UT Tyler Picked Fourth, Sixth in ASC Polls
October 21, 2004

The University of Texas at Tyler women’s basketball team has been selected to finish the year in fourth place and the men’s team was picked to finish sixth in the American Southwest Conference’s East Division according to a poll of the league’s coaches and sports information directors released Wednesday.

The UT Tyler women, under head coach Terri Deike, finished last season with an 8-17 record and a fourth place, 6-8 mark in the ASC.

The Patriots women will return all five starters and a total of ten letter winners from last year’s team. The returning starters, all sophomores, are RaTonya Hunter (Athens, Texas/Athens HS), Katelynn Denny (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood HS), ASC freshman of the year Sha Shead (LaRue, Texas/LaPoynor HS), LaQuita Patton (Kennard, Texas/Kennard HS) and Julianne Halverson (Rockwall, Texas/Rockwall HS).

Last year’s women’s team averaged 71 points and 42 rebounds per game and was among the conference leaders in scoring offense, offensive rebounds and assists.

The Patriot men finished last season in sixth place in the ASC East. Head coach Matt Wallis will return four starters including sophomore Brandon Weasby (Houston, Texas/Cy-Springs HS) who was last year’s ASC freshman of the year, junior Joe Henderson (Goodrich, Texas/East Texas Baptist), senior Eric Simmons (Houston, Texas/Kilgore JC) and sophomore William Leffingwell (Spring, Texas/Klein HS).

The men’s team averaged 77 points and 37 rebounds per game. The team was in the top five in the ASC in field goal percentage, three-point percentage and assist/turnover ratio.

The Patriots men open their season Nov. 19 against SMU. Game time is set for 8:30 at Moody Coliseum in Dallas. The UT Tyler women begin their season Nov. 20 at the Herrington Patriot Center against Texas Wesleyan in a 7 p.m. game.

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