NEVADA’S CRINER EARNS WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
Nevada point guard Dellena Criner has been named Western Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for Nov. 24-30. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor of the season for Criner and the fourth of her career.
The senior from Oakland, Calif., was named Nugget Classic MVP after leading the Wolf Pack to its second-consecutive tournament title with wins over Northern Iowa (71-63) and nationally-ranked Louisville (85-82). She started the week with team highs of 19 points, six assists and five steals against Northern Iowa. Criner followed it up with a team-high 25 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the floor and 10-of-10 from the free throw line vs. No. 7 Louisville for the team’s first-ever win over a Top 25 opponent. She also added seven assists and six rebounds in the victory. For the week, Criner averaged 22.0 points, 6.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game.
Other nominees included: Brittany Moore of Boise State averaged 12.0 points and 2.5 rebounds on the week ... Fresno State’s Marnique Arnold averaged a double-double ? 12.5 points and 11.5 rebounds ? in a pair of games ... Yinka Olorunnife of Idaho averaged 18.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.3 blocks as the Vandals went 2-1 ... Louisiana Tech’s Shanavia Dowdell averaged 23.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks as Tech went 1-1 on the week ... Madison Spence of New Mexico State averaged 17.5 points and 4.0 assists in a pair of wins ... San Jose State’s Natalie White led the Spartans with 15 points and hit the game-winning shot as time expired in the team’s first win of the season ... Danyelle Snelgro of Utah State led the Aggies to a 2-1 record, averaging 13.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
NEVADA GETS FIRST-EVER WIN OVER RANKED TEAM
Nevada recorded the biggest win in program history last Saturday, beating No. 7 Louisville 85-82. It was the Wolf Pack’s first-ever win over a ranked team and the highest ranked team Nevada had ever faced. The previous highest ranked teams Nevada had played were No. 8 Louisiana Tech (2003-04), No. 9 Cal (2008-09) and No. 11 Louisiana Tech (2002-03).
SJSU’S WHITE REACHES 1,000-POINT PLATEAU
The Spartans’ Natalie White scored her 1,000th career point on a three-pointer at the 4:27 mark of the second half against Sacramento State last Friday. Making the game even more memorable was the fact that she hit the game-winning basket as time expired to give San Jose State its first win of the season. White is just the 12th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
NEVADA’S ALBRIGHT EARNS WIN 400
In her first year at Nevada and 25th overall, Wolf Pack head coach Jane Albright earned her 400th career win against Northern Iowa last Friday, becoming the 39th Division I coach to reach 400 victories. The following night, she earned win No. 401 against No. 7 Louisville. Four of those wins have come at Nevada, 48 at Wichita State, 161 at Wisconsin and 188 at Northern Illinois.
NEVADA TO HOST 2009 WAC TOURNAMENT
Reno and the University of Nevada will host the 2009 WAC Tournament, March 10-14. It will be the third time that Nevada has hosted the event. Nevada also hosted the tournament in 2005 and 2006. The tournament features all nine men’s and women’s teams.
Boise State Broncos (3-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Broncos continue to struggle with the loss of starting point guard Tasha Harris, as the team went 0-2 last week, falling at Wyoming (62-55) and to Utah Valley (73-70) ... Boise State then snapped a four-game losing skid with a 74-60 win over Southern Utah on Monday ... Brittany Moore recorded a career-high 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and 4-of-8 from three-point range at Wyoming ... Heather Pilcher led the team with 19 points in 19 minutes in the win over the Thunderbirds ... Boise State travels to Montana State on Friday and Montana on Sunday.
Fresno State Bulldogs (4-1, 0-0 WAC)
The Bulldogs went 1-1 at the SMU Hoops for the Cure Tournament last week, falling to Charlotte (70-69) and defeating Sam Houston State (76-73) ... LaShay Fears was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 12.0 points on 54 percent shooting and 4.0 rebounds over the two games ... Marnique Arnold had a career-high 17 points against Sam Houston State and a career-best 12 rebounds against Charlotte ... Jaleesa Ross’ streak of 26 games with a three-pointer was snapped against Charlotte ... The Bulldogs are out-rebounding their opponents 46-32 on the year ... Bailey Amundsen leads the team in rebounding (9.2), while Ross leads the Bulldogs in scoring (15.2) ... Fresno State hosts No. 22 TCU on Thursday before playing at Pacific on Saturday.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (0-6, 0-0 WAC)
The Rainbow Wahine went 0-3 at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Classic last weekend, falling to San Diego State (71-48), No. 19/23 Purdue (90-74) and No. 5/6 Stanford (83-54) ... Junior college transfer Sarah Ilic scored a career-high 15 points against Stanford, going 6-of-12 from the floor ... Point guard Keisha Kanekoa scored a season-high 21 points against Purdue, going 8-for-10 from the floor ... Kanekoa followed up the Purdue game with 12 points against Stanford ... Senior guard Catherine Cho made the second start of her career and scored a career-high eight points against Stanford, playing a career-high 34 minutes ... Megan Tinnin scored a season-high 19 points against Purdue, including going 5-of-10 from three-point range ... The Rainbow Wahine travel to Tempe, Ariz., and will face Northern Arizona in the Arizona State Tournament on Saturday.
