Tied with three other teams at the bottom of the California Collegiate Athletic Association, the Cal State Monterey women's basketball team has an opportunity to climb in the standings this weekend with two games against conference opponents, Sonoma State and Humboldt State.
Sonoma State comes to town on Friday with a record the exact opposite of CSUMB's — 3-1 in conference, as opposed to the Otters' 1-3, and 9-2 overall, where the Otters are 2-9. The Seawolves are tied for second in the conference with Chico State.
Sonoma is led by 5-10 senior guard Danae Wellander, who is the top scorer (15.3 per game), top rebounder (7.3) and leads the squad in assists with 3.5 per game. Her backcourt mate, 5-7 senior Chelsey Armacost is second in scoring with 11.1 points per game and is the team's most accurate three-point shooter, hitting 9 of 17. The most prolific outside shooter is Lauren Redfield, who has shot 51 three-pointer and made 43.1 percent of them.
The team's tallest player is 6-1 Heidi Mertle. She averages 5.8 rebounds along with 3.4 points per game. Guard Genny Anderson, 6-feet tall, averages 6.5 rebounds per game. As a team, the Seawolves have +3.3 average rebounding margin over their opponents. That margin looks like the biggest factor in their +6.7 scoring margin, 60.1 points to their opponents' 53.5 per game. The team also spends a great deal of more time at the free throw line than its opponents. Sonoma has had 233 free throw opportunities compared to its opponents 149. The Seawolves have sunk 66.5 percent of those.
Head coach Mark Rigby is in his 11th season at the school and is the winningest coach in SSU women's basketball history with an impressive 173-113 record.
HSU head coach Joddie Gleason has been at the school since 2004. She brings a squad on a hot streak. The Lady Lumberjacks, 6-5 overall and 2-2 in conference, have won four of their last five games, including a 70-52 victory over UC San Diego on Saturday.
Junior guard/forward Katie Franci (5-9) leads the team in scoring with 13.3 per game and rebounds with 7.3. Jennifer Enos, a 5-4 guard, is also averaging 13.3 points per game and is the team's most effective outside shooter, sinking 32 of 70 three-pointers for a 45.7 percent clip. Enos has fouled out twice this season. The Lumberjacks have outscored their competition by an average of 76.4 to 66.5 primarily by winning the battle of the boards with a +2.1 rebounding margin, holding their opponents to 41.4 percent shooting while converting 43.8 percent of their own shots, and, most importantly, a turnover margin of +3.3.
CSUMB will have to play well to defeat these conference rivals. Leading scorer
Dana Andrews (18.5 points per game) will have to shoot well and Ja'Nae Westmoreland, the team's top rebounder with 7.2 per game, will have to do well on the boards. Point guard
Alma Lopez is averaging 4.1 assists and 10.5 points a game. Lopez has had some spectacular games (21 points in a victory against Cal Baptist) and will also need to play well for the Otters to win.
Both the Friday and Saturday game tip off at 5:30 p.m. inside the Otter Sports Center.
