WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOKPLAYER OF THE WEEK San Jose States Elea AGiza has been named the Western Athletic Conference womens basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 24-30.
AGiza, a senior from Carson, Calif. (Los Angeles Southwest CC), earned her first Player of the Week honor after leading the Spartans to wins over Boise State and UTEP to open WAC play.
The guard/forward led San Jose State in scoring against UTEP with a career-high 25 points, adding 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. AGiza shot .750 from the field against the Miners going 12-of-16 in 29 minutes of action. Against Boise State, she added 18 points and four rebounds. AGiza shot .563 (9-16) from the field.
In two games, AGiza averaged 21.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, shooting .656 (21-32). The 2-0 start by the Spartans is their best start since joining the WAC in the 1996-97 season.
OTHERS NOMINATED Fresno State's Lindsay Logan averaged 18.5 points as the Bulldogs defeated SMU and fell to Louisiana Tech in the first week of WAC action. The guard scored 14 points and seven assists as Fresno State defeated the Mustangs. Against No. 12 Louisiana Tech, Logan scored nearly half of the Bulldogs points, scoring 23 of Fresno State's 50 points.
Louisiana Tech's Brooke Lassiter averaged 13.5 points and 5.0 assists as the Lady Techsters won their first ever WAC games, defeating Nevada and Fresno State. The senior guard hit all six of her free throws to extend her streak to 30-straight free throws made. Lassiter shot seven-of-11 from the three point line (.630).
Nevada's Katie Golomb scored four points in the last minute to lead the Wolf Pack to a 70-68 win over SMU, breaking a six-game losing streak. The senior forward scored 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds in the win. Golomb added 17 points in a loss to Louisiana Tech.
Rice's Johnetta Hayes scored a career-high 18 points with 12 rebounds in a win over defending national champion Notre Dame. The sophomore center matched her career-high in the league opener, scoring 18 points in an overtime loss to Tulsa. Hayes recorded double-doubles in both games giving her three on the season.
SMU's Andrea Cossey averaged 12.8 points as the Mustangs fell to Fresno State and Nevada on the road. The sophomore guard is SMU's top free throw shooter with an .838 percentage from the charity stripe.
Tulsa's Leela Farr tied a career-high, scoring 22 points with seven rebounds as the Hurricane defeated Rice in overtime. The senior added three assists to lead the team.
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 31.
Institution WBCA CollegeRpi.com Basketball News
WAC 10 10 10
Boise St. 187 171 176
Fresno St. 181 193 192
Hawai`i 23 19 20
La. Tech 34 38 37
Nevada 118 134 127
Rice 104 88 88
San Jose St. 135 135 138
SMU 112 115 109
UTEP 296 292 294
Tulsa 134 125 126
NATIONAL LEADERS Several WAC players were among the leaders in NCAA statistics. Through Dec. 17, Nevada's Laura Ingham is tied for 26th in assists per game (6.13 apg). Hawai`i's Christen Roper is second in the nation in blocked shots averaging 4.14 blocks per game. The next NCAA statistics will be released on Jan. 8.
LOGAN AND PETERSON JOIN 1,000 POINT CLUB Fresno State junior Lindsay Logan scored her 1,000th point last week to become the 11th Bulldog basketball player to achieve the feat. The guard needs only 36 points to move into 10th place on the Fresno State all-time scoring list, despite playing in only 69 games. Every other player in the top 10 has played in at least 87 games.
Boise State senior Christa Peterson also reached 1,000 points against Hawai`i. Peterson is only the 10th person to reach 1,000 points in Boise State's 32-year history.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 47-45 (.511) in non-conference games. The WAC is 2-10 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 (1-1); SMU (0-1) and Tulsa (0-1).
IN THE POLLS Louisiana Tech is the only WAC team ranked in both the Associated Press and the ESPN polls. This week, the Lady Techsters are ranked No. 12 in the USA Today/ESPN poll and 13 in the Associated Press poll. Hawai`i received 12
votes in the USA Today/ESPN poll despite the postponement of one of its games.
HIGH SCORERS Since entering the league this season, Louisiana Tech has led the WAC in scoring offense. In its last three wins, five Lady Techsters scored in double figures. Against Nevada, seven of the 11 players that played scored in double figures. After 10 games, Louisiana Tech is averaging 78.8 points per game.
THIS WEEK IN THE WAC The WAC begins its second week of league play this week. Louisiana Tech and San Jose State jumped to the head of the pack winning its first two WAC games. This week, the Lady Techsters will host their first ever WAC games taking on Boise State and UTEP. The undefeated Spartans take on Hawai`i who are also undefeated in league play. Tulsa, the fourth team to start WAC play without a loss, hosts Nevada and Fresno State.
AROUND THE LEAGUE Boise State did lose its first two WAC games ever, but the Broncos had strong performances from senior Christa Peterson. The senior moved to eighth place on the Boise State all-time scoring list with 1,040 points. She also moved into sixth place for career free throws made with 549.
Fresno State has scored at least 70 points in all of its six wins this season and averages 66.7 points per game. Some of that point production comes from junior forward Udeze Omelogo who is averaging 13.8 points and 8.1 rebounds. She scored 14 points and added 10 rebounds in a win over SMU to open WAC play.
Hawai`i defeated Boise State on the road to start WAC action, but the game against UTEP was postponed. The game postponed on Sunday, December 30 has been rescheduled for February 4 at 7 p.m. in El Paso. The game was postponed due to weather not allowing the Wahine to travel to El Paso.
Louisiana Tech improved its winning streak to five games after starting the season 2-3. Senior Ayana Walker recorded her 200th career block against Nevada. The All-American also added her fourth-straight double-double of the season.
Nevada stopped a six-game losing streak with a 70-68 win over SMU for its first WAC win. After dropping its first WAC game of the season to Louisiana Tech, the Wolf Pack look to get back on track on the road against Tulsa and Rice this week.
Rice defeated defending national champion Notre Dame 72-61 to close out a strong non-conference season that saw the Owls defeat then-nationally ranked George Washington. The Owls also started the season 5-0.
San Jose State became one of two schools to start league play 2-0 with wins over Boise State and UTEP. The 2-0 start is the Spartans best since joining the WAC during the 1996-97 season. It is the best league start since San Jose State started the season 5-0 in the 1981-82 season, while playing in the Northern California Athletic Conference.
SMU's loss to Fresno State in the WAC opener was the first time that the Mustangs have lost an opener in five seasons. The last time SMU lost its first two conference games was 1993, while in the Southwest Conference.
UTEP lost its WAC opener 73-48 to San Jose State, and lost its second game to the weather. The Miners and the Wahine will face each other on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.
TULSA senior Carla Morrow collected five rebounds in an overtime win over Rice and became Tulsa's second all-time leading rebounder with 531 rebounds. She surpassed Lila Osceola's second place mark of 529.
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 seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th 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 have faced 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
Utah 72, Nevada 53.
Idaho State 68, Boise State 52
LSU 72-47
Rice 72, Notre Dame 61