2022-23 Big West Women's Basketball Schedule | Standings | Stats | Week 18 Notes (.pdf)
2 Minutes with Tammy
Big West women's basketball analyst Tammy Blackburn highlights reigning Player of the Week in Long Beach State's Ma'Qhi Berry and looks ahead to the final week of the regular season, with an eye on potential seeding for the 2023 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands and some championship history in this installment of 2 Minutes with Tammy.
What 2 Watch 4
The final week of the 2022-23 regular season in The Big West features five games in primetime on Thursday, and five more scattered throughout the day on Saturday. All 10 contests will air live on ESPN+.
League leader Long Beach State has a split week, traveling to CSU Bakersfield on Thursday at 7 p.m. before hosting UC Davis on Senior Day Saturday at 2 p.m. The Beach’s 14-game win streak is the longest in The Big West this season, eclipsing UC Irvine’s nine-gamer, and is tied for the seventh-best current stretch nationally in Division I.
The only other team that could still mathematically reach The Big West regular-season crown and tournament top seed is second-place UC Irvine. The Anteaters, themselves on another five-game run of victories, are in the hunt despite being picked sixth in the preseason poll and suffering several significant injuries that even forced them to cancel back-to-back games in mid-February due to a lack of available bodies. UCI also has a split week ahead, hosting UC Riverside on Senior Night Thursday at 7 p.m., prior to a trip to Bakersfield at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Two wins by LBSU (16-2, .889) would clinch the title, but should the Beach falter on one or both days, that could open the door for UC Irvine (14-2, .875), with straight winning percentage in league games the determining factor since not every team will have played 20 contests.
Elsewhere, third-place UC Santa Barbara (12-6, .667) entertains UC Davis on its Senior Night Thursday at 7 p.m., and then flies to Honolulu to take on fourth-place Hawai’i (11-7, .611) in Saturday’s latest tipoff at 9 p.m. PT (7 p.m. HT). The reigning regular-season and tournament double champion Rainbow Wahine first host CSUN at the same time Thursday. Both contests air on local television via Spectrum Sports.
UC San Diego wraps up its third season in The Big West at Cal Poly on Thursday at 6 p.m. and at home on Senior Day against Cal State Fullerton Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Titans’ only action of the week. The Mustangs are in Riverside on Saturday for a 6 p.m. matchup.
All home Big West basketball games air on ESPN+. Check the listings here >>>.
Get Hyped for Henderson
The 2023 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, again heads to The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. The five-day championship event will run March 7-11 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.
Head to bigwest.org/2023 for more information ranging from schedules and game times, to history and records, to The Big West fan guide and ticketing information. Secure your seats today to join us in The Battle for The Big West. Will you have a car in Henderson? If so, read this!
The Big West Bracket Watch
There are other spots still to settle apart from the race between Long Beach State and UC Irvine for the regular-season championship and the top seed for next week’s Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, in Henderson, Nev. Sixth-place UC San Diego is still ineligible for this year’s event and next year’s, as the Tritons reclassify from Division II to Division I, so the five-day championship will again feature 10 teams.
The top six seeds earn first-round byes on Tuesday, March 7, with the Beach, Anteaters, UC Santa Barbara, Hawai’i and UC Davis all having clinched top-five placements. LBSU and UCI in fact have top-two seeds locked up, with Nos. 3-5 to be determined between those other three squads. Cal Poly would need to win its two games this week, and have Cal State Fullerton lose in La Jolla on Saturday afternoon, to nip the Titans for that No. 6 seed and bye into Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
The Mustangs require just a split of their week to hold off CSUN for the No. 7 seed, with CSU Bakersfield and UC Riverside settled into the bottom two spots in the field, both currently tied for 10th in the table.
Last Week, Today
- Long Beach State extended their impressive win streak to 14, tied for seventh-best in NCAA Division I, but it didn’t come without some heroics. The Beach were down by as many as 22 to UC Santa Barbara late in the second quarter before rallying to nab the 66-63 win over the Gauchos. Player of the Week Ma’Qhi Berry led the way with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists while Tori Harris added a 17-point, 14-rebound double-double. Saturday was virtually wire-to-wire at CSUN, as LBSU’s scoring was again paced by Berry’s 23 points, and supported by 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from Kianna Hamilton-Fisher.
- Despite a depleted roster, UC Irvine also prevailed in their two games on the docket, now up to five in a row and nipping at the heels of the Beach heading into the final weekend. Nevaeh Parkinson recorded a pair of double-doubles for the Anteaters, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor for 16 points and 13 rebounds at UC San Diego. In the overtime win at Hawai’i, the junior from Dallas, Texas, added 12 points - five of which game in the extra period - and 11 rebounds. Parkinson’s game-winner with 0.4 seconds on the clock gave UC Irvine its 22nd overall victory on the year, a program record.
- Una Jovanovic contributed 13.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists to pace Cal State Fullerton to a road win at UC Davis and a home victory over CSU Bakersfield. The Titans have just one game remaining on the docket, taking on UC San Diego Saturday.
