s club was picked ninth overall in the SEC by a vote of league coaches, sports information directors and media representatives.

Ricketts led Arkansas in scoring, assists and steals, averaging 12.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.9 apg and 2.6 spg, Ricketts became the first player in Razorback women's basketball history to record a triple double. The 5-8 Louisville, Ky., product scored 14 points with 13 rebounds and 12 assists against SEC Champion Auburn in January.