Rhodes’ Cougars Ready For Pac-10 WSU Opens Conference Schedule At Home Against Ucla, Then Usc

The tuneup is complete, the lineup has been altered and now it’s time to see how the Washington State women’s basketball team stands up in the Pac-10 Conference.

The Cougars, 5-3, begin conference play with two home games, Thursday against UCLA (4-3) and Saturday against Southern Cal (5-2). Both games start at 7 p.m.

“We’ll learn a lot about ourselves against USC,” WSU coach Harold Rhodes said. “Right now, we haven’t played 40 minutes (of good basketball).

“Last year at this time, we were coming off a big (86-72) win over Houston. This year, we’ve been inconsistent.”

The Trojans, a team the Cougars split with last season, have one of the best players in the country in 6-foot-3 post Tina Thompson. The senior from Los Angeles was named Pac-10 player of the week two weeks ago after averaging 28.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in wins over UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State.

Thompson enters the week leading the conference in scoring (23.6 points per game), rebounds (10.6) and blocked shots (17). Teammate Michelle Campbell has blocked 12 shots.

The conference coaches picked the Trojans to finish fourth in the Pac-10. UCLA, picked to finish third behind Stanford and Oregon, had one of the best recruiting classes in the nation, Rhodes said.

Freshman post Maylana Martin is leading the Bruins’ scoring with 19.5 points per game, fourth best in the the Pac-10. She is also second in the conference in shooting percentage at 57.6.

UCLA’s young roster also includes Takiya Jackson, a 6-0 freshman forward from Franklin High School in Seattle, who redshirted last year after ACL surgery, and 5-9 sophomore Erica Gomez, last year’s Pac-10 freshman player of the year.

Last season, the Cougs beat the Bruins in Pullman and lost to them on the road.

WSU will continue to go with the lineup that has forward Amy Saneholtz starting and senior Kristin Erickson coming off bench. Saneholtz, who missed last season because of a knee injury, is averaging 10.1 points and 24 minutes. Erickson, who averages 21 minutes per game and started the first two, is second on the team in scoring with an average of 12.3 points per game.

Yvonne Kunze is averaging 13.5 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Cougars.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Area leaders Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt. Avg. Alli Nieman, UI 58-117 55-75 4 17.5 Rebecca Moore, Whit. 40-101 33-38 17 16.3 Jen Tissue, Whit. 42-95 33-35 12 16.1 Tanya Kirk, EWU 35-100 13-17 11 15.8 Shana Ray, EWU, 33-73 19-27 1 13.9 Yvonne Kunze, WSU 45-82 18-32 0 13.5 Kristin Erickson, WSU 37-91 13-16 11 12.3 Joanna Smith, WSU 27-60 10-13 15 9.9 Michelle Greenwood, UI 35-78 25-33 0 10.6 Laura Wilder, WSU 27-55 23-30 0 9.6

Rebounding Northington, Whitworth, 10.1 (85); Nieman, UI, 9.3 (93); Kunze, WSU, 6.4 (51); Perno, GU, 6.0 (60); Saneholtz, WSU, 5.9 (47)

Assists Hyett, WSU, 6.0 (48); Tissue, Whitworth, 4.3 (35); Gussett, UI, 3.4 (34); Moore, Whitworth, 4.0 (32); Andrews, GU, 2.9 (29).

Steals Hyett, WSU, 5.1 (41); Tissue, Whitworth, 3.3 (30); Gussett, UI, 2.4 (24); Nieman, UI, 1.9 (19); Skorpick, UI, 1.9 (19).

Schedule Thursday: UI at GU, 2 p.m.; UCLA at WSU, 7 p.m.; NAU at EWU, 7 p.m. Friday: Whitworth at George Fox, 6 p.m. Saturday: Boise St. at GU, 5:15 p.m.; USC at WSU, 7 p.m.; UI at Portland, 7 p.m.; Cal State Northridge at EWU, 7 p.m.