Bruins To Visit Pullman
Junior forward Maylana Martin and No. 12 UCLA will be at Pullman’s Friel Court Thursday night. Not exactly the Cougars’ favorite house guests over the years.
This season, the Bruins are in position to win the Pac-10 Conference title. Only Stanford, USC and Washington have owned that distinction since the league’s beginning in 1986-87. But several teams have owned Washington State. UCLA is one of them.
The Bruins (20-6, 12-2) hold a 17-5 edge in the series, including this year’s 100-70 schooling in Los Angeles. Worse yet, UCLA won big without its star, Martin, who missed four games because of migraine headaches.
She’s back now, and is coming off a career-high and Pac-10 season-best 38-point game against USC. Martin also grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds to earn conference player of the week honors this week for the second time this season.
“It’s always nice to have someone like May in the lineup, especially when you go on the road,” said coach Kathy Olivier, whose Bruins are one-half game behind first-place Oregon. Martin leads the conference in scoring (18.7 points per game) and is the favorite to win the conference player of the year award.
“Without a doubt in my mind, she’s the Pac-10 player of the year,” Washington State coach Harold Rhodes said. “I don’t think there’s a player out there who brings more to the table.”
The Cougars (10-14, 4-11) haven’t brought much of anything anywhere lately. They’ve lost six of seven with three games remaining, all at home. But the Trojans, losers of nine of 10 games, could be the answer when the two play Saturday at 1 p.m.
USC (7-16, 3-11) has been hit by injuries all season. Its best player, Adrian Williams, who missed the first game against WSU because of an ankle injury, is back. She’s averaging 15.0 ppg (fourth in the conference) and 6.6 rpg (tied for ninth).
Gonzaga draws Santa Clara
“I don’t think anybody wants to play the host,” said Gonzaga coach Kellee Barney, whose team opens the West Coast Conference tournament against No. 2 Santa Clara Thursday night at 8.
The WCC originally announced GU earned the sixth seed after the Zags beat Loyola Marymount in the final game of the regular season. Both teams finished with 4-10 conference records (both 8-18 overall), but LMU earned the sixth seed and Gonzaga the seventh because of a tiebreaker rule (LMU’s two wins over No. 4 San Diego).
No matter who Gonzaga drew, conference tournaments have been quick stops for the Zags. They have not gotten out of the first round since the tournament began its “everybody goes” format in 1995. They’ve never been seeded higher than seventh.
Santa Clara beat Gonzaga twice this season (79-57, 79-64) after splitting last year’s series when GU upset SCU at Martin Centre.
The other sister
Portland’s Kristin Hepton (Central Valley ‘94) isn’t the only Hepton having a fine season. Her older sister, Courtney, (CV ‘92) is playing at Division II Sonoma (Calif.) State and is a big reason the Cossacks are 21-4 with two regular-season games left and an NCAA Tournament invitation waiting to be delivered.
Courtney Hepton, 25, who played three years at St. Mary’s College in the mid-‘90s, is averaging 14.2 ppg and 7.0 rpg. Last weekend, she scored a career-high 26 points against Grand Canyon (Ariz.) and combined for 44 points and 17 rebounds in two games to earn California Collegiate Athletic Association player of the week honors.
She came to Sonoma State this season with one year of eligibility left and is studying to get her teaching credential.
“She’s playing phenomenal basketball right now,” said Sonoma State’s second-year coach Mark Rigby.
Around the rim
The Community Colleges of Spokane’s sophomore Jen Clark (Mead) and freshman Amy George, (Ferris) were named to the NWAACC East Region first-team Tuesday. CCS’s Sara Harchuck (Shadle Park) was named to the second team. Clark, a center, and guard Nicole Kleopfer were named to the sophomore all-star team. CCS (23-4, 10-2) earned a spot in the NWAACC playoffs last week and plays host to Columbia Basin College in a seeding game Thursday.
After controlling its destiny the entire Big Sky Conference season, Eastern Washington now needs help to make it into next week’s six-team conference tournament. The Eagles (7-17, 4-10) fell into eighth place after losses to Cal State Northridge and Northern Arizona last weekend. They must beat second-place (tied) Montana State (16-8, 10-4) Thursday and fifth-place Montana (11-13, 7-7) Saturday and Northern Arizona (11-13, 5-9) needs to lose one.
AREA WOMEN’S LEADERS Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt Avg. Alli Nieman, Idaho 183-380 107-152 13 20.3 Alke Dietel, WSU 84-214 35-45 35 17.0 Tricia Lamb, WSU 140-366 55-80 58 16.4 Susan Woolf, Idaho 121-267 87-100 65 16.4 Amy George, CCS 136-309 74-99 48 15.1 Jamie Wakefield, Whit. 122-270 85-121 10 14.5 Mandi Lindhe, NIC 129-283 68-87 43 14.2 Jen Clark, CCS 169-380 22-34 6 13.5 Jessica Malone, GU 117-303 53-78 52 13.0 Becki Huddle, NIC 97-248 106-143 23 12.4 Sara Harchuck, CCS 122-269 53-85 32 12.2 Star Olson, Whit. 105-258 37-64 26 11.9 Karie Pruett, CCS 112-252 35-47 60 11.8
Rebounding Nieman, UI, 9.0 (217); Clark, CCS, 8.7 (208); George, CCS, 7.9 (205); Wakefield, Whit., 7.0 (161); Dietel, WSU, 7.3 (102).
Assists Bianca Ryan, NIC, 4.8 (126); Nicole Kleopfer, CCS, 4.6 (125); Emily Stuenkel, Whit., 4.1 (94); Katie Nyseth, WSU, 3.8 (84); Rikki Jackson, UI, 3.5 (85).
Steals Huddle, NIC, 2.7 (69); Wakefield, Whit., 2.4 (56); Kleopfer, CCS, 2.3 (62); George, CCS, 2.3 (60); Nyseth, WSU, 2.0 (47).
Schedule Thursday: NWAACC regional playoffs: Columbia Basin vs. CC Spokane at SFCC, 5 p.m.; Montana St. at EWU, 7 p.m.; UCLA at WSU, 7 p.m.; Idaho at Long Beach St., 7:30 p.m.; WCC tournament: Gonzaga vs. Santa Clara at Santa Clara, 8 p.m. Friday: Whitworth at Lewis & Clark, 6 p.m. Saturday: Southern California at WSU, 1 p.m.; Ricks at North Idaho, 5:30; Whitworth at Puget Sound, 6; Idaho at Boise St., 7 p.m.; Montana at EWU, 7 p.m.