WBB: Lopes lock up the outright regular season title but race for second is anything but over with a week left
With a week left in the regular season there's still plenty to play for despite GCU locking up the regular season title...
While GCU officially locked up this year’s race for a regular season championship there’s still quite the battle for second place and that other bye in WAC tournament play to settle this week.
We take a look at that battle and some career milestones in this week’s WAC Hoops Nation Women’s Basketball Weekly Rewind…
Lopes alone atop the mountain:
Thursday night at UT Arlington GCU’s women’s basketball team fell behind after a quarter against the Lady Mavs but led by four at intermission.
However, the Lopes used a 34-17 third quarter to take a game high 21 point lead and won by a final of 72-59. This win clinched an outright regular season title for the first time in program history and a No. 1 seed in next week’s Hercules Tires WAC Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The Lopes returned home on Saturday afternoon to host Seattle U and after falling behind 8-0 early, prevailed 82-52 to push their winning streak to 25 straight games.
Afterwards, they cut down nets in Phoenix.
GCU makes one last road trip to visit Utah Tech on Thursday before returning home and hosting Abilene Christian on Saturday.
Durazo-Frescas on Record Watch:
With another nine made 3-pointers last week GCU’s Alyssa Durazo-Frescas sits at 105 on the year. She’s nine away from tying Becky Hammon’s mark of 114 from the 1998-1999 regular season. Hammon played for Colorado State that year and is currently head coach of the Las Vegas Aces.
Race for the two seed anything but clear:
Three weeks ago who would’ve thought we’d have a race for the two seed and its accompanying bye in WAC tournament play? UT Arlington was 9-1 in conference play and firmly controlling that spot.
However, a five game Lady Mavs losing streak combined with late season surges from CBU, Tarleton State, and ACU has made things quite interesting.
CBU and Tarleton State are tied at 9-5 in WAC play. They’ll play each other Thursday night in Stephenville as the final women’s basketball game to be played at Wisdom Gym.
The Lancers stay in Texas to visit UT Arlington for the regular season finale while Tarleton State heads to Utah Valley.
At 9-6, UT Arlington has the Thursday bye before that aforementioned game against CBU on Saturday.
ACU and Utah Valley are both at 8-6 in WAC play and square off in Orem on Thursday night. ACU finishes up the regular season in Phoenix against GCU while UVU welcomes Tarleton State.
If CBU or Tarleton State go 2-0 this week they lock up the No. 2 seed for WAC Tournament play.
Any ties are settled first with head to head results and then the WAC Resume Seeding System. The WAC Resume Seeding System results are being kept internally with only the coaches and conference officials having access to that information.
Play-In Round Participants Settled:
With losses on Saturday afternoon Seattle U and Utah Tech have locked themselves into next Tuesday’s play-in game at Burns Arena.
The winner of this game will play No.1 seed GCU on Wednesday, March 12 at noon pacific time to open the WAC tournament.
Seattle U is the last team nationally to not have a win in conference play after Niagara defeated Iona in MAAC play last Thursday and North Florida defeated Jacksonville on Saturday in Atlantic Sun conference action.
Weekly Awards:
Utah Tech’s Paige Cofer and GCU’s Trinity San Antonio earned this week’s Newcomer and Player of the Week awards.
Cofer recorded her first collegiate double-double with a 25 point and 11 rebound performance in Saturday’s loss at CBU. She is the eighth different player to earn these honors this year with UT Arlington’s Koi Love winning eight times on her own.
San Antonio earned Player of the Week honors for a third straight week and fourth time overall by averaging 16.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 5.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. Her seven steals against Seattle U on Saturday were just two shy of the program record. Nine different players have earned Player of the Week accolades with San Antonio’s four selections leading the way.
Odds and Ends:
Southern Utah’s Samantha Johnston set the program record for career-games played with her 137th appearance in a Thunderbird uniform on Thursday night.
GCU’s Laura Erikstrup crossed the 1,000 career points threshold in Thursday’s game at UT Arlington.
Utah Valley’s Halle Nelson scored a career-high 17 points and added 11 rebounds in a February 22 win at Seattle U.
Saturday’s 94 points scored by CBU against Utah Tech are a season-high for the Lancers. For a fourth time in five games CBU also hit 10 or more 3-pointers.
ACU’s Bella Earle climbed to eighth place in career-games played on Saturday in a win against UT Arlington with 115 and fifth in steals at 153. Both marks are based on the program’s Division I history.