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MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY'S LAW NAMES WAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Missouri-Kansas City's Kiana Law has been named Western Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week for Dec. 7 through Dec. 13.
Law, a sophomore forward from Pittsburgh (Central Valley HS) had a career week for the Kangaroos as UMKC earned wins on the road at Kansas and at home against Denver. Against the Jayhawks, Law scored a career-high 20 points with a season-high 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the year as the ‘Ross stunned KU for just the fourth win in program history against the Big 12 program. She followed that up with a career-high four steals to go with 16 points and nine rebounds in a 68-58 win over Denver.
Other nominees included: Grand Canyon's Jessica Gajewski scored a career-high 28 points in the Lopes' win at North Dakota State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Anushka Maldonado scored career-high 14 points in a lost at Kansas State … Utah Valley's Mariah Seals averaged 13 points-per-game as the Wolverines fell twice to in-state foes.
BY THE NUMBERS
With all teams hovering around the 10 games played mark, NM State leads the WAC in scoring (74.2), scoring margin (+10.7), blocked shots (4.9), assists (13.6), steals (10.1), turnover margin (+3.89), defensive rebounds (27.0) and three-pointers made (8.1). UT Rio Grande Valley is the top defensive team, allowing just 59.7 ppg. CSU Bakersfield is the top free throw shooting team at .747 while Utah Valley is the most accurate from the field at .429. CSUB also leads the league in three-point shooting at .332. UTRGV is the top rebounding team at 42.0 per game while Missouri-Kansas City holds the top rebounding margin at +5.1.
Individually, UTRGV's Shawnte' Goff is the top scorer at 14.7 ppg, also leading in assist/turnover ratio at 1.6. CSU Bakersfield's Batabe Zempare leads the league in rebounding at 10.8 per game while Utah Valley's Sam Loggins is the top shooter at .554. Grand Canyon's Courtney Hayes is dishing out a WAC-best 5.5 assists per game and Missouri-Kansas City's Aries Washington is the top free throw shooter at .920.
Seattle U duo Kaylee Best and Ashlyn Lewey lead the WAC in steals and three-point percentage at 2.8 spg and .448 respectively. NM State's Sasha Weber is averaging 2.4 three-pointers per game and Chicao State's Sh'Toya Sanders is the top shot blocker at 2.0 per game.
JUMPING ON THE JAYHAWKS
Missouri-Kansas City picked up its first Division I win of the year in big fashion, knocking off Big 12 Kansas on Thursday at famed Allen Fieldhouse. The Kangaroos held the Jayhawks to just two points in the first quarter and a big game by Kiana Law led UMKC to its fourth all-time win against KU.
CLEANING THE GLASS
CSU Bakersfield senior Batabe Zempare broke her own school record for rebounds in a game with 22 against San Jose State.
COMEBACK KIDS
Utah Valley scored 37 points in the fourth quarter against San Francisco to force overtime and eventually win by six. The come-from-behind win is the biggest comeback in program history.
1,000-POINT CLUB
UTRGV junior Shawnte' Goff scored her 1,000th point of her career in a loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Bianca Torre is the school's leader in scoring with 1,439 points.
ANOTHER MILESTONE AHEAD
Seattle U head coach Joan Bonvicini is closing in on another milestone in her storied career as she currently sits just four wins away from 700 for her career. She is 10th among Division I coaches and 24th among all college women's basketball coaches in career wins.
DISHING OUT DIMES
CSU Bakersfield point guard Alyssa Shannon is just three assists away from 300 for her career, entering Saturday's game with UC Riverside with 297 career assists.
ISTANBUL (NOT CONSTANTINOPLE)
The Nov. 21 game between UT Rio Grande Valley and Eastern Michigan featured the first-ever matchup of Turkish-born players in an NCAA women's basketball game, including freshman Idil Türk (Istanbul) and EMU senior Sera Ozelci (Ankara). It was the second-ever matchup of players of Turkish decent, as American-born Yasemin Kimyacioglu (Santa Clara) faced her sister, Sebnem (Stanford), in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Turk finished with nine points.
BLOCK PARTY
Seattle U center Taelor Ross recorded her 100th career block in a win over Evergreen. Chicago State's Layne Murphy also passed the 100 block mark this season. The WAC record for blocks in a career is 303 by Christen Roper of Hawai'i.
PRESEASON COACHES POLL
NM State is the favorite to win the 2015-16 Western Athletic Conference women's basketball title and the Aggies' Brianna Freeman was selected WAC Preseason Player of the Year in a vote of the league's eight head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.
The Aggies, who won their first WAC title last season, received 49 points and seven first place votes in the preseason poll. CSU Bakersfield was selected second with 39 points. Seattle U earned the third spot with 33 points and the remaining first place vote while UT Rio Grande Valley was selected fourth with 30 points. Grand Canyon was predicted fifth with 27 points, followed by Utah Valley (26), Missouri-Kansas City (13) and Chicago State (7).
Freeman, the 2014-15 WAC Player of the Year and 2015 WAC Tournament MVP, leads the list of Preseason All-WAC honorees. Joining her on the first team are teammates Sasha Weber and Shanice Davis, UT Rio Grande Valley's Shawnte' Goff and Seattle U's Taelor Ross.
