WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOKPLAYER OF THE WEEK Hawaiis April Atuaia has been named the Western Athletic Conference womens basketball Player of the Week.
Atuaia, a sophomore guard from Laie, Oahu (Kahuku HS), helped the Wahine finish second in the Tesoro Invitational behind No. 9 Baylor. Hawaii lost to Baylor 70-65, but rebounded to defeat Illinois-Chicago 71-50 to take second.
Atuaia scored a career-high 23 points and added nine rebounds against Baylor in the loss. In the win over the Flames, the sophomore scored 10 points to go along with eight rebounds and two assists.
After averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in two games, Atuaia was name to the Tesoro Invitational All-Tournament team along with teammate Natasja Allen.
Also nominated: Omelogo Udeze, Fresno State; Katie Golomb, Nevada; Andrea Cossey, SMU; Kara Liggett, Rice and Dragana Zoric, UTEP.
OTHERS NOMINATED Fresno State's Omelogo Udeze scored in double digits in two games as the Bulldogs defeated Northern Arizona and Cal State Fullerton. The junior forward scored 17 points with seven rebounds against Fullerton. Udeze scored 11 points with 11 boards against Northern Arizona for her first double-double of the season. She averaged 14 points and nine boards in two games.
Nevada's Katie Golomb scored 13 points in the Wolf Pack's loss to Wyoming. The senior forward added 16 points against No. 12 Colorado State. Golomb also added eight points in a loss to intrastate rival UNLV.
Rice's Kara Liggett led the Lady Owls in scoring in both games last week. The junior guard was the only Lady Owl to reach double figures against No. 12 Texas Tech, scoring 10 points. Liggett scored 19 points in the loss to Arizona.
SMU's Andrea Cossey scored a career-high 27 points in a 92-83 win over BYU. The sophomore guard set the SMU record for free throws in a game with 16 against BYU. The previous record was 14 set by D-dra Rucker against TCU in 2000. She added 10 points in a 91-70 loss to No. 3 Oklahoma. Cossey is the Mustangs top scorer this season, averaging 13 ppg despite missing the first three games due to injury.
UTEP's Dragana Zoric led the Miners to their first win of the season over UT Pan-American. Zoric scored 22 points, adding eight rebounds and four assists. In a loss to UT Corpus-Christi, the junior forward had a season-high 11 rebounds with eight points and three steals.
POWER RANKINGS Members of the media may subscribe to the Collegiate Basketball News RPI Report that is updated on a daily basis. In order to subscribe, you may obtain a password on the website address www.rpiratings.com. A second RPI report is computed by Jerry Palm and posted on the collegerpi.com website. Finally, the WBCA/Summerville has created an RPI that is posted at www.wbca.org/html/wbca.html. The following is a list of where the WAC and its teams stand through December 10.
Institution WBCA Collegerpi.com Basketball News
WAC 11 11 10
Boise St. 204 199 196
Fresno St. 130 134 137
Hawai`i 17 14 14
La. Tech 20 34 35
Nevada 113 127 105
Rice 74 65 63
San Jose St. 186 178 179
SMU 67 75 76
UTEP 311 317 314
Tulsa 145 154 157
PLAYER ACCOLADES In four preseason publications (Athlon, Basketball News, Lindys and Street & Smiths), Louisiana Tech senior center Ayana Walker was mentioned on the preseason All-American teams. Street & Smiths named Walker as one of the Terrific 10, one of the top players in the country. Walker was named a Basketball News second team All-American, while earning third team honors with the other two publications. Walker was also voted WAC preseason Player of the Year by the league coaches. Last season, the Texas native was an honorable mention All-American.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 34-35 (.493) in non-conference games. The WAC is 2-9 against teams that have been ranked or are ranked in the top 25 - Hawai`i (0-2); Louisiana Tech (1-3); Nevada (0-2); Rice (1-0), SMU (0-1) and Tulsa (0-1).
THIS WEEK IN THE WAC With a limited schedule, five teams are in action. Fresno State hosts instate rivals San Francisco and Santa Clara. Boise State takes on Gonzaga and Eastern Washington. Louisiana Tech remains on the road to face Centenary. Tulsa and Nevada both take to the road to try to break losing streaks. The Hurricane take on Missouri-Kansas City, while the Wolf Pack face USC.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS This week, Hawai`i had two players name to the all-tournament team at the Tesoro Invitational. April Atuaia and Natasja Allen were named to the all-tournament team. Allen also earned the honor at the Wakiki Beach Marriott Classic and the Rainbow Wahine Classic.
