Big West Women's Basketball: Composite Schedule || Standings || Stats 

POSTSEASON SCHEDULE

Thursday, March 17
- WNIT First Round - 
Long Beach State at Oregon State, 7 p.m.

Gill Coliseum | Corvallis, Ore.
Watch: Oregon State Live Stream

Friday, March 18
- NCAA Tournament First Round -
Wichita Region 
No. 15 Hawai’i vs. No. 2 Baylor, 1 p.m.

Ferrell Center | Waco, Texas
Watch: ESPN2

- WNIT First Round - 
UC Irvine at UCLA, 7 p.m.

Pauley Pavilion 
Watch: UCLA Live Stream
 

All times Pacific
 

BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Tuesday,  March 8
- First Round - 
No. 8 CSUN 62, No. 9 CSU Bakersfield 63 (OT)
No. 7 Cal State Fullerton 70, No. 10 Cal Poly 64

Wednesday, March 9
- Quarterfinals - 
No. 1 Hawai’i 48, No. 9 CSU Bakersfield 47
No. 4 UC Riverside 46, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 42
No. 2 UC Irvine 80, No. 7 Cal State Fullerton 68
No. 3 Long Beach State 45, No. 6 UC Davis 55

Friday, March 11
- Semifinals -
No. 1 Hawai’i 69, No. 4 UC Riverside 55
No. 2 UC Irvine 84, No. 6 UC Davis 75 (OT)

Saturday, March 12
- Championship -
No. 1 Hawai’i’ 59, No. 2 UC Irvine 48

Big West victories in bold

Last Week, Today - Championship Edition
Hawai’i, the regular-season champion for the first time since 2014-15, parlayed its top seed into being crowned the very first champion inside the brand-new Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. The Rainbow Wahine shrugged off a sluggish first half and downed No. 2 seed UC Irvine, 59-48, in Saturday night’s final of the 2022 Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands.

UC Irvine outlasted sixth-seeded 2019 and 2021 tourney champion UC Davis in overtime in Friday afternoon’s semifinals, 84-75, to advance to a second straight championship game.

The first round of the championship saw No. 9 CSU Bakersfield upend No. 8 CSUN in a one-point overtime victory after 2022 Big West Best Sixth Player award winner Vanessa Austin converted an offensive rebound with 0.8 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Roadrunners with 63-62 win over the Matadors.  

CSU Bakersfield’s quarterfinal game was also a one-point affair that went the way of the eventual champions. Hawai’i’s Daejah Phillips scored what proved to be the winning basket with 1:12 remaining after driving the lane for the layup in the battle to advance.

No. 4 UC Riverside’s Jordan Webster hit the go-ahead three pointer with 5:57 remaining as the Highlanders closed out No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, 46-42. Their eight-game winning streak was halted in the semifinals by Hawai’i as Amy Atwell recovered from a quiet quarterfinal contest to propel the Rainbow Wahine.

The biggest upset in the brackets came as No. 6 UC Davis took down No. 3 Long Beach State in their quarterfinal matchup. The defending regular-season and tournament champions used their experience to garner a near wire-to-wire win and pushed the tournament runners-up to overtime in their semifinal contest.

Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell was named the championship’s Most Valuable Player, and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by teammate Olivia Davies, Jayden Eggleston of CSU Bakersfield, Jada Holland of UC Riverside, Evanne Turner of UC Davis and Kayla Williams of UC Irvine.
 

What 2 Watch 4
Hawai’i (20-9) is the No. 15 seed in the Wichita Region of the expanded 68-team 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, and thus earned a trip to Waco, Texas, to take on second-seeded host Baylor (27-6) on Friday, March 18. Tipoff at the Ferrell Center is slated for 1 p.m. PT (3 p.m. CT, 10 a.m. HT), with the contest airing on ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN Honolulu (radio). Friday’s winner would take on the advancing team between seventh-seeded Ole Miss and No. 10 seed South Dakota on Sunday, March 20, at the same venue.

The Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship finalist and regular-season runner-up UC Irvine (21-11) is joined by Long Beach State (19-8) among the 64-team 2022 Postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) field. The Beach are in Corvallis, Ore., to take on Pac-12 representative Oregon State (14-13) on Thursday, March 17, at 7 p.m. PT inside Gill Coliseum. The contest will have a live video stream at OSUBeavers.com. Should the Beach advance, they would face the winner of Friday’s matchup between Portland and Colorado State in the second round, March 19-22. The Anteaters make a shorter trip for their first-round tilt, likewise to take on a Pac-12 foe in UCLA (14-13) on Friday, March 18. Tipoff at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom is at 7 p.m. PT, with a live stream at UCLABruins.com. UCI is in the same Western quadrant of the tourney as Long Beach State. Friday’s survivor would meet Thursday night’s victor between San Francisco and Air Force in the next round.

Postseason Particulars
Hawai’i is making its seventh NCAA Championship appearance and first since 2016. That 2016 trip, and the 1996 one, were also as automatic entrants, alongside at-large bids in 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1998. The No. 15 seed marks the lowest the Rainbow Wahine have ever received in the NCAA postseason. They were seeded 14th in 2016 (lost 66-50 in first round at UCLA). UH is 1-6 all-time in the NCAA tournament, with the lone win coming in 1990 in the form of an 83-78 triumph as a No. 9 seed over eighth-seeded Montana.

The Big West’s automatic WNIT qualifier, UC Irvine has earned a third postseason berth, but first to the WNIT. The ‘Eaters previously made it to the NCAA Championship in 1995 and the Women’s Basketball Invitational in 2018. It will be a fifth WNIT appearance for at-large entrant Long Beach State, which placed third in The Big West standings. The Beach last made the field in 2016, dropping a first-round contest at Oregon, and are 2-4 in their WNIT history.

Rainbow Wahine in Waco
Red-hot Hawai’i has won a season-best eight straight and 13 of its last 14, the lone loss of the stretch a last-second home defeat to visiting UC San Diego on Feb. 17. The Rainbow Wahine were picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches’ poll before sweeping The Big West regular-season and tourney titles. Amy Atwell, a graduate student from South Perth, Australia, who is in her sixth season in the program, is The Big West Player of the Year and an All-Big West First Team selection. UH’s only player to start all 29 games, the forward averages a league-leading 17.4 points per game, having registered a career-high 505 in her final campaign to give her 1,232 as a collegian. Atwell is also sixth in the conference in rebounding (6.7 per game), fourth in field goal percentage (.440), and second in free throw percentage (.851) and three-point field goals per game (2.4). Second-year freshman guard Daejah Phillips (10.3 ppg) garnered All-Big West honorable mention. Tenth-year head coach Laura Beeman led UH to its first regular-season trophy since 2014-15, and earned her second Big West Coach of the Year distinction as a result.

Baylor is ranked No. 5 in this week’s USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll. Nicki Collen is the first-year head coach, having taken over for Kim Mulkey, who is now in charge at LSU after leading the Bears to national titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019. Baylor suffered a 67-58 loss to Texas in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship title game at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday afternoon, snapping its season-best win streak at 12 games. The Bears are led by senior All-American NaLyssa Smith, whose 21 points and 10 rebounds against UT marked her school-record 24th double-double of the season. Baylor is 14-1 at home in 2021-22. Back-to-back Big 12 Player of the Year and AP All-American Smith leads the Bears on the court. She averages 22.5 points on 55.0 percent shooting and 11.5 rebounds per game, and has compiled an impressive 24 double-doubles in the 2021-22 campaign.
 

UC Showdown in Westwood
UC Irvine has put together the fourth 20-win season in program history, with the 21 victories matching a single-season school standard. Kayla Williams, the 2020-21 Big West Freshman of the Year, made the All-Big West First Team for the second year in a row to begin her college career, and was also chosen to the All-Defensive Team. She averages 15.5 points, 4.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Chloe Webb, who picked up All-Big West honorable mention, provides 10.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing. Hunter Hernandez and Olivia Williams both made the Big West All-Freshman Team. Tamara Inoue is the sixth-year head coach.

