WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOKPLAYER OF THE WEEK San Jose State's Cricket Williams has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball player of the week for the week of Feb. 11-Feb. 17.
The sophomore from New Orleans, La., (St. Mary's Academy) became the second Spartan to earn the honor this season after Elea A'Giza was named player of the week on Dec. 31.
Williams, who leads the WAC in scoring, averaged 21.0 points as the Spartans upset Tulsa and Rice last week. The Hurricane and the Owls have been among the league's leaders all season. The guard scored 22 points with seven rebounds and a career-high seven steals against Rice. She added 20 points and nine assists against Tulsa.
Williams currently averages 18.4 points a game to lead the WAC, two points higher than UTEP's Kimya Murray in second place. Williams also leads the league in steals, averaging 3.36 a game and is second in assists, averaging 6.0 a game.
OTHERS NOMINATED Boise State's Heather Little came off the bench and led the Broncos to wins over Nevada and UTEP. The freshman center averaged 12.5 points to give Boise State a lift with the absence of injured Crista Peterson.
Fresno State's Lindsay Logan averaged 13.5 points and 4.5 assists as the Bulldogs went 1-1. Logan scored 10 points with seven assists as Fresno State defeated UTEP. The junior guard added 17 points in a loss to Boise State.
Hawaii's Chelsea Wagner averaged 17.0 points and 7.5 rebounds against Tulsa and Rice. The freshman guard scored a career-high 21 points with six rebounds and three steals against Tulsa. Wagner added a career-high nine rebounds in a close 55-54 loss to Rice. Wagner has made six starts since replacing the injured April Atuaia and has led the team in scoring in four of the six games.
Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford scored 16 points in the Lady Techsters 82-36 win over SMU. The junior center added 15 rebounds to her 16 points for her seventh double-double of the season. All of her double-doubles have come in league games. Ford recorded the double-double in only 21 minutes of action.
Nevada's Katie Golomb became the sixth player in Wolf Pack history to score 1,000 points. She reached this feat with 25 points against UTEP, a career high. She also added a double-double (14 points and 11 rebounds) against Boise State.
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 will also be Tulsa.
NATIONAL LEADERS The WAC continues to have players rank among the leaders in NCAA statistics. Through February 11, three WAC players are among the leaders in blocked shots per game. Tulsa's Alyssa Shriver is seventh in the country in blocks, averaging 2.9 a game leaping ahead of Hawaii's Christen Roper who is eighth in the nation in blocked shots, averaging 2.9 blocks per game. Rice's Johnetta Hayes moved up to 18th from 21st with 2.3 blocks a game.
Three WAC players are among the leaders in three point field goals per game. UTEP's Kimya Murray jumped to 17th from 32nd, averaging 2.8 three-pointers a game. SMU's Andrea Cossey is 21st with 2.7 per game, while Fresno State's Lindsay Logan is 35th, averaging 2.6 per game.
The WAC's leading scorer, Cricket Williams from San Jose State, shows her versatility. She is 25th in steals per game (3.2). Williams (31st, 5.9 apg) is also among the leaders in assists along with Nevada's Laura Ingham who is 15th (6.4 apg)
FIRST IN THE NATION This week Louisiana Tech rose to the top, standing first in the nation in rebounding margin (15.4). The Lady Techsters overtook No. 1 Connecticut. Hawaii is 23rd in rebound margin (6.5)
The Lady Techsters continue to hold the second spot in scoring margin (25.5), just behind No. 1 Connecticut. In WAC games, the Lady Techsters have a scoring margin of 33.1 with second place Tulsa holding a scoring margin of 7.1. La. Tech is also fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 54.7 points per game with the Wahine 26th, allowing 59.0 points per game.
Four WAC school are among the leaders in field goal percentage defense. La . Tech remains second holding the opposition to a 33.0 field goal percentage. Hawaii is ninth in the country (34.8 percent) with Tulsa moving up to 17th (36.0 percent) and Rice is 36th (37.6 percent).
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 - Hawaii (0-2); Louisiana Tech (1-3); Nevada (0-2); Rice (1-1); SMU (0-1) and Tulsa (0-1).
THE WAC IN THE POLLS Louisiana Tech remained in the top 10 in both the Associated Press and the ESPN polls this week. The Lady Techsters move up to the No. 7 position in the USA Today/ESPN poll and No. 7 in the Associated Press poll. The highest ranking the Lady Techsters have had this season is No. 5 in the Associated Press poll on Nov. 19. For the first time in eight weeks, Hawaii did not earn any votes in the USA Today/ESPN poll.
RECORD BREAKERS With its win over SMU, Louisiana Tech extended its WAC winning streak to 14 games, winning all of its WAC games this season. The 14 wins ties the WAC record for consecutive WAC wins. The record was held by Colorado State (1998-99) and San Diego State (1994-95). The Lady Techsters' overall winning streak extends to 17 games. La. Tech has four remaining league games.