- After the setback against the Titans, UC Davis claimed a home victory against Cal Poly as Tova Sabel led the way with 17 points on 56 percent shooting. In the loss against Cal State Fullerton, Sabel put up 31 points, a second 30-plus point performance of the year for the junior transfer from Penn State and native of Stockholm, Sweden.
- UC Santa Barbara, Hawai’i and CSUN each recorded one win on the week, with the Matador’s road win coming in impressive comeback fashion. Down nine with 1:03 to go at CSU Bakersfield, the Matadors went on a 13-3 run to end regulation and an 11-4 effort in the extra period. Anaiyah Tu’ua tied a career high with 17 points and set a rebounding benchmark of 12 boards for a first double-double as a collegian.
It’s Academic
CSC released its Academic All-District listings with nine women representing five programs making the list. Maintaining at least a 3.50 gpa and competing as a starter or important reserve on the court, CSU Bakersfield’s Sophia Tougas, Kayanna Spriggs from CSUN, the Long Beach State trio of Patricia Chung, Kristyna Jeskeova and Courtney Murphy, UC San Diego’s threesome of Madison Baxter, Sydney Brown, and Izzy Forsyth, and Ila Lane of UC Santa Barbara all earned distinction and advance to the Academic All-America ballot. Read more >>>
Career Milestones Reached
There are currently 12 Big West players above the 1K scoring benchmark with a quartet over 500 rebounds. Long Beach State’s Malia Bambrick (1,378 points) and Ila Lane of UC Santa Barbara (866) are the league’s pacesetters. Teammates Alexis Tucker and Lane along with UC San Diego’s Sydney Brown were joined by the most recent milestone mater Tori Harris of Long Beach State are the four Big West players to have at least 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds. Harris eclipsed both the 1,000 point and 500 rebound plateaus last weekend after averaging 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds as the Beach kept streaking.
Surveying Some Statistical Leaders
The Big West’s top scorer continues to be UC Davis’ Evanne Turner at 15.2 points per game. The junior guard has connected on a league-best 73 three-pointers, 25 more than the nearest competitor. UC Santa Barbara’s senior big, Ila Lane, leads in rebounding (8.5 rebounds per game), double-doubles (10) and field goal percentage (.545). UC San Diego graduate student Sydney Brown is in the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding, providing 12.9 points (eighth) and 7.2 boards (third), as is Gaucho Alexis Tucker at 13.6 (fifth) and 6.0 (eighth). Long Beach State’s Ma’Qhi Berry is first at 4.4 assists per game, teammate Kristyna Jeskeova leads in steals (63) and steals per game (2.74), and CSU Bakersfield’s Kayla Morris is first in blocks per game (2.45).
Nationally, Cal State Fullerton’s Gabi Vidmar leads all of Division I in minutes per game (38.74), with teammate Una Jovanovic (37.58) sixth nationally and right behind Vidmar in the conference rankings. UC Irvine’s Diaba Konate is sixth in free throw percentage (.910), having hit 71 of 78 attempts. The Anteaters boast the 10th-best scoring defense in the country, allowing just 53.6 points per contest, with the Beach seventh in steals per game (11.8).
Single-Game Superlatives
There have been four 30-point performers in The Big West this season, with two in late January over a six-day span. UC San Diego graduate student Sydney Brown matched a career high of 31 points to account for half of the Tritons’ total in a 62-55 home victory against CSUN on Jan. 26. Just before that, Long Beach State senior Tori Harris exploded for a career-high 32 in a 70-52 win over visiting UC San Diego on Jan. 21 to join fellow newcomer Tova Sabel of UC Davis. Sabel had notched 30 points in a close home loss to Northern Arizona on Dec. 19, shooting 12-of-23 from the floor to share the single-game highs for both makes and attempts, and recorded a second 30-point performance on the season with 31 in a loss to Cal Sate Fullerton on Feb. 23. UC Riverside’s Matehya Bryant has the top two rebounding outputs of 19 at CSU Bakersfield on Dec. 29 and 17 versus LIU on Nov. 26. Jordyn Jackson of CSUN finished with 11 assists in a loss to Long Beach State of Feb. 25, eclipsing the previous season-best in The Big West of eight assists. Cal State Fullerton’s Gabi Vidmar got hands to eight steals on Nov. 13 at San José State, and Aggie big Megan Jones swatted seven shots in that NAU game.
Preseason Prognostications
Hawai’i, the 2021-22 Big West regular-season and championship victor, is the favorite to repeat following the annual preseason poll conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches and announced Oct. 20.
The Rainbow Wahine picked up nine of the 11 first-place votes for a total of 99 points. UC Santa Barbara follows in second with 84 points and the remaining two first-place nods. Long Beach State (73), UC San Diego (72) and UC Davis (71) are grouped together closely in third through fifth.
The coaches’ preseason All-Big West Team consists of Hawai’i transfer and reigning Big West Freshman of the Year Lily Wahinekapu, Ila Lane of UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego duo Sydney Brown and Julia Macabuhay, Evanne Turner of UC Davis, and CSUN’s Tess Amundsen. |
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