PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice's Lindsey Maynard has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 2-8. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for the senior. The Lady Owls have earned the player of the week honor one other time this season with freshman Lauren Neaves earning the honor in January.
Maynard, a guard from The Woodlands, Texas, averaged 13.0 ppg and 4.5 rpg in two games, as the Lady Owls won two games. Rice kept pace with Louisiana Tech with a 10-1 WAC record. She connected on .611 from the field, including .500 from long range and .600 from the free throw line. The senior scored in double-digits in points against both UTEP and Boise State, making it 11 times this season she's scored double-figures. She tied a career-high with three blocks against Boise State. She was 6-of-9 against Boise State and 5-of-9 against UTEP with a block in each game.
Also nominated: Mindy Clark, Fresno State; Amisha Carter, Louisiana Tech; Cricket Williams, San Jose State; Angie McGee, UTEP and Emily Jaskowiak, Tulsa.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY The competition will remain fierce on Valentine's Day with a few tight races in the WAC. Louisiana Tech and Rice remain tied for first in the WAC just past the midway point of league play. Tulsa has a one game advantage over UTEP and SMU for third place with a 7-4 record. UTEP pulled off a stunning come-from-behind win over the Golden Hurricane to take a piece of fourth place. This week Louisiana Tech returns home to take on Hawaii and San Jose State. The Spartans game at Louisiana Tech will be televised on CSTV. Rice will play Tulsa in its only game of the week. The Hurricane look for the road upset, where they are 4-1 in the WAC this season.
HOME SWEET HOME Three WAC schools remain undefeated at home this season. Rice, Louisiana Tech and SMU are all undefeated. The Lady Owls lead the with a 7-0 record, while Lady Techsters hold a 5-0 record. The Mustangs are 4-0. On the flip side, there are two teams that are still looking for their first road wins. Nevada is 0-4 away from Reno, while Fresno State is 0-5.
AGAINST THE BEST The WAC is 1-9 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. 7 Stanford and 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. Rice has also lost to Baylor who is now ranked. 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.
TULSA'S BREWER BECOME ALL-TIME ASSIST LEADER Senior Candice Brewer became Tulsa's top career assist leader on the second of her four assists against UTEP. She surpassed former Hurricane standout Kasie Pittman (1996-2000) for first place and currently has 350 career assists. With 99 assists this season, Brewer ranks sixth on TU's single-season chart. She is three assists shy of fifth place and 39 assists away from catching Allison Curtin's first place mark of 138, which was set a year ago.
LOUISIANA TECH REACHES SEASON-HIGH RANKING Louisiana Tech, winners of nine-straight games, moved from No. 8 to No. 6 this week in the AP Poll, the highest the Lady Techsters have been this year. Louisiana Tech, which has now been ranked in 211 straight AP Polls dating back to the beginning of the 1992-93 season, moved past Stanford and Penn State in this week's rankings. Tech garnered 863 points followed closely by Texas Tech (862), Penn State (844), Kansas State (835) and Minnesota (798). The Lady Techsters haven't been ranked higher than No. 6 in the AP Poll since the second week of the 2001-02 season when Louisiana Tech was No. 5.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST This week, Rice jumped to first in the nation in blocked shots (6.7 bpg). Tulsa is fifth, averaging 6.3. Louisiana Tech is second in steals (14.3 spg), scoring offense (84.1) and scoring margin (24.7).
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 10-11 this season. Utah State is 3-16 in its first season of women's basketball in 17 years. The Aggies earned their third Big West win against Long Beach State, 64-60.
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 against. 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 a season-high six-straight games and looks to break that streak at home against Nevada and Fresno State. The Broncos have a tough task, facing first place Rice. But the Broncos did defeat the Lady Owls at home last season, 59-51. Last season, Boise State defeated Nevada twice.
Fresno State's 49-35 win over SMU last weekend snapped an eight-game losing streak- the program's longest since a 14-game skid during the 1980-81 season. During the streak, four of the team's eight losses came by 10 points or less; the other four were by margins of 18 or more. A string of losses can usually be traced back to poor shooting, an area that has hurt the Bulldogs in recent games. Over the last seven games, Fresno State has failed to shoot better than 37 percent overall in any contest. That has resulted in just one victory, the Feb. 7 win over SMU in which the Mustangs shot 19.7 percent.
