NEVADA TO HOST 2010 WAC TOURNAMENT
Reno and the University of Nevada will host the 2010 WAC Tournament this Wednesday-Saturday, March 10-13. It will be the second year in a row and the fourth time Nevada has hosted the event. The Wolf Pack also hosted the tournament in 2005, 2006 and 2009. The tournament features the top eight men’s and women’s teams.
WAC TO STREAM SELECTED WAC TOURNAMENT GAMES
A total of three men’s games and six women’s games will be streamed via the internet from the 2010 WAC Basketball Tournament presented by Verizon Wireless. Those nine games will be available live on WAC.tv. Games that will be shown on any ESPN networks cannot be shown due to contractual obligations. These ESPN games include the men’s afternoon quarterfinals on March 11, the second men’s semifinal game on March 12 and both the men’s and women’s championship games. Individual tournament games may be purchased for $7.95 each.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TO BE TELEVISED NATIONALLY ON ESPNU SATURDAY
The championship game of the WAC Tournament, which will be played at 1 p.m. (PT) this Saturday, March 13, will air live on ESPNU. It is the fourth WAC women’s basketball game to air on the network this season.
BOISE STATE BRONCOS (19-11, 8-8 WAC)
The Broncos defeated Utah State 57-47 last Wednesday and beat Louisiana Tech 74-65 on Saturday ... Against the Aggies, Janie Bos had 16 points and a career-high 16 rebounds ... Tasha Harris added 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists and four steals ... Against LA Tech, Harris scored 18 points to move into 10th place in the WAC record book with 1,732 career points ... She also made 14 free throws to move into fifth place in the WAC with 479 career free throws ... Janie Bos added her second double-double of the week with 10 points and team-high 12 rebounds ... Harris was named first-team all-WAC, while Lauren Lenhardt and Julia Marshall were named to the All-Freshmen Team ... The Bulldogs, the No. 6 seed in the WAC Tournament, face host and third-seeded Nevada in the quarterfinals Wednesday ... The two schools split the regular-season series with the home team winning both.
FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS (25-5, 16-0 WAC)
The Bulldogs defeated San Jose State 83-47 last Wednesday to become the fourth team and the first since LA Tech in 2002-03 to go undefeated in WAC play ... Jaleesa Ross scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting ... LaShay Fears added 14 points, while Hayley Munro had a team-high nine rebounds ... The 25 wins is a school record ... Ross was named WAC Defensive Player of the Year and to the all-WAC first team, while Munro was a second-team honoree ... Rosie Moult was named to the All-Freshmen Team and Adrian Wiggins was honored as Coach of the Year ... The Bulldogs’ 17 straight wins is the seventh-longest win streak in the country ... Ross has 529 points this season, good for third place in the Fresno State single-season record books ... She is also two three-pointers away from breaking her own single-season record of 95 set last year ... The top-seeded Bulldogs face Hawai`i in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament Wednesday.
HAWAI`I RAINBOW WAHINE (10-19, 4-12 WAC)
The Rainbow Wahine fell 53-51 at Utah State on Saturday in their only game of the week ... Dita Liepkalne led the team with 13 points ... Breanna Arbuckle ranks third in the WAC in field goal percentage (.492) and fourth in blocks per game (1.34) ... In WAC games only, Arbuckle ranked second in blocks (1.56) and fourth in field goal percentage (.515) ... Keisha Kanekoa ranks second in assists per game (3.45) and free throw percentage (.774), and 13th in scoring (11.2) ... The eighth-seeded Rainbow Wahine face No. 1-seed Fresno State in the first quarterfinal game of the WAC Tournament on Wednesday ... The Bulldogs have beat Hawai`i in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament in two of the last three seasons ... Overall, Fresno State has won eight straight games against the Rainbow Wahine, including two earlier this season ... Hawai`i is 1-2 this season at a neutral site.
