WBB: Day 1 Preview
With the regular season behind us it's time to look ahead to WAC tournament play which gets into full swing Wednesday at Orleans Arena
With the play-in round complete all eyes turn two hours south on I-15 towards Orleans Arena where WAC tournament play begins Wednesday afternoon.
For folks unable to be in Las Vegas the WAC Tournament will be on ESPN+ all the way through Saturday’s final. The final will also be available on ESPNU at 12:30 P.M. Pacific on Saturday.
Adam Young (New Mexico State PxP, voice of the NCAA Division II and III volleyball national tournaments) returns to call all rounds up to Saturday’s final alongside Brandi Poole (UT Arlington Analyst/Atlanta Dream assistant).
Krista Blunk (Las Vegas Aces PxP) is joined by Mary Murphy (LA Sparks analyst) for the final.
Press conferences will be available on the WAC International site (wacinternational.tv). You’ll just need to create a profile to access them.
Let’s take a look at Wednesday’s pair of quarterfinal games…something to note is that today’s winners get tomorrow off while the three, four, five and six seeds play.
No. 8 Utah Tech v No. 1 GCU 12 P.M. Pacific
GCU (29-2, 16-0) starts out the tournament against a Utah Tech side that they defeated by an average of 34 points per game in their two regular season meetings.
The Lopes, second in this week’s collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Women’s Basketball Poll, start tournament play with a 27 game winning streak. They also have national eyes on them as coach Molly Miller has been tied to several power conference openings such as Arkansas, Arizona State, and Missouri in recent days.
According to ESPN’s Charlie Creme the Lopes would be a 12 seed, playing Tennessee at the Baylor site should they prevail this week. Megan Gauer of Her Hoop Stats has the Lopes as a 13, playing host Baylor.
For Utah Tech to be competitive in this one they’ll need a much faster start offensively than they got Tuesday afternoon in the opening round win against Seattle U.
The Trailblazers will need big games offensively from Emily Isaacson, Aaliyah Ibarra, Ellie Taylor and Chardonay Hartley to keep it close. Defensively, they’ll have to find answers for a Lopes offense that shot better than 45 percent from the field in both games and ranked no worse than third in the offensive categories during WAC play.
That includes having the conference’s top scoring offense, field goal percentage offense, and 3-point shooting percentage offense. The Lopes were third in free throw shooting percentage.
Ibarra finished with her second-highest scoring total of the year, 21 points, her best game since a 36 point outburst at McNeese State just before Thanksgiving.
GCU has four of the WAC’s top ten scorers in Trinity San Antonio (fourth), Alyssa Durazo-Frescas (fifth), Laura Erikstrup (sixth) and Tiarra Brown (10th).
Points in the Paint will tell a lot of the story here. GCU was +34 in that column at Burns Arena and +16 in Phoenix.
It’ll be the second meeting between these teams in a six day stretch. Last Thursday at Burns Arena the Lopes outscored Utah Tech 39-18 in second and third quarter action en route to a 32 point win.
No. 7 Southern Utah v No. 2 Tarleton State 2:30 P.M. Pacific:
Tarleton State earned their best regular season finish since joining the WAC with a tie for second at 10-6. They earned the No. 2 seed via Resume Seeding System points.
They’ll face off against a Southern Utah side that, after a slow start to conference play, won five of their last six to avoid the play-in round.
In Cedar City, the Texans led from start to finish behind a +15 margin in bench production. Jakoriah Long, Arieona Rosborough, and Miannah Little combined to shoot 21 of 32 from the field in the win. Long started a stretch of three straight 20+ point performances that day.
Meanwhile, at Wisdom Gym the Texans were +24 on Points in the Paint in an 11 point win. Rosborough, Long, and Faith Acker combined to shoot 14 of 29 that day. It was Rosborough’s third game of 20 or more points in a five game stretch dating back to the Arkansas State win on December 19.
Arkansas State won the SunBelt Conference tournament earlier this week.
Daylani Ballena has scored 15 or more points in four of her last six games while Ava Uhrich has reached double-digit scoring in seven of her last nine games since February 1 for Southern Utah.
Tarleton State was fourth in scoring offense and second in scoring defense during conference play. Meanwhile, Southern Utah was eighth in scoring offense and fourth in scoring defense.
In talking with Southern Utah’s Spencer McLaughlin, Play by Play voice of the TBirds, earlier this year he pointed to 60 points as their magic number offensively. When they clear that mark offensively they’re 6-1.
Tarleton State was 10-3 when they scored 60 or more points.
Picks:
GCU and Tarleton State, both by double-digits
Odds and Ends:
Congratulations to Sam Johnston and Laura Erikstrup on scoring 1,000 career points during the stretch run of conference play.
Halle Nelson scored a career-high 22 points in Utah Valley’s senior day win over Tarleton State.
GCU’s Alyssa Durazo-Frescas is a pair of 3-pointers away from breaking Becky Hammon’s single-season mark for shots made beyond the arc in a season. That mark is currently held by Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, a former Colorado State player.