FRESNO STATE, LOUISIANA TECH TO REPRESENT WAC IN NCAA TOURNAMENT -
WAC Tournament champion Fresno State and WAC regular-season champion Louisiana Tech will both participate in the NCAA Tournament as the Bulldogs received the WAC’s automatic bid to the dance, while LA Tech received an at-large bid to play in this year’s event.
After winning the WAC Tournament, Fresno State (25-7) earned a No. 12 seed and meets fifth-seeded North Carolina (26-8) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 2 p.m. (MT) Saturday, March 19, at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M., on ESPN2. The Bulldogs are making their fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance after winning the 2011 WAC Tournament with a thrilling 78-76 victory over Louisiana Tech.
North Carolina earned an at-large bid after falling to Duke in the finals of the ACC Tournament. The Tar Heels are making their 10th-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fell in the first round last season.
For the second year in a row and 27th time in program history, Louisiana Tech (24-7) will play in the NCAA Tournament when the 10th-seeded Lady Techsters take on No. 7-seed Rutgers (19-12) in the first round at 6:30 p.m. (CT) Sunday, March 20, at the CenturyTel Center in Shreveport, La., in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN2. The Lady Techsters won the WAC regular-season title after posting a 15-1 mark in conference play.
Rutgers earned an at-large bid after falling to UConn in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. The Scarlet Knights are making their 22nd appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fell in the first round a year ago.
This is the 10th time ever and second year in a row that the WAC has sent multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament.
UTAH STATE, NEVADA TO REPRESENT WAC IN WNIT -
Utah State and Nevada will represent the WAC in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) later this week. The Aggies received the WAC’s automatic bid to the tournament, while Nevada was selected as an at-large participant.
Utah State (17-14) hosts Arizona (21-11) at 5 p.m. (MT) on Wednesday, March 17, while Nevada (21-10) travels to Moraga, Calif., for a game against Saint Mary’s (19-12), also on Thursday.
The Aggies earned the automatic bid as the highest finishing WAC team that was not selected to the NCAA Tournament. Utah State finished in third place in the WAC regular-season standings. The Aggies fell to eventual champion Fresno State in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament. This is Utah State’s first-ever appearance in the WNIT.
Arizona finished fourth in the Pac-10 and fell to Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-10 Tournament.
Nevada is making its third appearance in the WNIT and second in a row. The Wolf Pack fell to top-seeded Louisiana Tech in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament last week.
Saint Mary’s finished in second place in the West Coast Conference and fell to top-seeded Gonzaga in the title game of the WCC Tournament.
IDAHO TO REPRESENT WAC IN WBI -
For the first time in 25 years, the Idaho women’s basketball team is heading to the postseason. The Vandals face South Dakota at 6 p.m. (CT) Thursday, March 17, in the second annual Women’s Basketball Invitational.
Idaho earned the No. 2 seed in the eight-team West Region of the tournament. The winner of Idaho’s game at South Dakota will take on either Northern Colorado or Cal State Bakersfield.
No current Vandal player was alive in 1986, the last time Idaho earned a postseason berth. Idaho beat Fresno State, Notre Dame and Northwest Louisiana to win the WNIT that year. Idaho’s only other trip to the postseason was an NCAA bid in 1985, where the Vandals lost in the first round to Southern California.
Idaho is the No. 2 seed in the West Region of the 16-team tournament, which features east and west regions with eight teams on each side. All games in the tournament will be played on campus sites.
FRESNO STATE CLAIMS WAC TOURNAMENT TITLE -
After defeating Utah State in the semifinals, second-seeded Fresno State’s Jaleesa Ross scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 78-76 win over Louisiana Tech in the championship game of the 2011 WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. Ross scored her 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including a 5-of-9 clip from three-point range. Taja Edwards helped the Bulldogs with 15 points, while Rosie Moult added 10. Adrienne Johnson led Louisiana Tech with 22 points.