IDAHO VANDALS (10-19, 8-8 WAC)
The Vandals fell 63-56 to Louisiana Tech last Wednesday and defeated Nevada 69-62 on Saturday ... In the loss to LA Tech, Charlotte Otero scored a career-high 18 points on a career-high four three-pointers to go with six assists ... Yinka Olorunnife posted a double-double of 11 points and 14 rebounds ... Against Nevada, Rachele Kloke poured in 26 points, while Otero added 18 ... Kloke was a second-team all-WAC selection ... With 368 career assists, Otero needs two more to move into Idaho’s career top 10 ... Olorunnife grabbed her 700th career rebound against Louisiana Tech ... In WAC games only, Otero led the WAC in field goal percentage (.543) and three-point field goal percentage (.500) ... Idaho’s win over Nevada locked its first regular-season sweep of the Wolf Pack since joining the WAC ... The Vandals, the No. 4 seed in the WAC Tournament, face fifth-seeded New Mexico State in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
LOUISIANA TECH LADY TECHSTERS (20-8, 11-5 WAC)
The Techsters defeated Idaho 63-56 last Wednesday and fell 74-65 at Boise State on Saturday ... Against the Vandals, Adrienne Johnson led all players with 23 points, while Shanavia Dowdell posted her 13th-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 boards ... In the loss to the Broncos, Dowdell led the Techsters with 14 points and nine rebounds ... Jasmine Bendolph added 14 points, Whitney Jones had 11 and Adrienne Johnson chipped in 10 ... With 974 career rebounds, Dowdell is tied for the all-time WAC record ... Dowdell became the fifth player in WAC history to repeat as WAC Player of the Year and was joined on the first team by Johnson ... Both players were also named to the All-Defensive Team ... The No. 2-seed Techsters face No. 7 Utah State in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament on Wednesday.
NEVADA WOLF PACK (16-14, 10-6 WAC)
The Wolf Pack edged New Mexico State 61-59 last Wednesday and lost 69-62 to Idaho on Saturday ... Against NM State, Tahnee Robinson scored a team-high 22 points, while Shavon Moore added 15 ... Kayla Williams pulled down a game-high 10 boards ... In the loss to the Vandals, Robinson posted her first career double-double with 27 points and a career-high 10 rebounds ... Nevada ended the 2010 WAC season with a 10-6 record, which tied the school record for conference wins in a season ... Robinson was a first-team all-WAC selection and the WAC Newcomer of the Year, while Moore was named to the second team ... The third-seeded Wolf Pack host No. 6-seed Boise State in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament on Wednesday ... Nevada is 5-9 all-time in the WAC Tournament and has advanced to the semifinals three times and to the championship game last year.
NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES (18-12, 8-8 WAC)
The Aggies fell 61-59 at Nevada last Wednesday and defeated San Jose State 62-35 on Saturday to close out the regular season ... In the loss to the Wolf Pack, Crystal Boyd led the team with 23 points, followed by Madison Spence with 16 ... In the win over the Spartans, Boyd led all players with 12 points, while Tabytha Wampler pulled down a game-high 11 boards ... The Aggies held San Jose State to just 35 points, the lowest output by any opponent this season ... NM State held the Spartans to 27.7 percent shooting, the lowest conference opponent percentage this year ... Wampler is averaging 9.2 rebounds over her last five games, including three games with double-digit boards ... Boyd was named to the all-WAC second team, while Camila Rosen was tabbed to the All-Freshmen Team ... New Mexico State, the No. 5 seed in the WAC Tournament, faces fourth-seeded Idaho in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
SAN JOSE STATE SPARTANS (6-23, 2-14 WAC)
The Spartans fell 83-47 at Fresno State last Wednesday and lost 62-35 at New Mexico State on Saturday ... Against the Bulldogs, Chasity Shavers paced the Spartans with 14 points, followed by Britney Bradley with 13 ... Marnesha Hall posted her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds ... In the loss at New Mexico State, Ashley Brown paced the team with eight points, while Shaunna Ridge pulled down eight rebounds ... The Spartans out-rebounded the Aggies 47-36 and posted a 14-2 edge in the paint, but went 0-for-6 from three-point range ... The team’s six wins this season are the most since the 2005-06 season and the most in head coach Pam DeCosta’s tenure.
UTAH STATE AGGIES (13-16, 5-11 WAC)
The Aggies fell 57-47 to Boise State last Wednesday before defeating Hawai`i 53-51 on Saturday ... In the loss to Boise State, Amber White led the team with 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and one block ... In the win over Hawai`i, Banna Diop led USU with 11 points and eight rebounds ... Utah State has five players (White, Alice Coddington, Lydia Whitehead, Nicole Johnson and TaHara Williams) who have seen playing time in all 28 games this season, while White and Coddington have started all 28 games ... White became just the third Aggie ever to earn all-WAC honors as she was named to the second team ... Diop was selected to the WAC All-Freshman Team ... The Aggies rank 35 nationally with 4.8 blocks per game ... Coddington ranks 45th in the nation with 2.6 steals per game ... The seventh-seeded Aggies face No. 2-seed Utah State in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament on Wednesday.