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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Women’s basketball weekend roundup

Kayla Standish of Gonzaga, left, will show her stuff at the USA Women's World University Games team tryouts. (J. Rayniak / The Spokesman-Review)
Kayla Standish of Gonzaga, left, will show her stuff at the USA Women's World University Games team tryouts. (J. Rayniak / The Spokesman-Review)

We're here to catch you up on the weekend's women's basketball news, which includes this week's Top 25 vote.

Updated with honors for Kayla Standish (No. 32, left, in photo), Kate Loper and Angie Bjorklund. And as long as we're stumbling around, here's tons of information on the Tennessee at Baylor game, with the UT site including an video interview with Bjorklund.

About the only thing that got postsd over the weekend as I went from basketball to hockey, was Gonzaga's win over visiting Washington State Saturday afternoon.  Thoughts from that game: The crowd seemed bigger than 3,900, which is the fifth largest in program history. It now takes 3,200 to make the Top 10. Kayla Standish could be the most talented forward the Bulldogs have had - if only she was more consistent. WSU is better, which is what they've been saying in Pullman for three years, but now it appears true. There is a good guard-forward balance, now they just need to get some more experience and stay together for a couple of years.

Idaho had one of those bad games that just seem to happen, losing in Seattle. As expected, Eastern Washington whipped visiting Saint Martin's, though some local kids got a chance to "play at home." 

Only two games at home this weekend, Irvine at Eastern on Wednesday and Idaho at Gonzaga on Friday.

If you caught Tennessee on FSN Sunday afternoon you saw an impressive first-half performance from Angie Bjorklund (U-Hi) in a win over a ranked Texas team. She had all 20 before intermission, missing her first four shots then going 8-10, including four 3's. The Lady Vols play at No. 2/3 Baylor Tuesday at 4, ESPN2. She is within a hot game or two average games of breaking the school record for 3's. She moved into second against Texas (passing ESPN analyst Kara Lawson). After Baylor the Vols go home to face No. 2/3 Stanford. Would be nice for the local kid to get the record agianst that kind of competition, especially since her parents and grandparents are attending the three games against ranked teams.

Here's my Top 25. My poll goes in before 9 p.m. on Sunday. In the last couple of weeks my vote has been reflective of both the coaches and writers. In the AP writers' poll I've had 24 of 25, two weeks ago the coaches ESPN poll was 25 of 25. That either means I know what I'm doing (finally, after all these years) or we're all sheep.

Week 5
 
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Baylor
4. Xavier
5. Duke
6. Tennessee
7. West Virginia
8. UCLA
9. Texas A&M
10. Oklahoma
11. North Carolina
12. Ohio State
13. Kentucky
14. Iowa
15. Michigan State
16. Iowa State
17. Florida State
18. Maryland
19. St. John's
20. Nebraska
21. Notre Dame
22. DePaul
23. Texas
24. Georgia
25. Wisconsin Green Bay


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