WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOKPLAYER OF THE WEEK Rices Elisa Inman has been named the Western Athletic Conference womens basketball Player of the Week.
Inman, a sophomore center from Wadsworth, Ohio (Purdue), led the Owls to a 67-54 upset of No. 21 George Washington at the Gene Hackerman Rice Invitational. Inman led all scorers with 20 points and added 13 rebounds against George Washington. Inman added six points and nine rebounds in Rices 61-42 win over UNC Greensboro.
Inman was also named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. In the two wins, the sophomore center was 10-10 from the free throw line with 26 points and 22 rebounds.
Behind Inmans strong play, Rice is off to a 5-0 start and are the only remaining undefeated WAC team.
Also nominated: Aritta Lane, Fresno State; Cricket Williams, San Jose State; Kaci Alexander, SMU; Kimya Murray, UTEP and Candice Brewer, Tulsa.
OTHERS NOMINATED Fresno State's
Aritta Lane started her first collegiate game (Bradley) and recorded her second double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Against California, Lane added 13 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
San Jose State's
Cricket Williams averaged 20 points as the Spartans went 2-1 on the road. The sophomore guard scored 20 points and added 13 rebounds in a loss to St. Mary's. Williams also scored a season-high 23 points in 21 minutes in an 82-57 win over Sacramento State.
SMU's
Kaci Alexander collected her second double-double of the season in a loss to Chattanooga, scoring a career-high in points (23) and rebounds (12). Alexander was one of two Mustangs named to the SMU Hoops for the Cure All-Tournament team.
UTEP's
Kimya Murray scored in double digits in two Miner losses. Murray scored 15 points against Houston and a season-high 19 points against Montana State. She is averaging 14.4 points through five games.
Tulsa's
Candice Brewer led the Golden Hurricane to wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Arkansas-Little Rock. The sophomore guard averaged 15.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in two games. Against Little Rock, Brewer scored both a season and career-high 19 points to lead Tulsa to a 77-50 win.
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. The Collegiate Basketball News RPI has not begun to rank teams yet. 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 3.
Institution WBCA Collegerpi.com
WAC 10 11
Boise St. 222 195
Fresno St. 164 146
Hawai`i 19 20
La. Tech 64 62
Nevada 106 106
Rice 34 25
San Jose St. 201 202
SMU 87 101
UTEP 309 311
Tulsa 184 173
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-America 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-America.
LOUISIANA TECH TRADITION Louisiana Tech enters the WAC for its first season and its 28th season of women's basketball as one of the elite programs in the history of the sport. The Lady Techsters have recorded 768 wins and only 128 losses during the previous 27 seasons, one of only two programs to win 750 or more games. Tech has participated in all 20 NCAA Tournaments (one of only two programs) while advanced to 13 Final Fours, played in eight national title games and claimed three national championships.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 29-25 (.537) in non-conference games. The WAC is 2-6 against teams that have been ranked or are ranked in the top 25 - Hawai`i (0-1); Louisiana Tech (1-2); Nevada (0-2); Rice (1-0) and Tulsa (0-1).
THIS WEEK IN THE WAC Hawai`i returns to action at the Tesoro Invitational, facing Baylor and Illinois-Chicago December 7-9. Louisiana Tech faces its fourth ranked team in five games when it travels to Storrs, Conn. to take on No. 1 UConn. SMU will also take on a top 25 team when the Mustangs host No. 3 Oklahoma.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS 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 split a pair of road games last week. The Broncos fell to Washington 99-50, but bounced back to defeat Portland State, 81-75. Against Portland State, senior Christa Peterson scored a career-high 31 points, adding 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.
Fresno State has been led by freshman Aritta Lane who has two double-digit performances through five games. Lane is averaging a double-double with 11.6 points and 11.0 rebounds and has been the Bulldogs leading rebounder in every game.
Hawai`i did not play last week, but returns to action at the Tesoro Invitational December 7-9. The Wahine will take on Baylor on December 7 and Illinois-Chicago on December 9.
Louisiana Tech faced another ranked opponent, falling to No. 9 Duke 76- 64 in Orlando, Fla., on December 2. The Lady Techsters have faced three ranked teams in four games, defeating No. 16 Michigan and falling to No. 2 Tennessee and Duke. On December 9, the road does not get any easier as Louisiana Tech faces top-ranked Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.
Nevada looks to stop a two-game skid this week at home against UNLV. The Wolf Pack lost to Wyoming and No. 12 Colorado State after winning three of their first four games. Nevada returns home after a three-game road trip.
Rice won the Gene Hackerman Rice Invitational for the second-straight year with wins over UNC Greensboro and No. 21 George Washington. The win against GW is Rices first victory over a ranked opponent since the Lady Owls defeated No. 9 UC Santa Barbara, 67-64, in the first round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament.
San Jose State continues a stretch of games against in-state foes. Four of the Spartans' first five games have come against California teams, including Cal State Fullerton and Santa Clara. San Jose State will continue the in-state trips, facing San Diego and San Diego State this week.
SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola needs three victories to pass the 200-career win mark. Sophomore Tyesha Glover tied a career-high with 13 points in a home loss to Chattanooga. Her efforts in the UTC loss and the 57-54 win over Western Illinois earned Glover a spot on the SMU Hoops for the Cure Women's Basketball Classic All-Tournament team.
UTEP will look for its first win of the season against two Texas schools this week. The Miners will take on Texas Pan-American and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Miners look to avenge an early season loss to the Broncos, 74-59. This is the first meeting between UTEP and Texas A&M CC. The 0-5 start is the first for the Miners since the 1982-83 season.
TULSA won back-to-back games against two Arkansas schools, Arkansas- Pine Bluff and Arkansas-Little Rock. The Hurricane will complete the trio of games against teams from the "natural state" when they face the University of Arkansas on December 5 in Tulsa. Tulsa moved to 3-3 after winning three of its last four games.
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
Tulsa vs. Arkansas, Dec. 5
SMU vs. Oklahoma, Dec. 5
Rice at Texas Tech, Dec. 5
Louisiana Tech vs. Connecticut, Dec. 9
Nevada vs. Utah, Dec. 19
Boise State vs. Idaho State, Dec. 20
Rice at LSU, Dec. 21
Rice vs. Notre Dame, Dec. 28