ATTENTION: Attendance to Thursday's women's basketball game will be free of charge for all fans. Non-perishable food items will also be collected for the Green River Ministry Food Pantry.


CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The Campbellsville University women's basketball team will hit the court one final time in 2019 as they welcome the Redhawks of Martin Methodist College to the Powell Athletic Center on Thursday for a 4 p.m. ET tip.
 
As mentioned above, admission to the game will be free of charge for all planning to attend as well as collecting non-perishable food donations being collected for the Green River Ministry Food Pantry at the Powell Athletic Center.
 
For those who cannot attend, the game will air live locally on both WLCU TV and Radio on Comcast 10 and 88.7 The Tiger. Matt Payton, the voice of Lady Tiger basketball, will have the call on the CU Sports Network courtside from the Powell Athletic Center.
 
The Lady Tigers are coming off of back-to-back wins against Fisk University last Monday and Saturday as they earned Saturday's home win by a final score of 98-57 in only their second home game of the season.
 
CU also remains at the No. 1 spot in the most recent NAIA Coaches' Poll, released Wednesday morning, as the Lady Tigers maintain the same amount of voting points in the poll as two weeks ago but added earning all nine first-place votes compared to not earning one of the votes on Dec. 4.
 
SERIES FACTS

• Martin Methodist and Campbellsville have met eight times in their history with the Lady Tigers taking home wins in every matchup.
• The Lady Tigers earned their 1,000th win in program history against MMC earlier this season in a 91-59 victory in Pulaski, Tenn. on Nov. 9.
• With it only being a six-point game heading into halftime, Campbellsville used a 32-15 third quarter to help the Lady Tigers cruise to their fourth win of the season.
• Prior to this season these teams have faced off in the last three seasons with the closest margin of victory coming last season with CU's  91-75 win.
• In that game, Savannah Gregory led the way for the Lady Tigers with 18 points with 13 of the 14 Campbellsville players that got minutes recording at least two points.
• CU owns a pair of one-possession wins against the Redhawks during the Donna Wise era with a three-point win in the 2006-07 season and a one-point win in the 2005-06 season, both games were in Pulaski.

 
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a THREE MAKES

• One of Campbellsville's biggest successes on both the offensive and defensive side has come down to hitting three-point shots.
• To this point of the season, CU ranks No. 2 in NAIA Division I in team three-point field goal percentage (39.2%), No. 4 in total three-pointers made (113) and No. 20 in three-pointers made per game (8.1).
• Breaking down game by game, the only three times Campbellsville has won by a single-digit margin of victory were against Dillard, Marian, and Westmont with a common factor in each of those games being that the Lady Tigers were outshot from three-point range.
• In the season-opener Dillard hit one more three than CU for the 78-69 Lady Tiger win, Marian knocked down nine triples compared to five by Campbellsville as CU earned a 72-65, then against Westmont, the Warriors hit a season-high for a Lady Tiger opponent 10 threes compared to a season-low two for the Lady Tigers as CU hung on to win 70-67.

 
SCOUTING MMC

• The Redhawks will enter Thursday at a 7-3 record with their loses not against Campbellsville coming against Bryan College on two separate occasions on Oct. 29 and Dec. 14.
• MMC uses a combination of limited opponents' shooting and strong rebounding with a No. 2 NAIA ranked opponents' three-point field goal percentage (22.3%), and a 20th ranked rebounding margin of +6.9.
• Their rebounding efforts are led by the combination of Marcia and Lacey Reed as they are the top-two rebounders on the team at 7.6 and 6.8 rebounds per game respectively.
• Lacey Reed is also strong offensively, averaging 12.5 points per game as she ranks No. 1 in the NAIA in field goal percentage at 67.5 percent.

 
TIGER CLAWZ

• Campbellsville is the No. 1 assisting team in NAIA Division I with a team total of 281 so far behind starting point guard Caitlin Hall's 85 assists, good for No. 3 individually in that category.
• Forcing turnovers has been a big part of the CU game plan through the early portion of the schedule as they force their opponents into 27.6 turnovers per game and rank second in NAIA DI in total steals at 223 this season.
• The Lady Tigers have hit five statistical marks as a team 10 times or more throughout the early portions of the season. They have held opponents to under 50 percent and recorded 16 or more assists 11 times, recorded more assists than turnovers and shot better than their opponents 10 teams apiece, and they have held a halftime lead 13 out of the 14 games this season.

 
INDIVIDUAL MILESTONES WATCH

• Upper classmen in the CU starting lineup have been and will be climbing the all-time leader boards in the history of Lady Tiger basketball.
• Starting with Madison Faulkner joining the 1,000-point club, she now sits at 32nd on the all-time scoring list and will likely have a teammate join her on that list as Savannah Gregory currently sits at 951 career points.
• Gregory is also in the top-five on the career steals list as she is currently at 268, recently passing Beth Grant for fifth all-time.
• Senior guard Caitlin Hall currently has 506 career assists, good for sixth place and recently becoming the sixth player to reach 500 assists in program history.

 
1,000-WIN PLATEAU

• In the 45th season of Lady Tiger basketball history, Campbellsville reached a milestone that had only been accomplished twice before in the history of NAIA women's basketball, win 1,000 games as a program.
• The monumental win came in CU's 91-59 win over Martin Methodist College last Saturday in Pulaski, Tenn. as part of the MSC/SSAC Crossover Challenge.
• Campbellsville joins Wayland Baptist and Union University (Tenn.) as the only other programs to reach the feat as Union is no longer part of the NAIA after moving to the NCAA Division II level.

 
UP NEXT FOR CU

• Campbellsville ends both their non-conference schedule and the 2019 calendar year on Thursday as they will be back on the court on Jan. 4 with a home MSC matchup with Cumberland University.