Top Teams With Tough Task Ahead
Looking ahead to this week's Big West lineup, the top three teams in the conference have their work cutout for them. League-leading UC Davis (5-1) welcomes third-ranked UC Riverside (4-2) Thursday evening to The Pavilion. The Aggies enter the matchup riding a six-game win streak, while the Highlanders have won four straight Big West contests.
Last Week In The Big West
Overtime was needed in two Big West contests last week to determine a winner. UC Davis used the extra five minutes wisely, downing Pacific 68-59, and UC Santa Barbara barely slid past Cal State Fullerton, 60-59, after two extra frames. The Anteaters posted their first-back-to-back victories on the season after knocking down Pacific (the previous week) and Long Beach State before falling to UC Riverside, who used a 17-2 run late in the second half to pull off the win.
Second place Cal Poly (5-2) also has a challenging opponent as it hosts defending champion UC Santa Barbara Thursday at 7:00 p.m. The Gauchos are currently tied for fifth with a 3-3 record, but are coming off a double overtime win against Cal State Fullerton, who once sat atop the league standings after opening Big West play with a 4-0 record.
UC Riverside Cruising Along After Posting First League Win
It took until the third week of conference play before UC Riverside, selected third in the preseason Big West media poll, notched its first Big West victory of the season. Since then, the Highlanders have managed to string together four straight conference victories to vault to third in the league with a 4-2 mark. Their current four-game home win streak is the longest of the season. This week the Highlanders attempt to record their first Big West road win of the year as the Highlanders travel north to visit league-leading UC Davis, riding a six-game win streak, and Pacific.
Gauchos Even Conference Mark With Double OT Win
UC Santa took Cal State Fullerton to double overtime before securing the lead as time ran out after 50 minutes of play. The 60-59 win marked the Gauchos' first double overtime victory since the 1976-77 season. The win at Fullerton improved the Gauchos' Big West mark to 3-3, tying them for fifth in the league. UC Santa Barbara closes out its three-game road trip with a Thursday night outing at Cal Poly.
Streakin' Aggies
The UC Davis Aggies added two more victories to their win streak to extend their victorious run to a league-high six contests. This is the second lengthy win streak of the 2009-10 season, as UC Davis strung together five straight wins from Dec. 1-19 before dropping three straight. UC Davis looks to reach lucky number 7 Thursday, Jan. 28 when it welcomes UC Riverside to The Pavilion. The Highlanders also hold an active win streak of their own with four consecutive victories.
What's In A Number
Looking at the Big West women's basketball rosters the No. 11 is heavily occupied by one person - Jasmine. Three of the nine rosters list "Jasmine" as wearing the number 11. Long Beach State's Jazmyne Porter, UC Irvine's Jazmyne White and Pacific's Jasmine Dana are all sporting the same double-digit prime number for the 2009-10 season.
Donaghe's Sneak Attack
Haylee Donaghe helped key the Aggies' overtime win against Pacific on Saturday, tying a career-high with nine steals.The steals mark is tied for No. 3 all-time at UC Davis and is a conference-high this season, which helped place her No. 1 in this week's Big West stats for overall games. She also ranks seventh in the nation for single-game high in steals.
UCI's Smith-Williams Career Night
Junior guard Jade Smith-Williams led UCI to a 68-61 victory over Long Beach State last Thursday at the Bren Center.Smith-Williams was 9-of-14 from the floor, including 5-of-9 from three-point range and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line for her career and game-high 33 points. The 33 points is the second most in the Big West this season.
The 1,000-Point Climb
Cal Poly's Kristina Santiago became the second Big West athlete to reach the 1,000 career-point milestone this season. Santiago, the ninth player in Cal Poly women's basketball history to record 1,000 career points and the fourth Mustang to do so in as few as three seasons, currently has 1,053 points.
Long Beach State's Karina Figueroa registered a 23-point performance to open the 2009-10 season that assisted in her in becoming the 100th Big West player to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Figueroa, redshirting last season due to injury, now has 1,313 career points, making her LBSUs 21st 1,000-point scorer and tying her for 45th in the Big West record book.
Big West........Stat!
Cal Poly's Kristina Santiago is having a season to remember, only halfway through the season and she has already tallied single-game career-highs in points (34) and rebounds (15) and topped the 1,000 career-point milestone in just her third season. Now she is leading the Big West Conference in both scoring and rebounding with 19.6 points and 8.1rebounds per contest. She also sits second in field goal percentage(.546).
Gaucho Mekia Valentine continues to dominate in the blocks category with an average of 3.9 swats per contest, placing her in the top five in the country, and only trails Santiago in rebounds at 7.2. She has swatted 67 shots so far this season, tying her for second in UCSB's single-season history. The next closest player to Valentine is Cal State Northridge's Jasmine Erving with a 1.50 block average. She's not too bad on offense either, posting a league-leading .600 field goal percentage.
Close...But No Cigar
In 2009-10, the Big West Conference members have played 27 contests that were decided by five points or less. Unfortunately the league has been on the losing end of most of the games, posting a 7-13 mark in nonconference games.
Margaritis Earns 200th Career Win
UC Riverside's 74-61 win over Cal State Northridge not only secured the Highlanders their first Big West victory of the season, but lifted head coach John Margaritis to his 200th career victory. Margaritis is also eyeing his 100th UC Riverside victory as he currently owns 93 wins at the helm of the Highlanders program.
UC Santa Barbara Tabbed Preseason Favorite
The Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara were selected to claim their third consecutive, 14th overall, Big West Conference women's basketball regular season title, as voted on by the media. The Gauchos captured 10 of a possible 20 first-place votes and 162 total points. They were closely followed by second place UC Davis, who received six first-place nods and 155 points. Rounding out the top three was Cal Poly with three first-place selections and a point total of 146.
Two-time Big West Champion UC Riverside was selected fourth with one first-place vote and a total of 112 points. Garnering the fifth slot in the preseason poll with 99 points is Long Beach State, who begins a new era under first-year head coach Jody Wynn. Pacific earned the sixth spot after acquiring 87 points and was followed by Cal State Fullerton (59), Cal State Northridge (41) and UC Irvine (39).
Long Beach State Showcases New Face At The Helm Of Its Program
Jody Wynn, who spent the last five seasons as the senior assistant, recruiting coordinator and head of scouting at USC, becomes the sixth head coach in LBSU womens basketball history. Wynn comes to LBSU with 13 years of collegiate coaching experience under her belt. While at USC, she was in charge of bringing in four nationally-ranked recruiting classes, including the No. 1-ranked group in 2006.
Foster Takes Over Reins At Fullerton
Former associate head coach Marcia Foster at Cal State Fullerton was promoted to head coach after Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah relinquished her duties at the end of last season. Foster begins her seventh year with the Titans women's basketball program. She also spent one year as head coach at Cal Tech and six years as an assistant at Cal Poly.
Teams Showcase New Lineups
With the departure of such a large group of talented women's basketball players, fresh faces will be seen on the court this year. Three teams with the tough task of constructing a successful lineup this season are UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific. The Highlanders must start from scratch after losing all five of their starters to graduation. The Tigers and Gauchos arent far behind, welcoming back just one starter from last season.
Live On The Net
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