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WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
PLAYER OF THE WEEK UTEPs Dragana Zoric has been named the Western Athletic Conference womens basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 2-8. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week honor for the senior. The honor is the first for the Miners since Amy Pack earned the award in November of 2000.
Zoric, a forward from Sarajevo, Bosnia, scored a career-high 28 points (10-for-19) in an 89-86 loss to Houston on Dec. 4. Against Houston, she also added 17 rebounds, just four shy of the WAC record of 21 held by Utahs Amber McEwen (1995-96). Against New Mexico State, she added 10 points and 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.
For the week, Zoric averaged 19.0 points with 13.5 rebounds. Zoric is fourth in the WAC in scoring, averaging 16.0 points per game. She is also third in rebounding, averaging 10.3 rpg. She is first in the WAC in defensive rebounds and fourth in offensive rebounds.
OTHERS NOMINATED Fresno State's Laura Garcia led the Bulldogs to a 1-1 record last week. Garcia, a senior guard, scored 22 points in two games with seven rebounds and four assists. She also added eight steals. She set a career-high with six steals in the win against Santa Clara.
San Jose State's Jessica Kellogg scored a career-high 21 points in the Spartan's win against Oregon State. In the win against the Beavers, she was 5-of-11 from the field. In two games, she scored 30 points with seven rebounds.
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 8.
Institution WBCA CollegeRpi.com Basketball News
WAC 11 11
Boise St. 197 226
Fresno St. 193 165
Hawaii 64 76
La. Tech 24 23
Nevada 176 172
Rice 125 173
San Jose St. 244 247
SMU 72 69
UTEP 154 150
Tulsa 181 200
WEEK FOUR This is the fourth full week of games with eight of the 10 WAC schools in action. This week, SMU and Rice take time off for final exams and will return next week. Four teams have already competed this week with the WAC going 1-3 in those games. Six teams will be in action on Saturday, Dec. 15 with Hawaii hosting the Hawaii Invitational and taking on Kentucky in the first game. Tulsa will host Arkansas Pine-Bluff, while Louisiana Tech looks to win its third-straight game against Nicholls State. Boise State hosts Portland State, while UTEP travels to SW Texas State.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 28-32 (.467) in non-conference games. The WAC is 1-6 against teams that were ranked or are ranked in the top 25 - Louisiana Tech is 1-1 after defeating then-No. 7 Texas Tech, but falling to No. 5 Tennessee. Tulsa is 0-3 after falling to then-No. 24 Mississippi State, then-No. 22 Oklahoma and No. 13 Arkansas.
RECORD BREAKER Senior Lindsay Logan, who became Fresno States career leader in assists on Nov. 29 in a 63-60 win over Butler, broke the schools career three-point field goal record on Dec. 4 in the Bulldogs win over Santa Clara. Logan, who finished with a season-high 20, hit a triple from the top of the key with two minutes remaining to extend Fresno States lead to 56-51 and eventually ice the game. She now has 223 for her career, surpassing the
previous mark of 222 by Staci Oddo (1992-1996).
PRESEASON RANKINGS Three preseason publications (Athlon, Lindys and Street & Smiths) ranked the top schools in the country. Street & Smiths picked Louisiana Tech No. 8 in the country behind Duke, Tennessee, LSU, Notre Dame, Kansas State, Georgia and Stanford. Lindys ranked the Lady Techsters No. 14 after a 25-5 finish last season. Athlon gave Louisiana Tech a No. 18 ranking for a team that returns only two starters.
WAC ROUNDUP Boise State broke a two-game losing streak with a 58-51 win over Idaho on Dec. 7. The Broncos then fell to 2-4 on Dec. 9 with a loss to Eastern Washington. Boise State concludes the week at home against Portland State. The Broncos look to earn their third win of the season and first at home.
Fresno State will be looking to remain undefeated at home when it hosts the University of San Francisco on Dec. 14 in the North Gym. The Bulldogs, who have won three of their last four, will be playing their first home game since capturing their second consecutive Fresno State Classic championship on Nov . 30. The Bulldogs managed a split in two non-conference road matchups last week, defeating Santa Clara 62-55 on Dec. 4 before coming up short against Utah 64-57 three days later. Before losing to Utah, Fresno State had put together its first three-game winning streak since the start of last season when the Bulldogs opened 3-0.