All-Tournament Team:
Adrienne Johnson, Louisiana Tech; Rosie Moult, Fresno State; Yinka Olorunnife, Idaho; Tahnee Robinson, Nevada; Jaleesa Ross, Fresno State - MVP
FRESNO STATE BREAKS WAC TOURNAMENT RECORD FOR THREE-POINTERS -
In its semifinal win over Utah State last Friday, Fresno State drained 14 three-pointers, breaking its own WAC Tournament record of 13, set in both 2008 and 2010. In addition, Rosie Moult made six treys, tying the WAC Tournament record held by six other players.
ALL-WAC HONORS -
The 2010-11 all-Western Athletic Conference teams were named, following a vote of the WAC’s head coaches. Louisiana Tech’s Adrienne Johnson headlined the awards, earning the WAC Player of the Year honor. Johnson, a 6-0 senior forward from Franklin, La., became the eighth Louisiana Tech player in 10 seasons to earn the award. In WAC play, she led the league in scoring (22.3) and minutes played (38.4), ranked second in field goal percentage (48.3), third in rebounding (10.0), fourth in free throw percentage (85.0), seventh in blocks (0.8) and 10th in steals (1.9). Johnson has scored in double figures in 28 of 29 games this season, including 18 games of 20 or more points, and has recorded 14 double-doubles on the year, including eight in WAC games. She was named WAC Player of the Week five times this season.
Utah State head coach Raegan Pebley earned WAC Coach of the Year honors for the first time in her career. She has led the Aggies to a 10-6 record in WAC play and 16-13 overall mark. The 10 WAC wins are the most for Utah State in a season since joining the conference, while the 16 wins thus far this season is tied for most wins in a season since the reinstatement of the program in 2003-04.
Nevada’s Shavon Moore earned the WAC’s Defensive Player of the Year honor, becoming the third Wolf Pack player to receive the honor in the four years of the award’s existence. A 6-1 forward from Riverside, Calif. (J.W. North HS), Moore averaged 8.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 0.9 blocks per game in WAC play. She was also named first team all-WAC and to the all-Defensive team.
Utah State’s Ashlee Brown was the WAC’s Newcomer of the Year, becoming the first Aggie ever to earn any of the major awards in the WAC. A 6-0 junior forward from Chandler, Ariz. (UC Santa Barbara/Chandler HS), Brown averaged 16.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game in WAC play. In conference games, she led the WAC in field goal percentage (53.4), ranked third in scoring, fifth in rebounding and eighth in assists. She has reached double-digit scoring in 21 of the 26 games she played, including 12 of 13 WAC games.
OLORUNNIFE SETS WAC CAREER REBOUNDING RECORD -
Idaho senior Yinka Olorunnife grabbed her 1,026th career rebound with 58 seconds remaining in the first half at Louisiana Tech on March 5, becoming the WAC’s all-time leader in rebounding. She passed Louisiana Tech’s Shanavia Dowdell, who finished her career with 1,025. Olorunnife currently has 1,058 rebounds.
ROSS INCHES TOWARDS NCAA THREE-POINTER RECORD -
On Feb. 12, Fresno State’s Jaleesa Ross became the WAC’s all-time leader in career three-pointers made, surpassing Colorado State’s Becky Hammon, who tallied 365 from 1995-99. Ross now has with 385 treys on her career, seven away from tying the NCAA record of 392 held by Laurie Koehn of Kansas State. With a minimum of one game left in her career and at her current pace, Ross would finish with 388 long balls, good for third place.
THREE WAC TEAMS REACH 20 WINS -
For the first time since the 2007-08 season, three WAC teams have reached the 20-win plateau. Fresno State has 25 wins, Louisiana Tech has 24 and Nevada has 21 for the first time in school history.
