SEATTLE U’S SOWELL NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Seattle U junior forward Kacie Sowell has been named Western Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 5-11. This is her first-ever WAC Player of the Week honor.
The Irvine, Calif. native posted a double-double in a 71-70 season-opening loss to Pacific. She finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. Sowell was 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) from the field and 3-of-4 (75 percent) from the free throw line on the game.
Other nominees included: Emiko Smith of Denver finished with seven assists, four points and four rebounds in a loss to Utah ... Louisiana Tech’s Tavasha Anderson scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed three rebounds in 16 minutes of action in a loss to Tulane ... Classye James of San Jose State posted 21 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists in a win over San Francisco State ... Texas State’s Diamond Ford scored 21 points to go along with five rebounds, three assists and a steal in a win over Belmont.
UTSA HOLDING OPPONENTS TO 31.5 POINTS PER GAME
Two games into the season, UTSA is holding its opponents to just 31.5 points per game. The Roadrunners opened the season with a 68-34 victory over UT-Pan American, holding the Broncs to just 19 percent shooting. In its second game of the season, UTSA held Concordia to just 29 points on 23 percent shooting. In that game, the Roadrunners scored 47 points off 35 Tornados turnovers.
SAN JOSE STATE SETS SEVERAL PROGRAM MARKS
San Jose State opened the season with a 15- point win over San Francisco State on Nov. 9, its first season opening win since the 2005-06 season. Classye James led the team with 21 points, the third-most scored in a season opener in 13 years and the highest scoring debut by a Spartan in 17 years. Emily Schill had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double. It was the first time in 23 years a Spartan newcomer had a double-double in the first game of the year.
SEATTLE U’S WARD HITS 16 FREE THROWS
In her team’s narrow season-opening loss to Pacific, Seattle U’s Ashley Ward led the Redhawks with 21 points, 16 of which came at the free throw line. The junior connected on 16-of-19 free throws, or 84 percent.
WAC STAT LEADERS
After the first week of the season, Texas State’s Diamond Ford and New Mexico State’s Kelsie Rozendaal lead the WAC in scoring with 22.0 points per game. Ford is also averaging a WAC-best 3.5 three-pointers per game. Seattle U’s Kacie Sowell and Rozendaal are tops in rebounding with an average of 11.0 boards. Brenda Adhiambo of Seattle U leads the WAC in field goal percentage (.833), while Denver’s Emiko Smith the league in assists (7.0). San Jose State’s Chereese Thomas is tops in steals (6.0), while Texas State’s Kaylan Martin is tops in three-point field goal percentage (.750). New Mexico State’s Camila Rosen leads the WAC in blocked shots (1.78).
RETURNING ALL-CONFERENCE PLAYERS
Two of the first team All-WAC players from last year return for the 2012-13 season in Idaho’s Alyssa Charlston and Utah State’s Devyn Christensen. Other WAC honorees that return are Louisiana Tech’s Whitney Frazier, who was named to both the All-Defensive and All-Freshman Teams, and fellow All-Freshman honorees Ta’Rea Cunnigan of San Jose State and Krissy Karr of Idaho.
Diamond Ford of Texas State was named first team All-Southland, while Emiko Smith of Denver was named second team All-Sun Belt. Ashley Ezeh of Texas State was named third team All-Southland, while UTSA’s Judy Jones was an honorable mention honoree.
KEY NON-CONFERENCE MATCHUPS
WAC teams have several key non-conference matchups this season, including as many as 42 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament or the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) last season.