Tipping Off
What 2 Watch 4
After a Bold Week beginning to the league slate, teams return to the court for non-conference action with a lighter week on tap. Each team plays but once over the weekend with eight squads taking to their home court between Thursday and Monday. League-leader UC Santa Barbara (8-1, 2-0 BW) is one of the trio with a road trip on the books, taking on Utah Tech on Saturday at 2 p.m. from St. George, Utah. Second in the standings is UC Irvine (8-2, 2-0 BW) and the Anteaters welcome future conference opponent California Baptist to the Bren on Saturday at 2 o’clock. Both the Gauchos and Anteaters are riding Big West-best seven-game winning streaks.
Every Big West home contest appears on ESPN+ throughout the season. Check listings for specific game information.
The Big West in the Rankings
Three Big West schools are listed in the latest College Insider Women’s Basketball Mid-Major Top 25 poll, with UC Santa Barbara jumping up to 13th in the listings after a pair of Bold Week Wins. UC San Diego and UC Irvine are both receiving votes in the polling, with the Tritons entering the conversation for the first time this season.
Last Week, Today
Five Big West schools opened the conference slate with a perfect weekend with two others earning the split.
UC Santa Barbara (8-1, 2-0 BW)
The Big West leaders opened conference play on the road with double-digit wins at Long Beach State and Cal State Bakersfield. Junior Zoe Borter led the way with a career-high 25 points against the Roadrunners with a 5-for-5 day from beyond the arc. Borter finished the week shooting 80 percent from distance.
The Gauchos control both sides of the three-point line, swishing 10.4 triples per game while hitting 41 percent of their attempts to rate fourth in NCAA Division I, while locking down their opponents from the perimeter allowing teams to shoot 21.7 percent from three to stand in second. Jessica Grant (50.0 3FG%) and Borter (48.7 3FG%) are both in the top 20 nationally.
UC Irvine (8-2, 2-0 BW)
The Anteaters opened up the Big West segment of the schedule with a pair of wins for the sixth straight season. UCI’s successful road swing at UC Riverside and CSUN saw Big West Player of the Week Hunter Hernandez lead the way averaging 23.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Hernandez poured in a career-high 31 points in 31 minutes against the Matadors to extend their winning streak to seven.
Cal State Fullerton (4-5, 2-0 BW)
Cal State Fullerton had a big start to their Big West schedule, dispatching Cal Poly before taking down preseason favorites Hawai’i 82-80 on Saturday. Nicole Steiner averaged a double-double of 13.5 points and 10.5 rebounds on the week and scored the final four points against UH to ice the game and snap a 12-game losing streak to the ’Bows. This is the Titans’ first 2-0 start in Big West play since 2019-20. Cal State Fullerton’s disruptive defense has the team in second nationally in steals (17.1) and turnovers forced (27.71) per game.
UC Davis (7-3, 1-0 BW)
The Aggies picked up a 68-63 win over Hawai’i in their lone league game of the week before dropping a road contest at Gonzaga. UC Davis got the win in comeback fashion, erasing a 14-point fourth quarter deficit. Nya Epps finished the game with 12 points, eight of which came during the comeback. Megan Norris led the way with 26 points and 11 rebounds as the redshirt senior eclipsed the 1,000-point career scoring mark in the contest.
UC San Diego (5-4, 1-0 BW)
The Tritons downed Long Beach State in their lone Bold Week contest, paced by the play of Rosa Smith. The redshirt junior finished 11-for-18 from the field with a career-high 27 points with five assists, four rebounds and two steals in the game. Defending champion UCSD sees themselves receiving votes in the latest Mid-Major Madness Top 25 for the first time this season.
Starting with the split
UC Riverside and CSUN each split their opening weekend with the Highlanders dispatching Cal Poly on Saturday. Hannah Wickstrom carried the offense in the win with 22 points and seven boards. The Matadors got a last-second layup from Saray White to claim victory at Cal State Bakersfield. White led the team scoring with 13 points and seven rebounds in the 59-57 win.
Non-Conference Notables
• UC Davis set a program attendance record in their home win against Idaho, with 5,567 fans on hand.
• Title winners! UC Irvine won the Great Alaska Shootout with victories over Bowling Green and St. Thomas Nov. 21-22, with Jada Wynn named most outstanding player. Hawai’i took home the crown at the Bank of Hawai’i Classic on Nov. 21-23 as Ritorya Tamilo earned MVP honors. UC Santa Barbara took home the hardware at the CBU Invitational with wins over the host Lancers and Chattanooga over Thanksgiving week.
