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What 2 Watch 4
The 2023-24 Big West women’s basketball season is in full swing with 10 of 11 teams already tipping off and Cal State Fullerton opening the season tonight at Pacific.
This weekend sees two home games on the docket with UC Irvine hosting Seattle U on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Long Beach State welcoming Nevada on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The WCC-dominant week sees a pairing of road games against the Pacific, Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s, with Hawai’i, UC San Diego, Cal State Bakersfield, CSUN, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton all making trips up to the greater Bay Area in the coming days.
Along with a wide array of non-conference contests, all home Big West basketball games are set to air on ESPN+. Check listings for more information and a complete game schedule.
Last Week, Today
- In the early-goings of the 2023-24 season, four teams have opened with a perfect record, including CSUN’s 2-0 start with home wins against Seattle U and Utah State. Also starting with a victory were Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara. For the Beach, the 20-point win over Biola at Walter Pyramid was the first in the Amy Wright era.
- CSUN overcame an early 18-point deficit to beat Seattle U in overtime, 81-72. Kaitlyn Elsholz scored 22 points to go with seven rebounds while Talo Li-Uperesa had 14 points and six rebounds. Kayanna Spriggs scored 13 including hitting a game-tying three at the end of regulation. The Matadors have posted their first 2-0 start since the 2014-15 season.
- Three sides have opened the season at 1-1: UC Davis, Cal Poly and UC San Diego. The Aggies opened with a lopsided victory over Academy of Art, with the Tritons cruising to the home win against Life Pacific.
- The Mustangs opened on the road, first falling at No. 24 Washington State before rebounding for the 65-55 win at Idaho. Annika Shah paced the scoring with 19 points and senior Natalia Ackerman added a double-double of 14 points and a career-high 15 rebounds in the impressive win.
Preseason Prognostications
For a second straight season, Hawai’i has been selected to claim the 2023-24 Big West women’s basketball crown, in a vote of The Big West’s 11 head coaches announced Wednesday.
The Rainbow Wahine are coming off back-to-back victories at the Big West Championship, and tallied 95 points and six first-place votes to top the polling. UH is followed by 2022-23 regular-season champion UC Irvine with 88 points and two first-place nods, with UC Davis coming in third with 85 points and the remaining three first-place votes.
Five of the six Preseason All-Big West Team selections come from the top trio of teams, with Hawai’i and UC Davis recording a pair of picks.
The guard tandem of 2023 Big West Championship MVP Daejah Phillips and 2021-22 Big West Freshman of the Year Lily Wahinekapu are expected to lead the veteran ’Bows who had their 2022-23 season ended by eventual first-time national champion LSU.
UC Irvine, picked to finish second in the polling, is back to vie for the title after the Anteaters earned the program’s first Big West regular-season title in program history. The historic 2022-23 campaign included a program-best 25 wins and the first postseason victory for a Big West basketball team since 2018 after UCI advanced to the second round of the WNIT despite an injury-depleted roster.
The ’Eaters are represented on the preseason team by junior Nikki Tom, who averaged 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 2022-23.
UC Davis is ranked third in the voting, seeking to return to the trophy-hoisting days from 2016 to 2021. The Aggies will rely on top-scoring seniors and All-Big West Preseason Team selections Evanne Turner and Tova Sabel to get them back to the top of the conference. Turner led The Big West in scoring as a junior averaging 15.1 points per game.
After a gap in the votes, the next grouping of three is also tightly bunched with UC Santa Barbara (65 points) in fourth, and Cal State Fullerton and UC San Diego knotted with 59 points apiece.
The remaining Preseason All-Big West selection is Titan senior Fujika Nimmo. A second-team All-Big West performer in 2022-23, Nimmo averaged 14.5 points and 3.1 rebounds for Cal State Fullerton.
Under the direction of first-year head coach Amy Wright, Long Beach State lands in seventh with 45 points, just ahead of Cal Poly’s 42 points. With UC San Diego completing their final year of reclassification and an adjustment to an eight-team Big West Championship bracket, Cal State Bakersfield is narrowly predicted to claim the final spot in the postseason field with 25 points in the preseason predictions. UC Riverside (24 points) and CSUN (18 points) round out the poll.
The Big West + Spectrum SportsNet
The Big West announced a slate of 15 men’s and women’s basketball contests to air on Spectrum SportsNet during the 2023-24 season.
The package includes five women’s games featuring eight squads. UC Irvine and UC Davis tip it off on Jan. 6 at 3 p.m. as part of Big West doubleheader. UC Santa Barbara hosts Cal State Bakersfield Feb. 3 at 1 p.m., and the Aggies travel to Long Beach State Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. Closing the year with a pair of men’s/women’s doubleheaders, Cal State Fullerton hosts UC San Diego on Feb. 17 while the Beach welcome in Hawai’i on Feb. 24, with both games slated for 3 p.m. starts. Read more >>>
2022-23 Postseason Rewind
No. 3 seed Hawai’i was crowned The Big West champion in back-to-back fashion after mounting a second-half comeback that sent the crowd at The Dollar Loan Center into a celebration to remember after a 61-59 victory over fifth-seeded UC Santa Barbara.
The Rainbow Wahine were pitted against eventual national champion and third-seeded LSU in the first round of the NCAA Championship, 73-50. Daejah Phillips and Kallin Spiller each contributed 13 points in the contest.
With two teams in the WNIT field, Long Beach State traveled south to take on San Diego, falling 75-57, after an impressive season that was punctuated by a 15-game winning streak spanning Jan. 12 to March 2.
Regular-season champion UC Irvine dispatched San Diego State in the WNIT first round, 55-45, notching The Big West’s first national postseason basketball victory since 2018. The Anteaters closed their historic run with a loss to the Toreros, wrapping up the season with a 25-7 overall record, the most wins in program history.
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