Fast Break

Junior Hockey

Chiefs extend Peters’ contract

Spokane Chiefs head coach Bill Peters signed a three-year contract extension with the team that will keep him on the bench through the 2010-11 season.

Peters is in the third year of a three-year deal that he originally signed prior to the 2005-06 season.

“He has done a great job with our team in every aspect,” said general manager Tim Speltz.

Peters is already third on the franchise’s all-time wins list with 106 through 65 games this season. The Chiefs improved from 25 wins and 58 points in his first season on the bench to 36 wins and 80 points last year.

“I think we have made great strides the past three years but, obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Peters said.

Spokane is third in the Western Conference, two points behind the Tri-City Americans and Vancouver Giants for the top spot. The Chiefs will host the Americans tonight and Chilliwack on Saturday night.

Women’s basketball

January named top defender

Briann January of Arizona State was voted the Pac-10’s inaugural winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award. The junior from Lewis and Clark High was also second-team All-Pac-10.

The 5-foot-8 guard leads the league in steals heading into the conference tournament at 2.38 per game. She also leads the Pac-10 in free-throw percentage (.866), is second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.71) and is third in assists (4.66 apg).

Katelan Redmon (Lewis and Clark) of Washington made the All-Freshman team after averaging 11.7 points a game, 14th in the Pac-10. Washington State junior Katie Appleton was an honorable mention All-Pac-10 and ASU senior Reagan Pariseau (Central Valley) was honorable mention for the All-Defensive team.

League champion Stanford dominated the awards with senior Candice Wiggins the Player of the Year for the third time, Kayla Pedersen the Freshman of the Year and Tara VanDerveer the Coach of the Year.

College basketball

Whits to play Occidental

The Whitworth University men’s basketball team will host Occidental College at 7 p.m. Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament.

The Tigers (22-5) defeated the Sagehens (15-14) of Pomona-Pitzer 52-51 in Los Angeles Thursday night in a first-round game while the Pirates received only one of five first-round byes awarded in the 59-team field. Conference player of the year Connor Whitman led Occidental with 15 points.

Occidental was the regular-season champion of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (SCIAC) with an 11-3 record. Occidental lost in the first round of the conference tournament to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps but received an at-large bid.