UCLA is 8-4 at home this season and 9-0 all-time against UCI, with the last matchup occurring on Dec. 16, 2015 (83-48), at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins fell to Oregon, 63-60, in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament on March 3 in Las Vegas, Nev. They are led in scoring by Charisma Osborne at 16.4 points per game, which ranks third in the Pac-12.  Fellow All-Pac-12 pick IImar’I Thomas adds 15.6 points per game. The Bruins, who won the WNIT in 2015 in their only previous appearance, are coached by Cori Close in her 11th season.

The Beach in the Pacific Northwest
Long Beach State senior forward Maddi Utti, a first-year transfer from Fresno State, is an All-Big West First Team and Big West All-Defensive Team pick, as well as The Big West Best Defensive Player. She averages 13.8 points, 8.8 rebounds (second in Big West) and a conference-leading 3.2 steals per game. Junior guard and All-Big West second-teamer Justina King contributes 11.6 points and a team-high 4.4 assists per outing. Jasmine Hardy, who got All-Big West honorable mention, is the only player besides King to start all 27 games, and the third to score in double digits at 10.4 per game. Jeff Cammon is the fifth-year head coach of the Beach, who are 9-3 in true road dates in 2021-22, while Oregon State is 8-3 at home.

The Beavers are coming off a 57-44 loss to defending national champion Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals on March 3 in Las Vegas, Nev. Second-year freshman All-Pac-12 guard Talia von Oelhoffen has started all 27 games and leads OSU with averages of 13.7 points and 3.1 assists per game. Scott Rueck is in his 12th season in charge at his alma mater. The all-time series between these teams goes back to 1983, and is even at 4-4.

First to Vegas
While there were 106 men’s and women’s teams competing for conference championships in the Las Vegas Valley last week, it was The Big West who first staged an NCAA Division I conference tournament in the state of Nevada nearly 30 years ago. Previously, the Thomas and Mack Center hosted the event in 1994 and 1995, before the tournament moved to the Lawlor Events Center in Reno from 1996 to 2000. After hosting the event in Anaheim, California from 2001 to 2020, The Big West returned to Las Vegas a year ago, holding the 2021 championships at Michelob ULTRA Arena inside Mandalay Bay.

“Many have asked why The Big West chose Henderson for our basketball championships,” said Dan Butterly, Big West Commissioner. “The Big West stands for bold innovation and boundless opportunity and The Dollar Loan Center provides a state-of-the-art venue to showcase The Big West, its member institutions and our women’s and men’s basketball programs. It is a spectacular facility that will become an entertainment hub for the City of Henderson and the Las Vegas Valley. It’s a place that I know our student-athletes, as well as staff, coaches, administrators and fans will love. I would like to give a special thanks to Henderson Mayor Debra March and Vegas Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz and his team for working with us to elevate our brand and return the Big West to the Silver State.”

The 2022 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, christened the brand-new Dollar Loan Center as its first publicly ticketed event. The five-day tournament ran March 8-12 featuring 10 women’s and 10 men’s teams vying for conference championships and automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships.

The $84 million, 6,000 seat Dollar Loan Center was completed in February. In addition to hosting the Big West’s signature event for the next three years, Dollar Loan Center is home to the Henderson Silver Knights, the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, the Vegas Indoor Football League franchise and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.

The construction of the Dollar Loan Center is adding to the premier lifestyle and entertainment atmosphere our city provides its residents as Henderson builds itself into a professional sports town.

Outside of the Big West, the Henderson team is excitedly planning a bevy of entertainment opportunities for our residents, which will subsequently provide an economic boost and benefit to the various restaurants and retail businesses that surround the Dollar Loan Center. The arena’s impact will strengthen our economy and positively impact small-owned businesses from West Henderson to Lake Las Vegas.

“Our business community is about to see a big boom in business thanks to the Dollar Loan Center,” said Henderson City Manager Richard Derrick. “Our Economic Development team remains steadfast in finding ways to diversify and boost our Henderson economy and is looking forward to seeing the business results of the new arena.”