MONMOUTH, Ore.—After making its longest road trip of the season last week, the Western Oregon University women's basketball team will now enjoy four straight home games with Concordia (Jan. 16) and Montana State Billings (Jan. 18) coming to Monmouth this week to close out the first half of the GNAC schedule.
ABOUT CONCORDIA (11-6, 5-4 GNAC): The Cavaliers were ranked No. 7 this week in the West Region according to Monday's D2SIDA Regional Poll... Concordia saw its five-game win streak snapped at No. 6-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 13... CU is 7-1 at home this season but 2-4 on the road... The Cavs are led by guard Danielle Hartzog, who ranks second in the GNAC with 16.1 points per game... Bailey Cartwright (13.3 ppg) and Kizzah Maltezo (11.4 ppg) also average double figures in scoring... Cartwright leads the GNAC with 10.6 rebounds per game... The Cavs are fourth in the GNAC in scoring at 71.6 points per game and No. 3 in defense by allowing 62.8 points per game.
ABOUT MSU BILLINGS (12-6, 5-3 GNAC): The Yellowjackets have split their last two weekends of GNAC games... Last week MSUB fell to NNU, 66-52, before defeating CWU, 86-84, on Jan. 13... MSUB opened the year with nine straight wins... The Jackets are ranked No. 5 in the GNAC with 70.8 points per game and No. 7 defensively by allowing 67.1 points per night... Senior forward Alisha Breen leads the GNAC in scoring by a large margin with a 20.4 points per game average... The No. 2 mark in the GNAC is 16.1 ppg by CU's Danielle Hartzog... Breen is the league's No. 2-ranked rebounder at 9.2 boards per game... Starters Rylee Kane (11.4 ppg), Vanessa Stavish (9.0 ppg and Lexi Prevost (6.3 ppg) are the next three highest scorers for the team... Junior forward Grace Weeks leads the bench with 5.4 points per game.
ABOUT WESTERN OREGON (7-7, 3-5 GNAC): The Wolves came up with a weekend split in Alaska last week with a 20-point (74-54) win in Fairbanks on Saturday... WOU has won two of their last three games including a 54-50 win against Western Washington on Jan. 6.. The win was the first against the Vikings since Feb. 23, 2008, a span covering 18 games... The Wolves are ranked No. 9 in the GNAC by averaging 65.7 points per game and allow 69.2 points per contest.
BALANCED ATTACK: Through 14 games, five different Wolves are averaging at least 7 points per game…
Savannah Heugly leads the crew with 11.5 points per game and is closely followed by
Sydney Azorr at 10.5 points per game...
Shelby Snook (8.4 ppg),
Kennedy Corrigan (8.2 ppg) and Keyonna Jones (7.3 ppg) provide additional scoring threats... Six different Wolves have either led the team or tied for the team lead in scoring in games this season with Heugly leading the team with five such occasions, including both contest last week.
FREE THROW LEADERS: WOU is ranked No. 2 in the GNAC and is ranked No. 16 in the NCAA DII with a 78.0 percent rate at the free throw line… The Wolves have converted 202-of-259 attempts from the charity stripe this season... Taisha Thomas is a perfect 15-of-15 from tHe line this year while
Sydney Azorr (89.7 percent) and
Shelby Snook (85.3 percent) are currently ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in the GNAC
NCAA DII RANKS: Alaska Anchorage (13-1) was ranked No. 6 in the latest WBCA NCAA DII Coaches' Poll on Jan. 9… The Seawolves collected 470 points and dropped four spots in the rankings after previously holding the No. 2 position… Also representing the West Region was Azusa Pacific at No. 18.
WOU ENTERS REGIONAL RANKINGS: Following the 4-0 start, Western Oregon broke into the top 10 in the NCAA DII SIDA West Region Media Poll on Nov. 27… The Wolves tallied five points in the poll to come in at No. 10… The Wolves fell just outside the top 10 (11th) with three votes in the poll released on Dec. 11.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Wolves will open the second half of the GNAC schedule at home with Northwest Nazarene (Jan. 25) and Central Washington (Jan. 27) coming to town.
3-POINT WATCH: Seniors
Sydney Azorr and
Shelby Snook both reside in the school's all-time DII-era top-10 list for career 3-point makes... Azorr is ranked No. 4 all-time with 100 career makes while Snook comes in at No. 8 with 68 conversions from distance... Sara Zahler (2007-11) holds the DII-era school record with 172 career 3-pointers... Azorr is ranked No. 4 in school history with a .362 rate from 3-point distance while Snook holds a career percentage of .319 for No. 8 all-time.
FAST STARTS: The Wolves 5-0 start to the season was tied for the second best in program history (since 1976-77) and the best since the program transitioned to NCAA DII (2000)… WOU got off to a school record 6-0 start to open the 1983-84 season while the 1986-87 team went 5-0.
WINNING STREAKS: The 1980-81 team won 18 straight contests following a season-opening loss to Portland State while the 1995-96 team won a school record 20 contests en route to winning the NAIA DII National Championship… WOU's longest winning streak during the NCAA era reached nine games during the 2001-02 season.