PRESEASON MEDIA POLL
The Western Athletic Conference women's basketball media have selected NM State as the preseason favorite to repeat as conference champions in 2015-16 and Aggie junior Brianna Freeman as the WAC Preseason Player of the Year.
The Aggies earned nine of 10 first place votes in the media poll to collect 79 of 80 possible points. CSU Bakersfield earned the other first place vote to take second with 65 points. UT Rio Grande Valley, last season's WAC Tournament runner-up, was picked third with 54 points. Seattle U picked up 48 points to earn the fourth position, followed shortly behind Grand Canyon in fifth with 43 points. Utah Valley took sixth with 40 points followed by Missouri-Kansas City (19) and Chicago State (12).
Freeman, the 2014-15 WAC Player of the Year and 2015 WAC Tournament MVP, leads the list of Preseason All-WAC honorees. Joining her on the first team is teammate Sasha Weber, UT Rio Grande Valley's Shawnte' Goff, Utah Valley's Rhaiah Spooner-Knight and CSU Bakersfield's Alyssa Shannon.
RETURNING ALL-CONFERENCE PLAYERS
Four of five First Team All-WAC players from last season return for the 2015-16 season as CSU Bakersfield's Tyonna Outland is the lone graduate. NM State will bring back the trio of Brianna Freeman, Sasha Weber and Shanice Davis while UTRGV's Shawnte' Goff looks to expand on a solid sophomore season.
KEY NON-CONFERENCE MATCHUPS
This season, WAC teams will face some tough competition in the non-conference portion of the schedule, with as many as 16 games against NCAA Tournament participants and as many as 16 against Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) participants. The complete list is below.
Games vs. NCAA Teams
Nov. 13 - Utah Valley at Brigham Young
Nov. 15 - Seattle U at Montana
Nov. 18 - Seattle U at Washington
Nov. 19 - Utah Valley at Boise State
Dec. 15 - CSU Bakersfield at Oregon State
Nov. 23 - Grand Canyon at Gonzaga
Nov. 24 - Chicago State at DePaul
Nov. 28 - CSU Bakersfield vs. South Carolina (at Honolulu)
Nov. 28 - Seattle U vs. Princeton (at Los Angeles)
Nov. 29 - CSU Bakersfield vs. Arizona State (at Honolulu)
Dec. 5 - UT Rio Grande Valley at Oklahoma State
Dec. 19 - Boise State at Seattle U
Dec. 22 - CSU Bakersfield at Stanford
Dec. 22 - Missouri-Kansas City at Northwestern
Jan. 2 - Seattle U at CSUN
Games vs. WNIT Teams
Nov. 13 - Hawai'i at Grand Canyon
Nov. 13 - Pacific at CSU Bakersfield
Nov. 19 - Sacramento State at NM State
Nov. 21 - UT Rio Grande Valley at Eastern Michigan
Nov. 23 - San Francisco at Utah Valley
Nov. 27 - CSU Bakersfield at Hawai'i
Nov. 28 - UT Rio Grande Valley at TCU
Dec. 2 - CSU Bakersfield at Fresno State
Dec. 3 - Utah Valley at Eastern Washington
Dec. 5 - CSU Bakersfield at UCLA
Dec. 5 - Kansas State at Chicago State
Dec. 7 - UT Rio Grande Valley at Kansas State
Dec. 21 - Northern Colorado at Grand Canyon
Dec. 30 - Hawai'i at CSU Bakersfield
Dec. 30 - NM State at Fordam (depending on 12/29)
Dec. 31 - Long Beach State at Seattle U
ORLEANS ARENA IN LAS VEGAS TO HOST 2016 WAC TOURNAMENT
The 2016 WAC Basketball Tournament returns to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for the sixth year in a row. This year's tournament includes all seven eligible teams and will be held Wednesday-Saturday, March 9-12.
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RULES CHANGES
The NCAA Women's Basketball Rules Committee made a number of rules changes, most of which are intended to align the college game with the international and pro game.
Key Rule Changes
- The time limit to replace a disqualified player is reduced to 15 seconds. When the head coach fails to replace a disqualified player before the second horn, the head coach is assessed a bench technical foul. (Rules 2-10.9 and 10-4.5)
- Playing time for varsity games shall consist of four 10-minute periods. The intermission between the first and second and the third and fourth periods shall be the length of the elctronic-media timeout. (Rule 5-6.1)
- When a timeout is charged to the offensive team during the last 59.9 seconds of the fourth period and/or any extra period, the team has the option to advance the throw-in spot to the 28-foot mark in the frontcourt on the same side of the court as the scorers' table. (Rule 5-14.2)
- A team is awarded two free throws for each common foul beginning with the fifth team fould in a period. (Rule 8-2.1)
- The 10-second count shall reset on all stoppages of the game clock except when the defense causes the ball to be out of bounds, the offense retains possession after a held ball, or there is a technical foul assessed to the offensive team. (Rule 9-10)
- When an offensive post player with her back to the basket in the lane area is in control of the ball, a post defender may only place one forearm or one hand with a bend in the elbow on the offensive player. (Apendix III, Section 3)