PLAYER OF THE WEEK UTEP's Angie McGee has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 19-25. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for the junior. This is also the first player of the week honor for the Miners this season. UTEP has won a season-high five games to take control of third place in the WAC.
McGee, a junior from Mequon, Wis., helped the Miners to wins over Hawai'i and San Jose State last week. UTEP's win over Hawai'i was its first in 13 attempts. The Miners also defeated San Jose State, 75-65. Against the Spartans, McGee scored a career-high 21 points, including a career-best four three-pointers. She went 7-for-11 from the floor, including 4-for-6 from three-point land. She also added five rebounds and had three steals as well. She had five points and eight rebounds in the win over Hawai'i.
For the week, McGee averaged 13.0 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game. Both per game averages are above her season averages of 9.9 ppg and 6.3 rpg.
Also nominated: Janevia Taylor, Hawai'i; Erica Smith-Taylor, Louisiana Tech; Lauren Neaves, Rice; Tatiana Taylor, San Jose State and Jillian Robbins, Tulsa.
RICE AND LOUISIANA TECH REMAIN TIED Louisiana Tech and Rice are tied for first in the WAC after eight games. Upstart UTEP is second with a solid 5-2 record. San Jose State and Tulsa are tied for fourth with matching 4-3 records. This week, Louisiana Tech hosts Boise State and UTEP, while Rice travels to Hawaii and San Jose State. Nevada and Fresno State, both 1-7, will face off this week in Reno. One of the two teams will break its six-game losing streak.
ON A ROLL UTEP has secured sole possession of third place by winning five-straight games. The Miners will be seeking its first six-game winning streak since opening the 1996-97 season with seven-consecutive wins. UTEP won back-to-back conference road games for the first time since the 1998-99 season, when the Miners won at Fresno State and at San Jose State. Now in 14 seasons in the WAC, UTEP has taken back-to-back road games four times. The other two previous came during the 1997-98 season and the 1992-93 season.
AGAINST THE BEST The WAC is 1-8 against teams ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech captured the league's first win over a ranked team with a last-second win over then-No. 6 Penn State. SMU has already played three ranked teams in No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 16 Oklahoma and No. 23 TCU. No. 12 Louisiana Tech fell to No. 3 Tennessee two weeks ago. Hawaii lost to No. 21 Arizona, while Rice has fallen to No. 18 LSU. Fresno State is 0-1 this season against ranked teams falling to No. 19 Utah. Tulsa lost to No. 2 Duke in Durham on Dec. 14. Rankings at time of meeting.
NON-CONFERENCE RECORD The WAC is an even .500 with a 46-46 record against non-conference opponents. The WAC has the most wins against the Southland Conference with a solid 7-2 record. The WAC is 5-1 against the Big West Conference. The league has a solid 2-0 mark against the Big Ten. The WAC has seven losses against the Big 12 and Pac-10 Conferences.
WAC RECORD SET The Jan. 22 game between UTEP and Hawaii set a WAC record for least amount of points with 83. The Miners defeated the Rainbow Wahine 44-39. The 39 points for Hawaii was its lowest point total since 1975. UTEP's previously low was 47 points in a win over New Mexico on Feb. 27, 1992 and against Central Arizona on Feb. 19, 1977. The previous WAC record was 86 points scored by Hawaii (45) and Nevada (41) in the WAC Tournament in 2001-02.
RICE FIRST IN THE NATION This week, Rice took the top spot in the nation in blocked shots. With an average of 7.1 blocks per game, the Lady Owls lead the nation. Tulsa is seventh, averaging 6.2. The block leaders are led by freshman Lauren Neaves, who is 23rd in the nation in blocked shots (2.4 bpg).
WAC ADDS NEW MEXICO STATE, UTAH STATE On Oct. 23, 2003, the WAC issued invitations to New Mexico State and Utah State for the 2005 season. New Mexico State is currently 8-9 this season. Utah State is 2-13 in its first season of women's basketball in 17 years. The Aggies earned their first win of the season against Cal Poly.
WAC TOURNAMENT TRAVELS WEST TO FRESNO For the first time since the 1999-00 season, Fresno State will serve as the host for the Men and Womens WAC Basketball Tournament. The 2004 tournament will be held in the new 16,116-seat Save Mart Center. The seven through 10 teams will play on Tuesday, March 9. The remaining eight teams will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 with the top seed competing versus the winner of the Tuesday game, the No. 2 seed vs. No. 7, etc. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday.
AROUND THE COURT Boise State has lost two-straight games and looks to break that streak on the road against SMU and Louisiana Tech. Last season, the Broncos were 0-3 against the Lady Techsters and 1-1 against SMU. This is the first time the Broncos have taken on SMU and Louisiana Tech this season.