AZORR PERFECT FROM THE LINE: Sydney Azorr connected on 9-of-9 from the free throw line on Dec. 12 against Southern Oregon… The total was one shy of the GNAC single-game best this season as MSUB's Alisha Breen went 10-for-10 against Concordia on Nov. 17.
CALI TRIP: The Wolves played their first road game of the season at Notre Dame de Namur on Nov. 17, coming away with an 8-1-62 win over the Argonauts… The Wolves outrebounded NDNU 48-to-32 with
Kaylie Boschma grabbing a game-high 10 boards.
HAMPTON INN RECAP: The Wolves went 2-0 to start the year for the second straight season with an 81-70 win over Dixie State in the season opener followed by a 70-50 victory against Cal State San Bernardino while hosting the Hampton Inn DII Shootout on Nov. 11-12…
Sydney Azorr led the team with 13.- points per game in the opening weekend and was immediately followed by
Shelby Snook (12.5 ppg).. Snook also grabbed 8.0 rebounds per game over the weekend while
Kaylie Boschma posted an even 8.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in the two contests… The Wolves were steady at the free throw line in the opening weekend, hitting 48-of-58 for an 82.8 percent conversion rate.
SEVEN RE-UP: The Wolves top seven scorers from the 2016-17 season all return to the club this year with
Shelby Snook (13.6 ppg) and
Sydney Azorr (10.0) averaging double figures… Snook's average was good for No. 8 in the GNAC listings… Overall, WOU returns 1,438 of the 1,660 points (86.6 percent) from last year's team.
HIGH SCORERS: Six different players led the team or tied for the team lead in points in games last season…
Shelby Snook led the team with 13 games where she led the team in scoring and was followed by
Kaylie Boschma (5),
Jasmine Miller (5),
Savannah Heugly (3),
Sydney Azorr (3) and
Ali Nelke (2).
FOR STARTERS: Of the 135 starting spots from last year over the course of the team's 27 games, 128 are returning this season (94.9 percent)… The lone senior last season, guard
Launia Davis, started seven contests and averaged 3.3 points and 1.2 rebounds per game… Four players started at least 20 games a year ago:
Shelby Snook (24),
Kaylie Boschma (23),
Jasmine Miller (22) and
Ali Nelke (22) while
Sydney Azorr was called on for 19 starts.
SNOOK GOES FOR 30: Shelby Snook recorded 31 points against Saint Martin's on Dec. 3, 2016 for a WOU single-game high a year ago… The total tied for the fourth most in a single game by a GNAC player last season… Snook connected on 10-of-17 from the field and 5-of-7 from 3-point range in the 70-56 win over the Saints... Snook reached the mark again with 30 points at MSU Billings on Jan. 14 where she converted 8-of-15 attempts from deep… Her eight makes from beyond the 3-point line was a GNAC single-game high… Snook was one of only four players in the GNAC to record multiple 30-point games last season.
AZORR FOR THREE: Sydney Azorr made at least two 3-pointers in 10 separate games a year ago, including at least four makes on three occasions… Azorr hit a season-best five 3-point attempts at home against Concordia on Feb. 7.
PRESEASON ALL-GNAC: Senior guard
Sydney Azorr was one of 15 players selected to the 2017-18 Preseason All-GNAC Team... Nine guards were chosen out of the top 15 players in the league with all but three honorees entering their senior season.
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2017-18 GNAC Preseason Women's Basketball Coaches' Poll |
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Team (1st Place Votes) |
2016 Record (Finish) |
Points |
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1. Alaska Anchorage |
30-2 (20-0, 1st) |
106 |
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2. Seattle Pacific (2) |
19-11 (10-10, T-4th) |
103 |
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T3. Central Washington (2) |
15-15 (9-11, T-6th) |
85 |
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T3. Northwest Nazarene (1) |
12-15 (10-10, T-4th) |
85 |
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5. Simon Fraser |
26-8 (15-5, 3rd) |
78 |
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6. Western Washington |
26-6 (18-2, 2nd) |
76 |
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7. Montana State Billings |
8-20 (5-15, 9th) |
66 |
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8. Concordia |
12-16 (9-11, T-6th) |
55 |
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9. Western Oregon |
9-19 (4-16, 10th) |
33 |
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10. Alaska |
13-14 (9-11, T-6th) |
21 |
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11. Saint Martin's |
5-23 (1-19, 11th) |
18 |
2017-18 GNAC PRESEASON POLL: The Wolves were picked to finish in ninth place according to the GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll… Picking up six first-place votes, Alaska Anchorage was chosen to repeat as conference champions after going 30-2 overall and 20-0 in GNAC play a year ago… Also picking up first-place votes were: Seattle Pacific (2), Central Washington (2) and Northwest Nazarene (1).
2016-17 REVIEW: The Wolves ended last year with an 8-19 overall record and a 4-16 record in GNAC play to place 10th in the league standings… were ranked ninth in the GNAC after scoring 61.5 points per game while also ranked ninth by allowing 69.9 points per contest.
