WBB Preview: Sacramento State, at Weber State
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Northern Colorado Notes | Sacramento State Notes | Weber State Notes | Big Sky Conference Notes
Rare Split
For the only time this year in conference play, the Bears will play one home game and one road game during the week. The team hosts Sacramento State on Thursday at 7:05 pm before traveling to Weber State on Saturday for a 2:05 matinee. Both opponents are looking for their first conference wins of the season.
Last Time Out
Eastern Washington made a late run, but Northern Colorado hung tough in an extremely physical game to win 75-68 on Saturday. The Bears made 13 of their final 14 free throws over the final five minutes of the game to improve to 3-1 in the Big Sky for just the second time in school history. A three-pointer by EWU senior Tatjana Sparavalo with 5:02 remaining in the game cut the Bears lead to five, 57-52, but senior guard Courtney Stoermer answered with a three-pointer of her own and free throws stretched the lead back to 13, 67-54 with 2:09 on the clock. Stoermer led the team with a season-high 17 points and a season-best seven assists. Three other players were in double figures in scoring for the Bears as freshman forward Kim Lockridge came off the bench to score 15, Oosdyke scored 15 and Brown tallied the first double-double of her career with 11 points and 10 rebounds, tying her career-best in boards from Thursday evening's win over Portland State.
NC vs Sacramento State
The Bears have dropped four straight games to the Hornets, last winning on March 3, 2008. The two teams have only played since Northern Colorado joined the Big Sky Conference and both NC wins in the series have happened in Greeley as the Bears are 2-6 all-time against the Hornets. Last year when the two squads met in Greeley it was a fast-paced high-scoring affair with SAC squeaking out a 93-89 win.
NC vs Weber State
Northern Colorado has played Weber State more than any other Big Sky Conference team, as Saturday marks the 18th game in the all-time series. The next longest is 12 games against Northern Arizona. The Bears are 8-9 all-time against the Wildcats with the two teams splitting the regular season meetings in each of the previous three years. NC is 3-5 in Ogden, last winning at WSU on Jan. 5, 2008.
Scouting Sacramento State
Probable Starters:F-24 Kylie Kuhns (15.3 ppg, 12.2 rpg); C-44 Natasha Torgerson (7.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg); G-1 Tika Koshiyama-Diaz (7.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg); G-3 Sami Field-Polisso (8.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg); G-10 Jasmine Cannady (8.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg).
• The Hornets are 3-14 on the year with a 0-4 mark in Big Sky play. They are 2-6 at home, 1-6 on the road and 0-2 in neutral games in 2010-11.
• Kylie Kuhns leads the team and the Big Sky with 12.2 rebounds per game, which is fourth amongst Division I players and she's third in the league with 15.3 points per game. She's the only Hornet averaging double figures in points.
• Sacramento State leads the Big Sky in scoring offense (71.2), which is 46th in the nation. The Hornets are also ninth in the country in three-pointers per game (8.1) and 15th in assists (17.6). Individually, Tika Koshiyama-Diaz ranks 19th in the country with 5.8 assists a contest.
• A fast-paced affair in the last meeting led to a 93-89 win for Sacramento State. The Bears were led by Whitley Cox with 31 points, while Lauren Oosdyke scored 11 and had a team-best seven rebounds. Courtney Stoermer also had 10 points and five steals. For the Hornets, Emily Christensen led five players in double figures with 26 points, while Tika Koshiyama-Diaz had 16 points and a game-high eight assists.
Scouting Weber State
Probable Starters:F-15 Caitlin Anderson (13.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg); F-25 Mariah Metoyer (5.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg); C-22 Mikell Woodfield (5.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg); G-2 Justine Johnson (4.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg); G-21 Megan Patterson (12.9 ppg, 2.6 rpg).
• The Wildcats are 4-11 on the year with a 0-3 conference record. They are 2-7 at home, 1-3 on the road and 1-1 in neutral games this season.
• Two Wildcats average double figures in scoring, led by Caitlin Anderson (13.3) and Megan Patterson (12.9). Anderson also leads the club with 5.9 rebounds a contest.
• Weber State is the top rebounding defensive team, allowing opponents just 36.3 per game. The Wildcats also rank 15th in the nation in free throw percentage (76.2). Individually, Megan Patterson is making a league-best 2.7 three-pointers per game.
• In the last meeting, a 75-68 win for the Bears, Whitley Cox led all players with 30 points, while Lauren Oosdyke had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Tonya Schnibbe led WSU with 19 points and Caitlin Anderson scored 13 and had seven boards.
On This Date
• In games played on January 20, the Bears are 4-5 all-time. The team is 1-0 in its only Big Sky game, defeating Eastern Washington in 2007. All four wins have come inside Butler-Hancock with a 4-3 mark at home and 0-2 on the road.
• In games on the 22nd Northern Colorado is also 4-5. The lone Big Sky game was an 88-82 overtime victory over Montana State in 2009. All-time the Bears are 2-2 at home and 2-3 on the road and they have won their last two inside Butler-Hancock.
What An Honor
Lauren Oosdyke has been named the Big Sky Player of the Week for games played the week of Jan. 10. This is the first weekly award this season for the sophomore. Oosdyke helped lead the Bears to a pair of conference wins over Eastern Washington and Portland State. On Thursday against Portland State, Oosdyke scored a career-high 28 points. Her point total the most for the Bears since Whitley Cox scored 31 against Sacramento State on Feb. 27, 2010. Oosdyke then poured in 15 points against Eastern Washington on Saturday including 10 from the free-throw line. She was perfect from the line (6-6) in the final three minutes to help the Bears ice the game. Along with the scoring, Oosdyke had two assists and four steals to go along with five rebounds. For the week, Oosdyke averaged 21.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 1.5 assists per game, while shooting .545 from the field (12-22) and .850 from the free-throw line (17-20). She also surpassed the 500-point milestone for her career against the Vikings and now has 531.
