WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice's Johnetta Hayes has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 13-19. This is the second career WAC Player of the Week honor for the senior and the first Rice player of the week this season. Hayes earned the final honor of last season.
Hayes, a junior from Houston, led the Lady Owls to two wins last week, propelling them to a 3-2 record in the WAC, tied for third. The Lady Owls earned wins over Boise State and UTEP. This is only the second two-game winning streak for Rice this season as the Lady Owls move to 6-8.
The center averaged 25.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in two games last week. For the season, she averages 14.2 ppg and 8.4 rpg. She spread her rebounds out with eight offensive and 13 defensive. She scored a career-high 23 points against Boise State, then bested that mark against UTEP scoring 28. She also set a career best going nine-of-11 from the free throw line against the Miners. In two games, Hayes was 18-of-26 (.692) from the field and 14-of-16 (.824) from the free throw line.
OTHERS NOMINATED Also nominated: Natasja Allen, Hawai'i; Amber Obaze, Louisiana Tech; Cricket Williams, San Jose State; Sarah Davis, SMU and Alison Carney, Tulsa.
Hawaii's Allen scored a season-high 19 points and added six rebounds and a block in a 54-40 win over San Jose State. Allen scored 14 of her points in the second half to help Hawaii expand a one-point lead to a double-digit win.
Louisiana Tech's Obaze averaged 16.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists in road wins over Nevada and Fresno State. Obaze scored a career-high tying 22 points while grabbing eight rebounds in the 63-53 win over Fresno State, ending the Bulldogs perfect record in North Gym this season. Obaze also
scored 10 points in Tech's 83-54 win over Nevada.
San Jose State's Williams scored her 20th point of the game and 1,001st of her career on a lay-up in the last minute of the game. She was the only Spartan to score more than 10 points. Williams scored 16 points in the second half. She is ninth all-time in the school's career scoring list and 18 points shy of moving to eighth place.
SMU's Davis posted back-to-back career-high scoring figures with 17 points vs. Fresno State and 24 points vs. Nevada. She leads the Mustangs in rebound average and blocked shots and is second on the team in three-point field goals made.
Tulsa's Carney put together the best back-to-back games of her career last week against UTEP and Boise State and led the Hurricane to a 2-0 record for the week. Against UTEP, Carney recorded her second double-double of the season with career highs of 16 points and 11 rebounds. She also connected on 6-of-10 field goals.
TICKETS ON SALE FOR WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS IN RUSTON The Thomas Assembly Center will once again play host to the NCAA Tournament as Louisiana Tech will be one of 16 sites for the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball first and second rounds.
Louisiana Tech and Ruston will host the first and second rounds March 23 and 25. Four teams will compete at the Ruston site.
Tickets are already on sale for the two-day event that will feature three games, two first-round contests on March 23 and a single second-round game on March 25. This year marks the first time that ESPN will televise all 63 games of the women's tournament, including the three in Ruston.
Season ticket holders can currently purchase tickets for their regular seats for the first- and second-rounds. Only ticket packages for the entire event can be purchased (no single game tickets will be sold), adult ticket packages starting at $15 while college and high school students ticket packages are $12.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the first and second rounds, call the Louisiana Tech Ticket Office at 318- 257-3631.
MARQUEE MATCHUPS In the tenth week of women's basketball action, all eyes will be on the Jan. 23 game between Tulsa and Louisiana Tech in Ruston. With first place in the WAC on the line, the two teams meet for the first time since the WAC Tournament semifinal last year in Tulsa where the Lady Techsters defeated the Hurricane. Tulsa also looks for its first win against a ranked foe, facing its fifth nationally ranked opponent of the season.
Another key matchup will be the Texas-sized battle between Rice and SMU in Dallas. Both squads are 3-2 in the WAC and are looking to break away from the pack of three 3-2 teams. Hawaii , who faces Fresno State and Nevada at home this weekend, is also 3-2 in WAC play.
TWO JOIN 1,000 POINT CLUB San Jose State's Cricket Williams and Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford joined exclusive company when both scored there 1,000th point last week. With a 20-point performance on Jan. 19 against Hawaii, Williams became the ninth San Jose State player to score 1,000 or more career points. She has scored 278 points this season, averaging 19.9 ppg and 22 ppg in WAC contests.
Ford needed only one point to reach 1,000 and she scored 24 points in two games last week. The senior center now has 1,023 career points. Ford was the 32nd Louisiana Tech player to ever score 1,000 career points. Ford has recorded six-straight double-doubles, including a double-double in all five WAC games. Ford has now recorded double doubles in 15 of 26 WAC games during the past two seasons.
ON A ROLL Louisiana Tech's current 10-game winning streak is the longest this season in the WAC. The Lady Techsters have not lost since losing to No. 5 Tennessee 60-35 on Dec. 4. Tulsa is currently in the midst of a season-high six-game winning streak. Nevada had a five-game winning streak earlier in the season. Four other squads had three-game winning streaks, Fresno State, SMU, Tulsa and Hawaii two times. The Wolf Pack are currently in the midst of a different streak, losing seven straight.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 52-45 (.536) in non-conference games. The WAC is 3-11 against teams that were ranked or are ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech is 2-1 after defeating then-No. 7 Texas Tech and then-No. 25 New Mexico, but falling to No. 5 Tennessee. Tulsa is 0-4 after falling to then-No. 24 Mississippi State, then-No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 13 Arkansas and No. 1 Duke. SMU has a win over Oklahoma and a loss to Boston College.
