Women's Basketball | January 19, 2016
FULL NOTEBOOK (PDF)SEASIDE, Calif. — The Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team begins jockeying for playoff position as it heads up Hwy. 101 to begin the second half of its CCAA schedule. The Otters begin the week holding the No. 7 seed in the CCAA Tournament race with both Sonoma and San Francisco one game behind.
Tipoff for both games will be a 5:30 p.m. as the openers of men's/women's doubleheader action.
Corey Neal will call both nights on
OtterAthletics.com. Live stats and video will be available on
SonomaSeawolves.com and
SFStateGators.com.
SEAWOLF 3–DOT NOTES (7–11, 2–7 CCAA): The Seawolves snapped a 3–game losing streak with a 61–56 win over Chico State Saturday night…both CCAA wins have come against Chico State (0–7 vs. the rest of the league)…no Seawolf averages more the So./F Madison Burroughs at 8.1 ppg…Sr./F Hannah Sourek leads the rebounding crew at 5.6 rpg.
WHEN LAST WE MET: The Otters won 60–57 on New Year's Day in The Kelp Bed, but they had to overcome a sluggish start to the year to do it. Sonoma opened the game on an 8–0 run and still led by five at the half before the Otters got things in gear to come back. They took their first lead five minutes into the second half and took the lead for good on a
McKenna Hill jumper to end the third quarter. Hill led all scorers with 13 points.
WHEN LAST WE PLAYED: The Otters appeared ready for the upset after leading (then) No. 23 UC San Diego for the first 34 minutes Saturday night in The Kelp Bed. MB led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, but an unbelieveable 27–0 free–throw advantage for UCSD eventually wore the Otters down, allowing the Tritons to rally for a 67–57 win.
Victoria Dorn led the Otters with 19 points.
THIS DATE IN OTTER HISTORY: The last time the Otters played on Jan 22nd they took an impressive 51–38 win at Chico State on Jan. 22, 2011. The win helped propel the Otters to their first CCAA regular season title.
FREE THROWS ARE ACTUALLY QUITE COSTLY: The stat you read above wasn't a typo. The Otters actually went an entire game without shooting a free throw while UCSD marched to the line 27 times. Not surprisingly, it's the first time the Otters have ever played an entire game without shooting a free throw. In case you're wondering the foul count went againt MB 26–7 as the Otters never reached the bonus in any quarter.
CLIMBING THE SCORING HILL: McKenna Hill continued her rise up the CSUMB career scoring chart by moving up to the number seven spot last weekend. She passed Jessica Fontenette (590 from 2010–13) last weekend and now sits at 593 points. She enters Friday's game trailing Helen Suarez (616 points from 2009–10) by 23 points for sixth place.
ON THE REBOUND: McKenna Hill is also making her way up the Otter career rebounding chart, entering the week at No. 6 on that list with 345. She needs 71 rebounds to catch Julie Heurung (416 from 2010–11) for fifth place.
Jazmine Johnson also broke into the Top 10, with her 11 rebounds Saturday versus UC San Diego giving her 279 for her career.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB: By grabbing a career–high 11 rebounds at Cal State San Marcos on Jan. 9,
Courtney Keaton became the fourth Otter player to reach double figures in rebounds this season. She forms that quartet with
Rachel Amerine,
McKenna Hill and
Jazmine Johnson.
THE DOUBLE–DOUBLE TRIPLETS: McKenna Hill joined what is becoming a crowded club against Cal Poly Pomona (Dec. 13) by becoming the third Otter this season to post a double–double (11 points/12 rebounds).
Rachel Amerine (vs. NDNU) and
Jazmine Johnson (vs. Western Oregon) are the club's other members.
'TIS BETTER TO GIVE: Stephanie Sack's assist pace has slowed over the past two weeks, but it's still at a record–setting pace. She begins the week ranked No. 3 the CCAA at 4.4 assists per game. With 11 games remaining in the regular season, her 71 dimes already rank No. 9 on the Otter season list. At her current pace she will finish with 119 assists. The Otter record is 119 set by Helen Suarez in 2009.
THE DEFENSE DOESN'T REST: After allowing just 69.4 points per game last season, the Otters are up to their old defensive tricks again by allowing 63.9 ppg through the first 16 games. The Otters have held their opponents under 70 points per game for seven consecutive seasons.
WORKING OVERTIME: With their 53–52 overtime win at Fresno Pacific on Nov. 24, the Otters improved to 6–3 in overtime games at the NCAA level. CSUMB has played only two Division II seasons (2006 & 2012) without playing at least one overtime game.
70 IS THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING: With apologies to Douglas Adams, the answer to everything isn't 42, it's 70. CSUMB is now 35–4 when scoring 70 or more points since the 2008–09 season. Up that number to 80 points and the numbers get even more impressive. The Otters have won 16 consecutive games when scoring at least 80 points dating back to the 2005–06 season.
GO OTTERS!