RECORD BREAKERS II Tulsa center Alyssa Shriver is also nearing a WAC record. The junior is 11 blocks away from the single-season record for blocks in WAC games. Shriver has 36 and the record of 47 is held by BYU's Debbie Dimond during the 1992-93 season.
THIS WEEK IN THE WAC The WAC approaches the final weeks of the regular season, entering its ninth week of league play with two weeks remaining before the WAC Tournament.
Once again, Louisiana Tech (14-0) will have a say in who ends the week in second place. The Lady Techsters will travel to Rice (11-4) and Tulsa (10-5) this week. The Owls are up a game in the win column over Hawaii (10-4)
The Wahine will look to recapture second, facing Fresno State and Nevada on the road.
LADY TECHSTERS APPROACH FIRST WAC TITLE Louisiana Tech needs only one more win to claim its first WAC title. If the Lady Techsters do claim the title, it will be their 10th-straight conference title after winning nine-straight Sun Belt crowns. La Tech has now won 77- straight games vs. conference opponents.
AROUND THE LEAGUE News and notes from around the WAC.
Boise State won two-straight games this week over Nevada and UTEP. It was only the second this season that the Broncos posted back-to-back wins. On Dec. 14-16, the Broncos defeated Gonzaga and Washington, respectively.
Fresno State has shuffled its lineup a bit the last few games. The Bulldogs have started a different lineup each of the last five games. This season, Fresno State has had 11 different starting lineups. No player has started all 24 games.
The Bulldogs broke out of an offensive slump against UTEP, scoring 78 points, the second most points scored this season. Fresno State's biggest offensive output also came against the Miners, scoring 93 points on Jan. 19.
Hawaii lost for only the second time in nine games with a 55-54 loss to Rice at home. The Wahine have the most home wins in the league with a 12-4 record. Hawaii will play two of its last four regular season games at home.
Louisiana Tech had a strong rebounding games against SMU. Three Lady Techsters recorded 10 or more rebounds against the Mustangs on Feb. 16 with Cheryl Ford (15), Ayana Walker (11) and Takeisha Lewis (10) bringing down the boards for La. Tech.
This week, the Lady Techsters will be looking for their 20th win of the season. It would be the 25th time in 28 seasons that La. Tech would have won 20 or more games.
Nevada won its first road WAC game with a 79-56 win over UTEP on Feb. 16. The 79 points was the second largest point total of the season for the Wolf Pack. In the first game of the season, Nevada defeated Memphis, 82-65 in the Nevada Bell Classic. The Wolf Pack have won two of their last three games.
Rice's win at Hawaii on Feb. 17 was the first for the Owls on the island. The Owls were led by sophomore Johnetta Hayes. She broke the Rice record for blocks in a season with her 50th block of the season.
San Jose State ended last week with two close wins against Rice and Tulsa, despite not always playing its best basketball. Against Rice, the Spartans won despite not scoring for a span of 8:26 in the second half. Against Tulsa, San Jose State also had a drought in the second half. The Spartans went 9:03 without making a field goal.
SMU fell to No. 7 Louisiana Tech in its only game of the week, 82-36. The last time that the Mustangs point total was in the 30s was Nov. 27, 1982 when SMU fell to Southwest Oklahoma 97-39. The last time that the Mustangs's losing margin was 40 points or more was February 28,1987 with a 93-53 loss to Arkansas at home. The Mustangs look to get back on track against Tulsa and Rice this week.
UTEP has now dropped 13-straight conference games for its longest conference losing streak. UTEP had a 10-game losing streak during the 1990-91 season. The WAC record for consecutive league losses is 14 set by three different school.
Tulsa lost two-straight games last week to Hawaii and San Jose State on the road. It was only the second time all season that the Golden Hurricane lost more than one in a row. From Jan. 17-Jan. 24, Tulsa lost three-straight games during one of its toughest stretches of the season, falling to San Jose State, Hawaii and Louisiana Tech. The Hurricane remain one win away from tying the all-time Tulsa win record (16).
SHRIVER AND INGHAM SINGLE-GAME LEADERS Nevada guard Laura Ingham's 17 assists against UTEP on January 17 is tied for first in assists in a game in the nation this season. The junior is tied with Jess Cichowicz of James Madison who recorded 17 assists against Gardner-Webb.
Tulsa junior Alyssa Shriver is also a national leader this season. She broke the Tulsa and WAC record for blocks in a single game, recording 14 against Louisiana Tech on January 24. The 14 rejections were the most by any player in the nation this season and one shy of the NCAA record set by Amy Lundquist of Loyola Marymount on Dec. 20, 1992. Southern Mississippi's Sonja Brown is behind Shriver with 11 blocks
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. The results are as follows:
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
Tulsa 75, Oral Roberts 58
Idaho State 68, Boise State 52
LSU 72, Rice 47
Rice 72, Notre Dame 61