LOUISIANA TECH’S JOHNSON ADDED TO WADE WATCH LIST -
Louisiana Tech’s Adrienne Johnson has been added to the 2010-11 State Farm® Wade Watch list. She is one of 34 players who are under consideration for the State Farm Wade Trophy – the Division I women’s basketball equivalent of college football’s Heisman Trophy®. The State Farm Wade Trophy Committee will trim the Watch list to 12 finalists in mid-March. State Farm and the Wade Trophy Coalition will officially announce the State Farm Wade Trophy winner during the WBCA National Convention, held in conjunction with the NCAA® Women’s Final Four® in Indianapolis.
ROBINSON FINALIST FOR SULLIVAN AWARD -
Nevada senior captain Tahnee Robinson was one of 12 semifinalists for the 2010 Sullivan Award, a national award to honor the country’s best amateur athlete. She Robinson finished 2010 as the eighth-best scorer in the country with 22.7 points per game and 15th in the nation with 3.1 three-pointers per game. She was twice named WAC Player of the Week and named MVP of the Caribbean Classic after averaging 24.5 points in two games, shooting 47.2 percent.
FRESNO STATE SETS WAC RECORD FOR THREE-POINTERS -
In its win over Boise State on Feb. 10, Fresno State hit 16 three-pointers, breaking the record for long balls in a conference game and tying the record for treys in any game, which the Bulldogs did in each of the last two seasons. The previous WAC record of 15 was held by three different teams – Hawai`i in 2003, Brigham Young in 1998 and New Mexico in 1996.
NON-CONFERENCE -
The WAC is 62-57 (.521) in non-conference games this season to be ranked 13th in conference RPI. Three teams are in the top 100 led by Louisiana Tech (27). Fresno State is 47, while Nevada is 97.
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos (12-19, 3-13 WAC)
The Broncos fell 70-59 to Idaho in the first round of the WAC Tournament last Wednesday to close out the season ... Janie Bos led Boise State with 14 points and six rebounds ... In WAC games, Lauren Lenhardt led the conference in free throw percentage (91.2), ranked eighth in blocked shots (0.79), ninth in scoring (13.4) and 19th in rebounding (5.2) ... Kati Isham ranked fourth in the WAC in conference games in three-pointers per game (1.94) ... As a team, Boise State ranks 88th nationally in assists per game (14.0), 94th in three-point field goals per game (6.0) and 96th in scoring (67.1) ... Isham ranks 74 in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (37.0) and 83rd in three-point field goals per game (2.3).
Fresno State Bulldogs (25-7, 14-2 WAC)
The Bulldogs defeated Utah State (86-76) and Louisiana Tech (78-76) to claim their second WAC Tournament title last Saturday ... Jaleesa Ross was named tournament MVP after averaging 17.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals ... Ross is the WAC’s leader in career three-pointers with 385, seven shy of the NCAA record ... Fresno State leads the nation in three-pointers per game (9.7), ranks eighth in steals (12.6), 14th in turnover margin (5.09), and assists (16.7), 16th in scoring (76.1), 22nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.01), 24th in winning percentage (78.1) and 31st in scoring margin (11.2) ... The No. 12-seed Bulldogs play fifth-seeded North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Albuquerque.
Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (11-19, 5-11 WAC)
The seventh-seeded Rainbow Wahine fell to No. 6-seed New Mexico State 71-59 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last Wednesday to close out the season ... Breanna Arbuckle posted her third double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Kamilah Jackson tallied her 13th double-double with 11 points and 10 boards ... Jackson set the UH freshman single-season rebounding record with 333, which ranks sixth all-time in WAC history ... Jackson leads the WAC and ranks fourth nationally with 11.9 rebounds per game ... As a team, Hawai`i led the WAC in conference games in rebounding (42.7), and ranked second in blocks (4.19), rebounding margin (5.0) and field goal percentage defense (37.7).