Last week, SMU's Kaci Alexander and Tyesha Glover were selected to the SMU Hoops for the Cure All-Tournament team. The duo also earned all-tournament honors at the Boston University Womens Basketball Invitational on Nov. 17-18.
AROUND THE LEAGUE Boise State dropped its second consecutive game versus San Diego. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 2-5 overall. Freshman Heather Little led the Broncos in scoring against San Diego, shooting 6-8 from the floor. Little ended the game with 14 points and four rebounds. Senior Crista Peterson scored in double figures for the sixth time this season with 10 points.
Fresno State is off to its best start since the 1996-97 season after defeating Cal State Fullerton and Northern Arizona. The Bulldogs are tied for first in the WAC with a 5-2 record. The 1996-97 season was the last time that the Bulldogs finished with a winning record. The last time Fresno State started the season 6-2 was the 1989-90 season.
Hawai`i finished runner up to Baylor in the Tesoro Invitational, Dec. 7-9. Baylor was the Wahine's second ranked opponent in three games. Hawai`i fell to No. 8 Stanford, 71-60, on Nov. 24. April Atuaia and Natasja Allen were named to the all-tournament team.
Louisiana Tech's three-game losing streak ties the longest losing streak in the programs 28-year history, covering 901
games. This is only the third time in the programs history that the Lady Techsters have lost three-straight games (1975-76, 1990-91). With eight points against UConn, senior forward Ayana Walker moved into 24th place on the Louisiana Tech career scoring list with 1,141 points, moving past Alisa Burras, 1,134.
Nevada looks to stop a three-game skid this week on the road against Southern California on Dec. 15. The Wolf Pack lost to Wyoming and No. 12 Colorado State and intrastate rival UNLV after winning three of their first four games.
Rice suffered its first two losses of the season to No. 12 Texas Tech and Arizona. The Owls had two sophomores in double figures in the two losses. Lindsey Maynard came off the bench against the Wildcats to score a season-high 13 points. Elisa Inman had her third double-digit rebounding game of the season with 12 against the Lady Raiders.
San Jose State moved to 4-3 after going 1-1 on a road trip to San Diego. The Spartans nipped San Diego State and fell to San Diego. With 15 points against San Diego, Cricket Williams moves to second in the WAC in scoring, averaging 17.0 points per game.
SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola needs two victories to pass the 200-career win mark. Sophomore Jackee Brown scored a career-high 15 points against BYU. Fellow sophomore Kenni Patton had a season-high 21 points against the Cougars.
UTEP captured its first win of the season against UT Pan-American, revenge for an early season loss to the Lady Broncos. The win was the first for head coach Keitha Green who came to UTEP from Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas. The Miners look to return to full strength on Dec. 20 when transfer Romie DeAnda and freshman Pamela Massey return to the Miner lineup.
TULSA fell to SEC foe Arkansas on Dec. 5 in its only game of the week. With the loss, the Hurricane fell to 3-4 after winning two straight. Tulsa senior Carla Morrow is leading the league in free throw percentage with a perfect 18-18 on the season.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN TULSA For the second-straight season, The University of Tulsa will serve as the host for the Mens and Womens 2002 WAC Williams Basketball Tournament. All games will be played at the 8,335-seat Donald W. Reynolds Arena. The seven, eight, nine and 10 seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 5. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 6, with the top seed competing versus the winner of the Tuesday eight-nine game, the No. 2 seed vs. the winner of the seven-10 game, the No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday. The site for the 2003 WAC Tournament has yet to be determined.
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS WAC teams could face at least 15 non-conference opponents that played in last years NCAA Tournament and 13 teams that participated in the 2001 postseason WNIT.
NCAA Opponents
Louisiana Tech 81, Michigan 66
Oklahoma 75, Tulsa 62
Tennessee 90, Louisiana Tech 75
SMU 49, Utah 48
Oral Roberts 63, Tulsa 61
Washington 99, Boise State 50
Duke 76, Louisiana Tech 64
Colorado State 84, Nevada 57
Arkansas 55, Tulsa 52
Oklahoma 91, SMU 70
Texas Tech 74, Rice 43
Connecticut 70, Louisiana Tech 54
Nevada vs. Utah, Dec. 19
Boise State vs. Idaho State, Dec. 20
Rice at LSU, Dec. 21
Rice vs. Notre Dame, Dec. 28
HITTING THE BOOKS With final exams approaching, the WAC schedule thins down this week. After 18 games last week, the schedule slims down to six games this week. The schedule of games picks up toward the end of the week of Dec. 16-22.