Idaho Vandals (2-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Vandals went 2-1 last week, defeating Eastern Washington (80-70) before going 1-1 at the Cal Poly Tournament, where they fell to Cal Poly (77-60) and beat Cal State Bakersfield (75-62) ... Yinka Olorunnife was named to the all-tournament team after scoring 23 points against CSUB, the second-most of her career and the most by an Idaho player this season ... Idaho shot a season-high 34 free throws vs. EWU, converting 22 ... Charlotte Otero dished her 200th career assist against Cal Poly ... Otero had a combined 12 assists and two turnovers in Idaho’s two wins and ranks first in the WAC in assist-to-turnover ratio ... Idaho held CSUB to a season-low 62 points and a season-low .375 field goal percentage ... Idaho hosts Long Beach State on Sunday in its only game this week.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (2-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Techsters went 1-1 last week, demolishing Nicholls State (90-33) before losing a heartbreaker to Western Kentucky (60-59) ... Shanavia Dowdell averaged 23.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks, hitting 59 percent (19-of-32) of her field goals on the week ... She scored a career-high 30 points and pulled down 16 rebounds in the loss to WKU and blocked a Thomas Assembly Center record eight shots in the win over Nicholls State ... WKU guard Amy McNear hit a 15-foot jumper with 0.8 seconds to play to hand LTU its first loss at home this season ... The Techsters travel to Mississippi State on Wednesday and host Arizona on Saturday.
Nevada Wolf Pack (4-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Pack went 2-0 to claim the Nugget Classic championship with wins over Northern Iowa (71-63) and No. 7 Louisville (85-82) ... The win over Louisville was Nevada’s first-ever win over a Top 25 opponent ... Dellena Criner averaged 22.0 points, 6.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds en route to MVP honors for the second year in a row ... Cherlanda Franklin was also named to the all-tournament team after averaging 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds ... Head coach Jane Albright recorded her 400th career victory on Friday against Northern Iowa ... Freshman Kayla Williams scored a career-high 15 points vs. Louisville ... Nevada has out-rebounded or tied its opponent in rebounding in six of its seven games this season ... Nevada opens a three-game road trip at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday and plays at UCLA on Sunday.
New Mexico State Aggies (3-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Aggies went 2-0 to claim the Aggie Thanksgiving Classic with wins over Loyola-Chicago (64-56) and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (74-47) ... Madison Spence had 20 points, five assists and two steals vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christi ... She has scored 15 or more points in her last four games and has scored in double figures every game this season ... The Aggies, which lead the league in free throw percentage (.743), went 44-of-53 (.830) at the line last week ... NMSU’s 27-point victory over the Islanders was its largest of the season ... The Aggies are 3-1 this season when scoring 60 or more points ... NMSU is 14-3 under head coach Darin Spence when holding a team under 50 points ... NMSU faces New Mexico Thursday in Albuquerque and hosts UTEP on Sunday.
San Jose Spartans (1-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Spartans picked up their first win of the season, defeating Sacramento State 49-48 in their only game last week ... Natalie White led the Spartans with 15 points, scoring the game-winning shot with no time remaining on the clock for the win ... White also scored her 1,000th career point at the 4:27 mark of the second half on a three-pointer from straight away to become just the 12th player in school history to record 1,000 points ... Shaunna Ridge grabbed a season-best and season team-high 14 rebounds and blocked a season-high four shots ... Chasity Shavers scored a season-high 13 points, including two three-pointers ... The Spartans play at Kansas on Thursday and at Cal State Northridge on Sunday.
Utah State Aggies (3-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Aggies went 2-1 last week, defeating Montana State-Northern (42-39) early in the week before going 1-1 at the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic, where they beat Texas State (50-47) but fell to Monmouth (48-44) in the title game ... Danyelle Snelgro and Ana Pares were named to the all-tournament team ... Snelgro was one point shy of her career high with 17 points against Texas State ... The Aggies have gone three-straight games allowing 50 points or less ... With a 3-3 start, the Aggies are off to their best start since 2004 when the team also started 3-3 with wins against Utah Valley, Southern Utah and Air Force ... Utah State hosts Eastern Washington on Saturday in its only game this week ... Last season, USU crushed Eastern Washington (74-55) in one of its most lopsided wins of the year.