Hawaii has been tough defensively this season. The Rainbow Wahine are second in the league in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a shooting percentage of .376. In WAC games, Hawaii is first in scoring defense with opponents scoring 58.3 points per game. The Rainbow Wahine are also first in league games in field goal percentage defense with opponents shooting .346. Offensively, Hawaii is led by Jade Abele, who is third in the league scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game. Abele is 15th in the WAC in three-point field goal percentage, shooting .300.
Former
Louisiana Tech standout Cheryl Ford is one of four current WNBA players who have been invited to tryouts for the 2004 USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team which will compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ford, who was named the 2003 WNBA Rookie of the Year after helping guide the Detroit Shock to the WNBA Championship in August, joins fellow Shock teammates Swin Cash and Ruth Riley along with Los Angeles Spark guard Nikki Teasley. Louisiana Tech has won nine-straight since its overtime loss to Rice. In that time, the Lady Techsters have risen to a season-high No. 6 ranking in the AP and ESPN polls.
Nevada will embark one of its final three road trips for 2003-04. The Wolf Pack will travel to Boise State on Feb. 12 and then to El Paso, Texas to take on UTEP on Feb. 14 at 5:00 p.m. After that, there is just one home stand left with Rice coming to Reno on Feb. 19 at 7:00 p.m. and Tulsa on Feb. 21 at 2:00 p.m.
Rice has now won seven-straight games, and 10 of its last 11 to remain tied for first place in the WAC with Louisiana Tech at 10-1. The Lady Owls are a perfect 7-0 at home in WAC play this season with two home games remaining. Junior Eshombi Singleton dished out a career-high nine assists against the Broncos and has had six or more assists in five games. Rice held Boise State to just two assists, the lowest assist mark in a single game by any Rice opponent ever. Elisa Inman stepped up against the Broncos to score 14 points, the fourth game this season she has had double-figure points. The Lady Owls will play five of their last seven games on the road beginning at Tulsa on Feb. 14.
San Jose State senior Cricket Williams was one of three San Jose State players to score in double figures with a game-high 20 points as the Spartans defeated Hawaii, 62-50 on Feb. 6. Forward Lamisha Augustine and reserve guard Lindsay Harris each added 12 points as San Jose State ended a three-game losing streak. The win marked the first time the Spartans swept the Rainbow Wahine in a regular-season conference series.
SMU's 35 points at Fresno State was the fewest scored in a single game by the Mustangs all season while SMU's 25 fouls against the Bulldogs is a season-high mark. Sophomore forward Sarah Davis is sixth on SMU's all-time career list for blocked shots. She now totals 72 blocks to date and needs two more blocks to move into fifth position held by Kerri Delaney (1992-96) with 73 blocks. Its been 20 games since an SMU player posted a double-double, dating back to March 14, 2003, against. Fresno State in the WAC Tournament semifinals, where Kaci Alexander and Shonte Roberts each posted a double-double. The win at Nevada marked the first time this season that SMU collected a win after trailing at halftime. The Mustangs have out-rebounded their opponents in three of their last four games.
UTEP is over .500 through 20 games at 11-9 for the first time in six years. The Miners stand tied for fourth in the league and hope to position themselves to remain in the upper half of the conference. By finishing in the upper six of the conference, the Miners would not have to play in the play-in game at the WAC Tournament. Since the WAC Tournament went to a 10-team format for the 2002 tournament, the Miners have been in the play-in game both years. UTEP also played in the play-in game for the 2001 nine-team WAC Tournament.
Tulsa redshirt freshman Jillian Robbins has not only proved to be one of the league's top freshmen, but one of the WAC's best players this season, just over midway though her first season of WAC play. Through 11 league contests, Robbins is averaging 15.5 points, 8.1 rebounds 2.5 blocks and 3.4 steals per game. She has connected on 45-percent of her field goal attempts (64-of-139), and has reached double figures in scoring in every WAC game and 14 total games this season, including a career-high 22 points at Hawaii on Jan. 31. Robbins recorded 20+ point outings against San Jose State on Jan. 29 and Hawaii. She notched back-to-back games with a double-double against SMU on Jan. 5 and UTEP Jan. 8, and has three double-doubles this season. She has also been Tulsa's top scorer or rebounder in eight WAC games.