Fresno State, who is now 7-11 overall and 1-7 in WAC competition, has lost six in a row for the first time since the 2001-02 season when the team dropped their final six contests. The Bulldogs look to break its season-high losing streak this week on the road against Nevada in its only game of the week on Jan. 31. Despite the losing streak, junior Aritta Lane is having a strong season. Lane is ninth in the league in scoring, averaging 13.1 points per game. The Hawaii native is also 12th in the WAC in field goal percentage, shooting .454. To round out her solid campaign, Lane is 17th in rebounding, averaging 5.6 rpg.
Hawaii's 39 points was its lowest output since a 28 point effort against San Diego State in 1982. The Rainbow Wahine fell to UTEP 44-39 in the lowest scoring game in WAC history. Hawaii leads the WAC in field goal percentage defense in league games (.340) and has held three of its last four opponents to under 30 percent shooting. Offensively, Hawaii is led by Jade Abele, who is second in the league scoring
Louisiana Tech won its 154th-straight home game against an unranked opponent with its 88-52 win over SMU on Jan 24. The Lady Techsters have also now won 89-straight home games against conference foes. Louisiana Tech is now 21-0 all-time at home in WAC games, winning those 21 games by an average of 33.6 points. Senior forward Trina Frierson scored 16 points in the win over SMU, moving up two places on the Louisiana Tech career scoring list into 21st place (1,312 points). Junior guard Erica Smith-Taylor hit a career-high five three-pointers and scored a game-high 18 points despite taking only eight shots from the field. Louisiana Tech guards Tasha Crain and Lakiste Barkus rank No. 1 and 2 in
this week's WAC statistics in assist to turnover ratio in conference only games. The two have combined for 45 assists and only 18 turnovers.
Nevada will return to the confines of Lawlor Events Center to host Fresno State on Saturday, Jan. 31. The 2 p.m. is a doubleheader with the men's team who plays the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. First-year Nevada coach Kim Gervasoni will take on the WAC rookie of last year, the Lady Bulldogs' head coach Stacy Johnson-Klein. After sweeping the Pack last year, Nevada is 6-16 against Fresno State, going 6-5 at home, and a winless 0-11 in Fresno. Fresno State also dropped road games to Rice and Tulsa this week, and hold at 1-7 in WAC play like the Pack.
Rice remains tied for the conference lead with Louisiana Tech at 6-1. The Lady Owls are perfect at home in conference play this season with a 5-0 record. Senior Lindsey Maynard has scored double-digit points in eight consecutive games after scoring 16 against Fresno State and 11 against Nevada. Rices 55 first-half points against the Bulldogs is the third-most first-half points scored by any Lady Owl team. Junior Eshombi Singleton had seven assists against Nevada in just her third career start, marking the fourth time this season she has had six or more assists in a game. Senior Kate Beckler connected on four three-point baskets in two games and now stands in sixth on the Rice career three point list with
78.
San Jose State senior Tatiana Taylor broke the school record for field goal percentage in game against Boise State. She shot .846 (11-13), breaking the record of .833 set by Elinor Banks in 1979 and Natalie St. Mary in 1982. Senior Cricket Williams has climbed the WAC career record ladder this season. Williams is now seventh in free throws with 410. She has also moved into second in assists with 585. The versatile Williams is tied for sixth in steals with 273.
SMU sophomore forward Sarah Davis moved into sixth on SMU's all-time career list for blocked shots. She now totals 67 blocks to date and needs seven more blocks to move into fifth position held by Kerri Delaney (1992-96) with 73 blocks. Junior guard Kaira White has posted double-digit scoring numbers in the last seven consecutive games (all WAC games), averaging 14.0 points per contest in that span. Louisiana Tech was the fourth top-25 team SMU has faced so far this season. Earlier this season, SMU played No. 23 TCU, No. 5 Texas Tech, and No. 16 Oklahoma. The Mustangs are 0-4 vs. ranked teams this year.
UTEP will be seeking its first six-game winning streak since opening the 1996-97 season with seven-consecutive wins. The streak to open the 1996-97 season is the longest in program history. Its current five-game winning streak is the first since the Miners defeated BYU, Wyoming, Colorado State, UNLV and Air Force in January of 1998. The streak ties UTEP's longest WAC win streak (1997-98 and 1992-93). UTEP will also look to extend its two-game road winning streak to tie the school record for consecutive road victories. The Miners won on the road at Nevada and Fresno State. The last time UTEP won three-consecutive road games was when it defeated BYU, UNLV and Air Force during January 1998. That is the only time the Miners won three-consecutive games in the WAC in 14 seasons. UTEP also won three games in a row in January of 1993, when it won at Southern Utah, Wyoming and Colorado State.
Tulsa redshirt freshman Jillian Robbins is off to a strong start in her first season of competition in WAC play. Through seven conference games, Robbins is averaging 14.7 points, 7.3 rebounds 2.1 blocks and 3.6 steals per game. She has connected on 46-percent of her field goal attempts (43-93), and has reached double figures in scoring in all seven games, including a career-high 19 points at Boise State on Jan. 10. Robbins recorded back-to-back games with a double-double against SMU on Jan. 5 and UTEP on Jan. 8, and has been Tulsa's top scorer or rebounder in four WAC games.