Riverside—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team will travel to Spokane, WA to face the Gonzaga Bulldogs Thursday, March 17 in the first round of the 2016 WNIT in a 6 pm PT tip-off.
The Highlanders (23-8) won the Big West regular season title after going a perfect 16-0 in conference play, but were upset in Big West tournament semifinals by UC Davis. UCR was awarded one of the 32 automatic qualifying spots in the WNIT by virtue of their Big West Conference regular season finish. This is third WNIT appearance in school history. The Highlanders suffered losses in the previous two showings— at Creighton in 2009 and at Colorado in 2011. (
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Head Coach John Margaritis was named Coach of the Year for the second time in his career after finishing the final eight games of the regular season with just seven players available. In those games UCR won by an average of 20.1 points a game to claim their first title since the 2006-07 season.
As a team, UCR is 4th in the nation in assists per game, 9th in field goal percentage, 12th in scoring offense, and 17th in three-point field goal percentage. On the defensive end of the floor they are averaging 10.1 steals a game, good enough for 26th in the country.
Brittany Crain, the only player in Big West history to lead the conference in scoring for three straight years, was named Player of the Year for the second year in a row. Crain is eighth in the nation in scoring at 22.8 points per game, 12th in field goals made, her 81 made threes are tied for 33rd, and she is 46th in three-point field goal percentage at 39.7.
First Team All-Conference Selection Rejane Verin is averaging 17.0 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. Her 2.65 steals per game rank 27th in the nation and the 12 double doubles she has tallied this season are 42nd. Simone DeCoud was named to the Big West All Conference Second Team, and averaged 15 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 steals over the last seven games of conference play.
Gonzaga (18-13, 10-8) is a member of the West Coast Conference, where they finished fifth and were eliminated in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament. The Zags lost three of their last four conference games before falling in a nail biter to Santa Clara in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament, 59-58. They were one of three WCC teams (San Diego, Santa Clara) to receive an at-large berth to the WNIT.
The Zags have enjoyed a 7.8 rebound margin this season, which ranks 22nd in the nation.
They were first in the WCC, limiting opponents to 57.7 points and second holding opponents to 37 percent from the field. They have gone 71 straight games without allowing an opponent to shoot 50 percent from the field.Offensively, Gonzaga has turned the ball over an average of 16.2 times a game, while dishing out 12.9 assists per showing as a team.
Jill Barta comes off the bench and leads the team in scoring at 13.7 points a game. Elle Tinkle joins Barta in double figures at 10.5 points per contest, and Shelby Chelsek is the team's leading rebounder, nearly averaging a double double at 9.8 points and 8.6 rebounds a game.
The Highlander and Bulldogs share three common opponents-Grand Canyon University (UCR-W, GU-W), Loyola Marymount (UCR-W, GU-W2x), and San Francisco (UCR-L, GU-W/L).
UCR is 1-7 all-time against Gonzaga, and have lost three in a row. The most recent meeting between the clubs was on December 16, 2013 in Spokane, won by the Zags, 87-43. The Highlanders victory came in neutral site meeting in Tempe, AZ in 2007. (
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Thursday's match-up is the first between the schools in the postseason. (
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