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 remain No. 11 in the AP poll which is its highest ranking since Nov. 25 when they were ranked No. 10 by both polls. Louisiana Tech also remained No. 12 in the ESPN poll.
WAC ROUNDUP Boise State lost two-straight games last week after capturing its first WAC game of the season. The Broncos look to get back on track on the road this week. In their only game of the week, the Broncos will take on UTEP. The Miners are also looking to snap a two-game losing streak.
Fresno State, through six games of WAC play, has earned a split in the first three weekends. The Bulldogs, 3-3 in the conference, have assembled a ledger that reads like this: win, loss, win, loss, win, loss. Fresno State has won the first game of the week and dropped the second contest on all three occasions. After winning just nine games overall last year for its lowest victory total since the 1981-82 season, it has been a different story in 2002-03. With its 75-62 win over SMU on Jan. 16, Fresno State matched its victory total of nine from last season with 12 regular season games remaining.
Hawaii has not lost three in a row since the 1998-99 season and for the sixth-straight time avoided such a slide with a double-digits win, ,52-40 over San Jose State. The 40 points scored by San Jose State was the lowest by a Rainbow Wahine opponent this season. Hawaii also tied a season-high with eight steals against the Spartans. This week, Hawaii looks to capture sole possession of third place. The Rainbow Wahine take on Fresno State and Nevada at home.
Louisiana Tech looks to take sole possession of first place in the WAC this week with a matchup against Tulsa on Jan. 23 in Ruston. The Lady Techsters survived its first matchup with former assistant coach Stacey Johnson-Klein's Fresno State squad last week and look to conquer the Hurricane this week. Louisiana Tech defeated Tulsa in the semifinals of the Williams WAC Tournament. Amber Obaze tied her career-high with 22 points in Louisiana Tech's win over Fresno State. Obaze is averaging 17.3 points in her last four games while shooting over 50 percent from the field. Obaze has recorded eight straight double digit scoring games.
Nevada dropped its seventh-straight last week and fell below .500 with two losses. The Wolf Pack dropped a 77-72 decision to SMU, despite a stellar performance from senior Laura Ingham, who came very close to her second triple-double this season. Ingham nearly had a 30-point game as she led all scorers with 27, added 14 assists while grabbing eight boards.
Rice senior Kim Lawson continues to climb the Lady Owl career assist ladder. With eight assists against Boise State, Lawson moved past Marla Brumfield (1997-00) to take over third place. With another six against UTEP, she jumped into second with 413, passing Charonda Wilson (1996-99). Lawson needs only 39 more assists to become the Rice career assist leader, passing current leader Dede Brantler (1983-87) who finished her career with 452.
San Jose State continues to struggle on the road. The Spartans are just 1-5 away from The Event Center in San Jose and remain winless in conference road games. San Jose State has only one loss at home and looks to remain undefeated at home in WAC games with two home games this week. The Spartans are averaging 10.8 steals per game, but also are averaging 11.2 turnovers.
SMU junior guards Shanta Ramdhanny and Andrea Cossey had their respective double-figure scoring streaks snapped over the weekend. Head coach Rhonda Rompola has gone with nine different starting lineups in 15 games. SMU recorded a season-high 50 second-half points against Nevada. Sarah Davis' 24 points and Kaci Alexander's 21 points vs. Nevada marks the first time in nearly two years that two Mustangs scored 20 or more points in the same game. The last time that took place was Feb. 2, 2001 when D-dra Rucker scored 23 points, Cossey scored 21 points and Alexander scored 20 points against Rice at Moody Coliseum.
UTEP is 3-2 in day games and 4-7 in night games this season. UTEP has proved to be a better shooting team as the sun goes down. The Miners have shot 44.1 percent from the floor and 39.5 percent from three-point range in night games. In day games, UTEP has shot 39.3 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from outside. UTEP has shot free throws better during the day, shooting 78.4 percent compared to 70.6 percent at night.
Tulsa tied the school record for consecutive games won with six and the best WAC start in school history with its fifth straight against Boise State on Jan. 18. Last season, Tulsa also won six-straight games and began the season with five consecutive wins. The Hurricane connected on a school record 11 three-pointers against Boise State and drained a total of 20 three-pointers against UTEP and Boise State. This week, Tulsa will face its fifth nationally ranked opponent of the season when it battles No. 11 Louisiana Tech for sole possession of first place in the WAC.
2003 WILLIAMS WAC TOURNAMENT The 2003 Williams WAC Tournament will be held March 11-15 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. Both the women and men compete during the same week. On the womens side, the seven, eight, nine and 10 seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 11. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 12. The top seed faces the winner of the Tuesday eight-nine game. The No. 2 seed faces the winner of the seven-10 game, the No. 3 seed meets the No. 6 seed, while No. 4 is against No. 5. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday afternoon.
WILLIAMS IS TOURNAMENT SPONSOR For the third year in a row, Williams will be the WACs tournament sponsor. Williams, through its subsidiaries, connects businesses to energy, delivering innovative, reliable products and services. Williams information is available at www.williams.com.