Idaho Vandals (15-15, 7-9 WAC)
The Vandals defeated Boise State 70-59 in the first round of the WAC Tournament before falling 75-61 to Nevada in the quarterfinals ... Against the Broncos, Yinka Olorunnife led all players with 21 points and 13 rebounds ... Against Nevada, Olorunnife added 23 points and 15 boards ... Olorunnife is the WAC’s all-time rebounding leader with 1,058 on her career ... The Vandals led the WAC in conference games in free throw percentage (73.4) and ranked second in three-pointers per game (6.0) and rebounding defense (35.1) ... Idaho ranks 23rd nationally in personal fouls per game (14.3) and 41st in free throw percentage (74.0) ... The Vandals play at South Dakota in the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational on Thursday.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (24-7, 15-1 WAC)
The Lady Techsters defeated Nevada 66-59 in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament before falling 78-76 to Fresno State in the championship game ... Against the Wolf Pack, Adrienne Johnson led all players with 24 points and nine rebounds ... Against the Bulldogs, Johnson tallied 22 points ... LA Tech ranks 27th nationally in winning percentage (77.4), 30th in scoring (73.7) and turnover margin (3.77), 37th in scoring margin (9.6) and 40th in field goal percentage (42.8) ... Johnson ranks 10th in the nation in scoring (22.0), 23rd in double-doubles (14), 37th in field goal percentage (51.7), 40th in free throw percentage (84.4) and 42nd in rebounding (9.5)... The 10th-seeded Lady Techsters face No. 7-seed Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
Nevada Wolf Pack (21-10, 9-7 WAC)
The Wolf Pack defeated Idaho 75-61 in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament before falling to Louisiana Tech 66-59 in the semifinals ... Against the Vandals, Tahnee Robinson scored a career-high 35 points ... Against Tech, Robinson led the team with 23 points ... Nevada ranks 15th nationally in rebounding margin (7.4) ... Robinson ranks eighth in the nation in scoring (22.2), 16th in three-pointers per game (2.8) and 22nd in three-point field goal percentage (41.0) ... Amanda Johnson ranks 50th nationally in assist-turnover ratio (1.72) ... Nevada reached 21 wins for the first time in school history ... The Wolf Pack travel to Moraga, Calif., to face Saint Mary’s in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday.
New Mexico State Aggies (14-18, 7-9 WAC)
The sixth-seeded Aggies defeated No. 7-seed Hawai`i 71-59 in the first round of the WAC Tournament last Wednesday before falling 72-67 to Utah State in the quarterfinals to close out the season ... Against the Rainbow Wahine, Jasmine Lowe led all players with 20 points, followed by Tabytha Wampler with 18 ... In the loss to the Aggies, Wampler led five Aggies in double-digit scoring with 18 points ... As a team, New Mexico State ranks 39th nationally in turnovers per game (15.2) ... Lowe ranks 32nd in the nation in steals (2.7), while Wampler ranks 36th in free throw percentage (85.1) ... Head coach Darin Spence resigned from his post following the WAC Tournament.
San Jose Spartans (2-27, 2-14 WAC)
As the ninth place team in the WAC standings, the Spartans did not qualify for the WAC Tournament ... In WAC games, SJSU ranked fourth in the conference in rebounding defense (37.9) and steals (9.9) ... Sara Plavljanin ranked third in the conference in WAC games in minutes played (35.3), ninth in three-point field goals per game (1.5) and 12th in scoring (11.8), while Sayja Sumler was second in steals (2.5) and seventh in assists (3.1) and Brittany Johnson was seventh in rebounding (6.4) ... Head coach Pam DeCosta resigned from her position last week after four years at the helm.
Utah State Aggies (17-14, 10-6 WAC)
The No. 3-seed Aggies defeated sixth-seeded New Mexico State 72-67 in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament before falling to eventual champion Fresno State, 86-76, in the semifinals ... Against NM State, Devyn Christensen led all players with 19 points ... Against the Bulldogs, Christensen led a group of four Aggies in double-digit scoring with 19 points ... USU ranks 22nd nationally in steals (11.3), 24th in assists (16.1) and 46th in assist/turnover ratio (0.92) ... Christensen is 31st in the nation in free throw percentage (85.5), while Ashlee Brown is 46th in field goal percentage (51.0) and Banna Diop is 49th in blocks (1.8) ... The Aggies host Arizona in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday.