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GRAND CANYON'S GAJEWSKI NAMES WAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Jessica Gajewski has been named Western Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week for Nov. 30 through Dec. 6.
Gajewski, a sophomore guard from Brisbane, Australia (Mountain Creek State), averaged 20.0 ppg with a .625 field goal percentage as the Antelopes went 1-1 at the Air Force Classic. Her best game came against the host Falcons, scoring a career-high 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting with seven three pointers in a 73-39 win.
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Erika Williams scored a career-high 24 points in a loss at UCLA on Saturday … Missouri-Kansas City's Aries Washington scored a season-high 23 points and brought down 11 rebounds to earn the double-double in a win over Stephens … NM State's Tamera William averaged 14.5 ppg as the Aggies dropped a pair of close games to Arizona and UTEP … UT Rio Grande Valley's Mary Savoy recorded her third double-double of the season in a win at Incarnate Word … Utah Valley's Rhaiah Spooner-Knight hit the 20-point mark twice as the Wolverines fell on the road at Eastern Washington and Oregon.
BY THE NUMBERS
Defending champion NM State leads the WAC in scoring offense (74.0), scoring margin (+10.1), blocked shots (5.0), steals (9.8), defensive rebounds (27.3) and three-pointers made (8.3). UT Rio Grande Valley holds the top scoring defense at 59.7 while Utah Valley leads the league in field goal percentage at .428. CSU Bakersfield is the top free throw shooting team at .750 and three-point shooting team at .346. UTRGV also leads the WAC in rebounding (42.0), turnover margin (+2.80) and offensive rebounds (16.8). Seattle U is tops in assists (13.3) while UVU holds the top assist/turnover ratio at 0.9.
Individually, UTRGV junior Shawnte' Goff leads the WAC with 14.7 ppg. CSU Bakersfield's Batabe Zempare is tops in rebounding at 11.4 per game. Utah Valley's Sam Loggins is the top shooter at a .552 clip while UMKC's Aries Washington is the best from the line, shooting .941 on free throws. Grand Canyon's Courtney Hayes leads the WAC in assists with 5.4 per contest while Seattle U's Kaylee Best holds the lead in steals with an average of 2.8. CSUB's Erika Williams is the top three-pointer shooter at .450 while NM State's Sasha Weber makes the most threes, averaging 2.6 per game. Chicago State's Sh'Toya Sanders leads the WAC in blocks at 2.0 while UTRGV's Goff also leads the league in assist/turnover ratio at 1.6.
LIGHT WEEK ON TAP
As schools across the country head into finals over the next few weeks, the conference schedule is light this week, with only nine games on the books. Saturday will be the busiest day, with four teams in action across four time zones.
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 last week in a loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She is currently seventh in Vaquero history in scoring with 1,040 points. 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)