Jan. 2, 2007

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Lutes Face Two Key NWC Contests

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran hosts Puget Sound, Wednesday, 6 p.m.; PLU at Lewis & Clark, Friday, 6 p.m.

TWO TOUGHIES: This week, Pacific Lutheran faces two Northwest Conference opponents who have their sights set on dethroning the defending conference champion Lutes. On Wednesday, PLU hosts the Puget Sound Loggers at 6 p.m., and on Friday it travels to Portland to battle the Lewis & Clark Pioneers, also at 6 p.m. PLU was picked to successfully defend its title in the preseason coaches poll, followed by UPS and Lewis & Clark, both of which received a first-place vote. Last year, the Lutes won the conference championship with a 14-2 record. Wondering about the two losses? The Lutes lost at Lewis & Clark and to Puget Sound at home. PLU gets both of those teams in the same venues within three days this week.

ABOUT PUGET SOUND: The Loggers feature a deep team (nine players average at least 14 minutes per game) with a balanced scoring attack. Only junior guard Laura Hirsh (10.0 points per game) averages in double figures, and five different players have led the Loggers in scoring in their 11 games this season. UPS enters Wednesday’s contest at 8-3 overall and 1-1 in the Northwest Conference. In Northwest Conference play this season, the Loggers beat Willamette (60-47) and lost to George Fox (58-50). The Loggers average nearly seven rebounds more per game than their opponents, and they have limited those 11 teams to 38 percent shooting this season. Besides Hirsh, the Loggers get leadership from senior guard Shelby Ramirez (9.3 ppg), sophomore guard Allison Craven (9.2 ppg) and sophomore post Karen Chase (7.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg). The Lutes and Loggers have played their share of consequential games in recent years. Last season, for instance, the teams split during the regular season (the Lutes winning 73-65 at UPS and the Loggers returning the favor, 61-49, at PLU) before the Lutes beat the Loggers in the conference tournament (69-55 at PLU) and in the NCAA tournament (62-50 at PLU).

ABOUT LEWIS & CLARK: Twins Shawna and Crystal Castle are double trouble for Pioneer opponents, and they get excellent support from Allison Farr. Crystal Castle leads L&C in scoring (14.3 average), followed by Farr (10.4) and Shawna Castle (8.9). In addition, Crystal tops the team in rebounding (6.5 per game). The Pioneers, winners of five straight, are 7-4 overall, though they have started conference play with losses at Whitman and Whitworth.

LUTES BEAT CONCORDIA: Senior wing Nikki Johnson (Tenino, Wash. / Centralia CC) scored 23 points and junior wing Kyle Haag (Tumwater, Wash. / CSU- Pueblo) finished with a PLU career-high 17 points to lead the Lutes to a 64-41 non-conference women's basketball victory over Concordia in Cavalier Gymnasium on Dec. 27. The Lutes scored the first seven points of the game and eventually built an early 11-point advantage, 14-3, with Haag hitting two of her five three-point field goals during the run. After that, the Lutes never led by less than seven points for the remainder of the game. Johnson hit 9-of-15 shots from the field on the way to leading the Lutes in scoring for the eighth time in nine games this season. Haag was 5-of-13 from three-point range, while a sophomore point guard Trinity Gibbons (Riddle, Ore. / Riddle HS) finished with 10 assists.

THE CLASSIC THAT WASN’T: The plan was for a four-team, four-game tournament on Dec. 29-30 at Pacific Lutheran. But the best laid plans of mice and women’s basketball coaches sometimes don’t fly. Because Wisconsin-Oshkosh couldn’t fly, the PLU Classic basically also didn’t fly. PLU head coach Gil Rigell had planned a four-team event including George Fox (Oregon), Thompson Rivers (Canada) and Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Heavy snow in Denver, the transit point for Oshkosh’s flight, forced the Wisconsin team to abandon its travel plans. With no Oshkosh, that left only one game each night, and both of those games were exhibitions. On Friday, George Fox beat Thompson Rivers, 74-50, and on Saturday the Lutes beat the Canadian school, 57-40. The games were exhibitions because Thompson Rivers plays a predominantly Canadian schedule. Plans went ahead to name an all-tournament team, and PLU’s Nikki Johnson was the MVP after scoring 14 points against Thompson Rivers. PLU senior post Kezia Long (Federal Way, Wash. / Thomas Jefferson HS) and sophomore wing Abby McHugh (Centralia, Wash. / Centralia HS) earned all-tournament honors, as did Robin Taylor and Melissa Marek-Farris from George Fox and Sarah Cameron from TRU.

RIGELL CLOSES IN ON 200 WINS: PLU head coach Gil Rigell is fast closing in on his 200th career coaching victory. In only his 10th season, Rigell needs just 10 more wins to reach 200. Easily the winningest coach in PLU women’s basketball history, Rigell has a 190-61 record (.757 winning percentage).

LUTES BACK AT NO. 25: The Lutes are back at No. 25 in the d3hoops.com women's poll. PLU had been ranked as high as No. 16 in the poll this year, but the Lutes have held the No. 25 spot for three of the five weeks this season, including the last two weeks.

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