Streaking Through Butler
The Bears have now won seven straight games at Butler-Hancock, the longest winning streak since the team won nine straight between Feb. 16, 2001 and Jan. 18, 2002 and the sixth-longest streak in school history.
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1. |
16 |
Feb. 15, 1997 - Feb. 21,1998 |
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2. |
11 |
Dec. 4, 1985 - Nov. 29, 1986 |
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3. |
9 |
Feb. 16, 2001 - Jan. 18, 2002 |
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|
|
March 1, 1996 - Jan. 24, 1997 |
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5. |
8 |
Feb. 25, 1994 - Dec. 31, 1994 |
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6. |
7 |
Nov. 14, 2010 - current |
On Pace
Senior guard Courtney Stoermer is averaging 1.35 three-pointers per game in her final season. If she remains on that pace, the Bears have at least 12 games remaining this season which would give her 175 triples in her career. The mark would establish a new all-time record at Northern Colorado, breaking the current career record of 173 treys by Missy McVoy (1994-98).
Theft Ring Exposed
Northern Colorado currently has three players on the team with more than 30 steals on the year as Victoria Timm has 40, D'shara Strange 39 and Lauren Oosdyke 37. If Strange and Oosdyke both reach the 40 steal plateau, which they should do this weekend, it will be the first time since the 2002-03 season the Bears have three players with 40 or more steals in a season. That team finished with a 12-16 overall record and Jill Fadenrecht (49), Kristi Held (45) and Missy Borell (43) led in steals.
Seeing Purple
Last year, Lauren Oosdyke averaged a double-double against Weber State with 15.0 points and 10.0 rebounds. She also averages 2.0 steals, while shooting .474 from the field and .667 (12-18) from the free throw line against the Wildcats.
It's A Numbers Game
Northern Colorado has had at least one player score 15 or more points in the last six games and in 13 of 17 games this season. The Bears have also had someone record double figures in rebounding in six games and Kaisha Brown has done so in the last two.
Marking Up The Books
On Saturday against Eastern Washington, senior guard Courtney Stoermer entrenched herself even further in the school's record books. Her seven assists - which tied for a season best - moved her into second all-time with 367 assists, passing Jenny Gallagher (1994-97) with 361. Stoermer's two steals gave her 189 for her career, which ties the all-time record by Renee L'Heureux (1981-85). It was also the 106th start of Stoermer's career, which is tied for second all-time.
She's G-Double O-D, Good
In each of the last five games, sophomore forward Lauren Oosdyke has scored at least 15 points and has raised her scoring average three whole points from 10.8 on Dec. 20 to 13.8 on Jan. 15. During the five game stretch, she has averaged 21.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.0 assists per game, while shooting .536 (30-56) from the field, .714 (5-7) from the three-point line and .769 (40-52) from the free throw line.
Locking Down The League
Forward Kim Lockridge picked the best time of year to be playing the best basketball of her career. With double figures in the scoring column in three of the team's four Big Sky games, Lockridge is the top scoring freshman in conference contests, averaging 12.0 per game. She ranks 17th overall and is second in field goal percentage, connecting on 60 percent of her shots (21-35).
Countdown Is On
Earlier this season, head coach Jaime White won her 50th game at Northern Colorado, doing so with a 57-53 overtime victory against Colgate. With six more wins, White will move into fourth on the all-time wins list.
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1. |
82 |
Janet Schafer (1985-92) |
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2. |
75 |
Gary Schwartz (1992-97) |
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3. |
67 |
Ron Vlasin (2001-06) |
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4. |
58 |
Greg Bruce (1997-00) |
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5. |
53 |
Jaime White (2006-present) |
Painting The Town
Northern Colorado holds a 514-406 advantage in points in the paint this season. The Bears are averaging 30.2 points per game in the paint, while the opposition is getting just 23.9 per contest. In each of the last nine games, the Bears have tallied at least 24 in the paint and in four games this year the team has scored 40 or more.
Milestone Watch
Several Bears are approaching career milestones. Three are closing in on 150 rebounds as Victoria Timm needs one, Brittany Fernandez needs seven and Jayne Strand needs 11. Senior Lara Merritt is also just 15 points shy of 300 for her career and Courtney Stoermer is 11 steals from 200.
Good Things Happen
When scoring at least 70 points under Coach Jaime White, Northern Colorado has a record of 33-8, including a 5-2 mark in 2010-11. A year ago, the Bears went 8-2 when putting at least 70 on the scoreboard.
Picked Eighth
The Bears were picked to finish eighth in the Big Sky preseason polls voted on by both the coaches and media. Montana was picked to win the title by both groups, while Eastern Washington, Portland State and Montana State are in the top four, respectively.
Time Invested
Senior guard Courtney Stoermer broke the Northern Colorado all-time record for career minutes played in just the second game of her senior season. Stoermer has now played 3,834 minutes in 107 games, breaking the previous record of 3,256 minutes by Shelley Lindstrom (1988-92). Stoermer averages 35.8 minutes per game through her career and has played 40 or more minutes in 32 games. She is playing 34.7 minutes per game in 2010-11, the lowest average of her career, but still the highest average in the Big Sky this season.
Going Streaking
Northern Colorado has now made at least one three-pointer in 285 consecutive games, dating all the way back to Jan. 20, 2001 at South Dakota State.
