WBB: Buzzer-Beater, Division I Records, Power Conference Win and More
Another GCU buzzer-beater, a scoring record in the Division I era, another win over a Power Conference foe and much more.
There’s lots to cover in this week’s WAC Hoops women’s basketball newsletter from a second power conference win of the year, weekly power rankings, a buzzer-beater in the Gem State, and more.
Trailblazers get WAC’s second win over a Pac-12 team in 11 days:
Back on December 8th in Tempe, Grand Canyon gave the WAC their first win over a power conference team in 2023-24.
Tuesday afternoon in St. George, Utah Tech gave the conference its second win over a power conference team.
Breaunna Gillen had a triple-double and the Trailblazers were red hot from 3-point land in the win over Pac-12 foe Oregon.
Utah Tech hit 12 3-pointers in the first half as it raced out to a 55-38 halftime lead.
Preseason Player of the Year Breaunna Gillen converted a 3-point play with under 10 seconds left to complete the half.
Oregon made runs and got within one just after the fourth quarter media timeout but couldn’t grab a lead.
Maggie McCord came through with back to back 3-pointers in the middle of the fourth quarter.
However, it was freshman Nicole Willardson who went on a personal 8-0 run with back to back 3-pointers of her own and a key block to preserve the win.
McCord hit eight shots from beyond the arc and finished with 24 points, a career high. Maddie Warren had 21 points, with six 3-pointers while Breaunna Gillen added an impressive triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists to lead the veterans.
Joining Willardson as an underclassman in double digit scoring was fellow freshman Calyn Dallas who finished with 14 points.
Oregon was 86th in the NET rankings on Tuesday morning while Utah Tech was 204th.
It’s the third win by a WAC team over a power conference opponent in the last two seasons after Sam Houston defeated TCU in Dallas last year.
Lopes survive tough shooting night in Gem State
Naudia Evans started the year with a buzzer-beater on opening night as GCU rallied from a 19-point deficit at home against Saint Mary’s to prevail.
On Sunday, in Moscow, Idaho, with the Lopes locked in an overtime duel against the Vandals for a second straight year, Evans struck again.
Evans hit a jumper in the lane as time expired to lift GCU to a 65-63 overtime win.
Tiarra Brown led the Lopes with 19 points and eight rebounds while Shay Fano added 12 points.
Evans finished with 13 points, five assists and four rebounds.
After struggling mightily to score in the second and third quarters, GCU went 11-19 in the fourth quarter and overtime from the field to win.
The Lopes, 17th in this week’s collegeinsider.com poll, will continue this road trip with a Wednesday date at Liberty (40th) as part of the WAC/Conference USA Scheduling Initiative.
Long has historic performance in Tarleton win at McNeese State
Tarleton State had the first tipoff on Saturday morning and led off a busy slate of WAC Hoops action with a victory at McNeese State.
However, it wasn’t just an ordinary victory.
In the 88-64 win over McNeese, junior guard Jakoriah Long set a record for most points scored in Tarleton’s Division I history with 34 on 11-13 shooting in 37 minutes.
On Monday, Long was also honored with the WAC Player and Newcomer of the Week awards for her performance.
Teresa Da Silva was the previous record holder with 31 points in a win against Weber State just over a year ago. Tarleton fell in a close game at New Orleans to complete the trip.
Thunderbirds welcome nationally ranked Utes to Cedar City
Part of the Saturday slate saw Southern Utah host 11th-ranked Utah.
Although the scoreboard showed a 96-60 loss to the Utes, there were a couple of bright spots worth mentioning.
First, the Thunderbirds only fell 46-37 in the second half. Second, Megan Smith and Ava Uhrich put on a show against the Utes.
Smith had a career scoring day against Division I competition with 26 points on 11-17 field goal shooting in 30 minutes of work. Uhrich added 15 points on 7-11 field goal shooting and the pair did not record a foul in a combined 54 minutes of work.
Black Monday:
Very rarely is there a day where WAC teams go winless in matchups against other mid-major conferences.
Unfortunately, Monday was such a day.
Tarleton had a lead after the first quarter but went 2-12 in the second, fell behind by double digits, and fell 67-59 at New Orleans (Southland preseason ninth).
Then, five hours north in Ruston, undefeated and 20th-ranked CBU never found their footing, falling behind 12-0 against Louisiana Tech (CUSA preseason fourth) , and losing 77-51.
In the day’s other WAC/Conference USA Scheduling Initiative game, which had Abilene Christian visiting Western Kentucky (preseason T2 CUSA), the Wildcats fell 72-68 after holding an 11-point lead through three quarters.
After Tuesday’s results, CUSA leads the initiative 5-3 as UT Arlington got an impressive win at Jacksonville State behind a career day from Adela Valkova who had 21 points and seven rebounds.
There are two more games left this week as GCU travels to Liberty and Sam Houston travels to Utah Valley.
Women’s Basketball Power Rankings
Here are the power rankings for games through Tuesday, December 19.
With its win at Idaho, we have a new number one as preseason favorite Grand Canyon takes the top spot going into Wednesday’s game at Liberty.
After dropping their first game of the year, CBU drops to second with its overall body of work keeping them there.
The Lancers have three wins over WNIT teams from a year ago plus wins over UCSD (who would’ve made the Big West tournament if eligible) and an NCAA tournament team in Portland.
Grand Canyon
California Baptist
Stephen F. Austin
Utah Tech
Southern Utah
ACU
UT Arlington
Tarleton
Utah Valley
Seattle U
UTRGV
Collegeinsider.com poll update
There was some movement in the Collegeinsider.com mid-major poll for the three WAC teams in that poll.
Unfortunately, after losses for two teams that movement was in a downward direction.
CBU went from 20th to 22nd after losing on Monday at Louisiana Tech while Stephen F. Austin is the final team receiving votes after a loss at Middle Tennessee.
Grand Canyon moved up two spots to 15th after their win at Idaho on Sunday.