Welcome to The Big West
New head coach at Cal State Fullerton John Bonner heads to the Titans after a Division II national runner-up season with Cal State Dominguez Hills. Bonner boasts the only two 30-win seasons in Toreros’ program history including a record 36 victories in 2024-25 and was twice named CCAA Coach of the Year.
GET TOUGH!
The Big West has announced the return of its Tough Like Tammy fundraising initiative for the 2025-26 women’s basketball season and the goal of securing a $50,000 grant from the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
The joint venture between Big West women’s basketball, the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and Big West women’s basketball analyst Tammy Blackburn, has raised more than $25,000 in support life-saving research on all cancers affecting women since its inception in 2023. The effort in 2025-26 revolves around securing a $50,000 grant to assist women in underserved communities in southern California. Currently, the Tough Like Tammy program stands over 60% of the way towards reaching the goal and fans can donate today at BigWest.org/TLT. Learn more >>>
Additionally The Big West recently announced its nation-leading nine recipients of the Kay Yow Servant Leader Award, who will be sporting a jersey patch all season long for exemplifying leadership, selflessness and service in the fight against all cancers affecting women. Meet the servant leaders >>>
Hoops in Henderson
The Big West announced an enhanced agreement with Credit Union 1, the Official Credit Union, Bank and Financial Services Partner of The Big West, to become the title partner of the 2026 Big West Basketball Championships, March 11-14, 2026, at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nev. All-Session tickets are available now! Learn more >>>
Watch Us Work
Building on one of the most successful men’s and women’s seasons since the 1990’s, The Big West has announced that more than 350 men’s and women’s basketball games will be available nationally on the ESPN family of networks and Spectrum SportsNet during 2025-26 season. All Big West men’s and women’s basketball home games and all seven games of the Credit Union I 2026 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship will stream nationally on ESPN+. Additionally, The Big West will continue its regional partnership with Spectrum SportsNet for the fifth consecutive season. Five women’s contests are part of the 14-game Spectrum SportsNet package with Long Beach State, UC San Diego, Hawai’i, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly each slated to appear. Learn more >>>
2024-25 Season Rewind
The Big West is coming off a season of parity where four teams reached the 20-win mark: Hawai’i (22-10), UC Irvine (21-10), UC Davis (21-12) and UC San Diego (20-16). The Big West Championship was won by No. 4 seed UC San Diego, who bested third-seeded UC Davis in the finale from Henderson. Regular-season champion Hawai’i was nipped at the buzzer in the semifinals, dropping their game to the eventual champions.
Winning both The Big West men’s and women’s titles to earn NCAA qualification in their first year of eligibility, UC San Diego is the first school in NCAA Division I history to accomplish that feat.
Preseason Prognostications
In yet another vote with the slimmest of margins, Hawai’i has been selected to win the 2025-26 Big West women’s basketball crown in a vote of The Big West’s 11 head coaches. It is the fourth consecutive season that the Rainbow Wahine have landed atop the preseason voting.
Hawai’i received 91 total points and four first-place votes after last year’s regular-season championship. UC Irvine, picked to finish second in the polling in consecutive seasons, landed just one point shy of UH, compiling 90 points with four first-place votes. UC Davis and UC San Diego are slotted in third and fourth, also earning the top nods on the ballot in what looks to be a four-team race to the crown.
Five of the seven Preseason All-Big West Team selections play for the top quartet, with Hawai’i the only team to record a pair of picks. Typically a six-person team, ties in the voting warranted a seventh slot be awarded, also showcasing the projected parity in not only the team predictions but the expected individual play across The Big West.
Last season, UH finished the campaign with a 22-10 overall record and a 16-4 mark in Big West action. After falling in the semifinal round of the 2025 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by Credit Union 1 to eventual victors UC San Diego, the ’Bows saw themselves in the field of the NCAA’s WBIT for consecutive seasons and a fourth-straight national postseason. Two Rainbow Wahine find themselves on the Preseason All-Big West Team in lone returning senior Imani Perez and reigning Big West Freshman of the Year Ritorya Tamilo.
Skylar Burke (UC Santa Barbara), Erin Condron (UC San Diego), Shelley Duchemin (UC Riverside), Hunter Hernandez (UC Irvine) and Megan Norris (UC Davis) round out the Preseason Coaches Team. See the complete poll and read more about the team here >>>
|
|