Hartill starts senior year on strong note
New Mexico is shooting for its eighth straight trip to the NCAA tournament under Don Flanagan, which means Riverside grad Angela Hartill could make it a career of going to the dance.
Flanagan’s take on the 6-foot-3 post who averaged 6.4 points and 3.0 rebounds last season: “a player that comes into her own her senior year. She’s always been in the shadows. She has an inside-outside game, which makes her unique, hard to defend.”
She proved that by being named MVP in the Lobos’ season-opening, three-game tournament. She scored a career-high 20 in the second game, an 82-47 win over Idaho State, and 17 in the third, a 68-66 win over DePaul.
Hartill is joined by guard Nikki Nelson of Chewelah, whose collegiate debut was delayed a year by a knee injury.
Flanagan said, “She’s a point guard we have a lot of confidence in. We like what Nikki brings. She’s an outside shooter with quickness, a good leader.”
Nelson had 10 points in the season opener, a 94-38 win over Alcorn.
The Lobos play at Stanford on Thursday.
Local watch
Angie Bjorklund (University), the SEC freshman of the year, has yet to play for Tennessee because of a back injury that leaves her day to day. The sophomore is second in seniority for the Lady Vols and represented the school at the SEC media day, an honor that eluded former superstar teammate Candace Parker, who left after her junior year of eligibility with four other seniors. … Brittany Kennedy (Lewis and Clark) scored four points and had three rebounds and three steals in 22 minutes in her collegiate debut as Oregon State swamped Sacramento State 100-45. In that game, Beavers sophomore Talisa Rhea set a Pac-10 record by hitting 10 3s, en route to 42 points. … Sophomore post Kelli Valentine (Mead) had her first double-double (14 points, 13 rebounds) in Portland State’s season-opening, 74-64 win over BYU. … Sophomore Tara Cronin (Gonzaga Prep) also opened with a double-double (11-10) in Portland’s 64-51 win over Utah State. … Briann January (LC) enters her senior season at Arizona State sixth in assists with 371, 70 short of matching the school record. The Pac-10 defender of the year and all-league player had 22 points and 15 assists in two wins in the preseason WNIT. … Another ex-Tiger, sophomore Lyndi Seidensticker, is starting at Montana State, which plays at Gonzaga on Friday and at Washington State on Sunday, the Cougars’ home opener. … GU is also home tonight against Utah Valley State, which whipped the visiting Zags 94-73 last season. … Heather Bowman, the reigning WCC MVP, returned to the Gonzaga lineup in Sunday’s win at Washington, two weeks after elbow surgery and a week sooner than expected.
Tip-ins
Eastern has its home opener Friday against San Francisco. Central Valley grad Heidi Heintz, who started 29 of 30 games for USF last season and made the All-WCC freshman team the year before, has transferred to UC Davis, the team GU beat at McCarthey in the WNIT last year. … Whitworth opens with three straight games in Hawaii beginning Thursday. Community Colleges of Spokane is at the Shoreline tournament in Seattle Friday and Saturday. … Idaho assistant Christa (Brossman) Sanford is loyal to Vandals coach Jon Newlee. She originally went to Hawaii, where Newlee was an assistant, after being named the Washington 2A player of the year for Pullman. She followed Newlee to Idaho State when he became head coach, graduating in 2004 and getting her masters in 2006. … Former Gonzaga assistant Jennifer Mountain picked J.R. Payne to be one of her assistants at Santa Clara. Payne was an assistant at Gonzaga before going to Arizona and Boise State.
•The closest women’s NCAA tournament site is Seattle for first- and second-round games, March 21-23, a Saturday-Monday set. … Gonzaga, predicted to win the West Coast Conference, makes the early bracketology field, as a 13-seed in the Oklahoma City Regional, playing Vanderbilt at Notre Dame. … Other regionals are Trenton, N.J., Berkeley, Calif., and Raleigh, N.C. … The Pac-10 is projected to get four berths, Stanford (one-seed), California (two-seed), Arizona State (four-seed) and Southern Cal (nine-seed). … From the other area leagues, Montana (Big Sky) and Boise State (Western Athletic) are the projected champions.