Hawaii returns to action after taking a week off. The Rainbow Wahine play in the Hawaii Invitational with Kentucky, Long Island and UNLV. Hawaii will face Kentucky in the first game on Dec. 14. The winners of the Hawaii/Kentucky and Long Island/UNLV will meet on Dec. 15 as will the losers.
Louisiana Tech guard Toya George and Aarica Ray combined to hit six three-pointers and score 26 points to lead No. 17 Louisiana Tech (4-2) over Louisiana-Lafayette. The Lady Techsters improved to 38-0 all-time against UL-Lafayette (1-4). Tech has won 29-straight games against other Louisiana-based programs with the last loss coming to New Orleans during the 1996-97 season. During that streak, the Lady Techsters have won all 28 games by at least 15 points. The Lady Techsters schedule through six games has been one of the toughest in the nation. The combined record of Tech's first six opponents is 19-11, which includes games against No. 5 Tennessee, No. 10 Texas Tech and Tulane, which has received votes.
Nevada starts the season tied with 2002 WAC Champion Louisiana Tech for the best record in the WAC with a 4-2 record. Both the Wolf Pack and the Lady Techsters are in the midst of two-game winning streaks. This week, the Wolf Pack put their winning streak on the line at home against Saint Mary's on Dec. 15. Nevada is led by Laura Ingham who leads the WAC in assists (6.00 apg) and is second in steals (3.00 spg).
Rice's Johnetta Hayes and Elisa Inman were named to the Gene Hackerman Rice Invitational all-tournament team. Hayes scored 20 points, one off her career high and grabbed 14 rebounds in Rice's 85-49 win against Idaho State. Inman was solid for the Lady Owls in both games during the tournament, averaging 8.5 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. Against Idaho State Hayes matched her career high, and school record, mark of six blocks for the third time. She also posted her first double-double of the year with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Kara Liggett, who had been in a bit of a shooting slump through the Lady Owls' first four games, found her shot in a big way against Idaho State. After going 0-4 in the first half, Liggett lit up the Bengals with 18 points in the first six minutes of the second half.
San Jose State's win against Oregon State on Dec. 4 is the first win at home against a Pac-10 team since the 1996-97 season. The Spartans are 2-0 at home, but have yet to secure a win on the road. San Jose State is averaging 10.7 steals per game compared to the opposition's seven per game. Junior guard Jessica Kellogg was the beneficiary of Cricket Williams' 11 assists against Oregon State. Kellogg scored a career and game-high 21 points against Oregon State and was assisted by Williams on 80 percent (4-5) of her field goals. Junior forward Tatiana Taylor has been the leading rebounder in each of the team's five games and is averaging 10.6 boards per game. Freshman guard Kim Sheehy has made four starts for the Spartans and is averaging 4 PPG and is tied for second on the squad with nine steals.
SMU guard Andrea Cossey connected on two three-point field goals against TCU, tying her with Mary Gleason as SMU's all-time career leader in three-point field goals made. She has 132 three pointers in 61 career games. Season low numbers were recorded in the TCU game include field goal percentage (33.3%), total rebounds (33), and defensive rebounds (20). SMU takes an extended break for exams (no games this week), but plays three games before the Christmas holiday, beginning with a home contest vs. North Texas (4-2) on Monday, Dec. 16 and a home game vs. Southern Cal (4-3) on the 19th before meeting nationally-ranked Oklahoma in Norman on Dec. 21.
UTEP has lost three out of four by three points or less. Last year, UTEP played in only two close games with a margin of 10 points
or less. The Miners are shooting 66 percent (51-77) from the free throw line in games lost and 82 percent (37-45) in games won. Senior Dragana Zoric has recorded double-doubles in her last three games. During that span, she is averaging 20.7 points and 12.7 rebounds, while shooting 48 percent from the field. Vaida Zagurskyte struggled in her first two games at the Don Haskins Center, shooting 28 percent (12-28) and averaging 11.5 points. On
the road, Zagurskyte has shot 49 percent (30-61) with an average of 18.5 points.
Tulsa has been playing in front of some stellar crowds this season. Two of Tulsa's eight games this season have come in front of record crowds. The 6,183 in attendance in the season opener against Southwest Missouri State was the largest crowd to watch a Tulsa women's basketball game, while the 3,166 fans on hand against No. 22 Oklahoma was the largest crowd for a TU women's basketball game at the Reynolds Center.