Teams open conference action

Women’s basketball starts its second season this weekend when three of the four area Division I teams begin conference play.

The only preliminary remaining is St. Joseph’s visit to Gonzaga on Friday. The Bulldogs beat the Hawks (7-6) in Philadelphia last year, 67-43.

Washington State and Idaho start with rivalry games on Saturday. The Cougars (7-4) are at Washington 4-6 for a Pac-10 opener at 1 p.m. in a game on FSN. Boise State (7-7) is at Idaho (3-8) at 2 p.m. and then Utah State (6-5) comes in Monday to start Western Athletic Conference play.

Eastern Washington (5-8) opens Big Sky Conference play at home against the two teams with the worst non-conference records. On Friday, the Eagles play Ferris grad Jenna Galloway and Northern Arizona (3-10) on Friday, then Sacramento State (2-10) on Sunday afternoon.

Whitworth ends a three-week break with home conference games against George Fox on Friday and Pacific on Saturday, both at 6 p.m. … CCS takes a week off. NIC is in Arizona for the Yavapai tournament.

Tip-ins

Pac-10 teams are 4-13 against ranked teams. … WSU was picked ninth by coaches and 10th by the media in preseason polls. … USC and UW are sites for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and California is home for a Sweet 16. … Cougars Jazmine Perkins and Rosie Tarnowski are the top freshmen in the Pac-10 in scoring (14.9) and rebounding (6.5), respectively, fourth and ninth overall.