ARCATA — Following a week-long holiday break, the Humboldt State women's basketball team resumes California Collegiate Athletic Association play, hosting San Francisco State University on Friday and Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday. Both games have a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.

On-the-Air: All Lumberjack basketball games are broadcast live locally on KATA, 1340 AM, the North Coast's ESPN radio affiliate. Webcasts are also available for out-of-area listeners, accessed through the Humboldt State Athletics site at hsujacks.com. …Bicoastal Media Sports Director J.B. Mathers is back for another year of bring home the action from courtside for all home contests. He'll be joined by Humboldt State Athletics Hall-of-Famer Burt Nordstrom. On the road, Assistant Athletic Director Dan Pambianco provides play-by-play. All broadcasts begin 15 minutes prior to game time with the pregame show.

Live Stats: Follow the action from your home computer by accessing the Live Stats feature on hsujacks.com. Home games are linked at http://livestats.internetconsult.com/humboldt/wbball/. 

Lumberjacks Notes: Before taking their holiday break, the Lumberjacks defeated the Academy of Art Urban Knights, 90-38, improving their overall record to 6-3. Bree Halsey registered her second collegiate double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Taylor Kilgore stepped up and compiled a .750 percent behind the arc (3-4) to contribute to her team-high of 13 points. …"The week-long break is a chance for the players to travel home, be with family, and take a well deserved break after a tough stretch of school and basketball," HSU assistant coach Skip Gleason said.  "It also gives the players a chance to reflect on the preseason portion of the schedule and focus on the conference play ahead.  The players returned back for two great days of practice already and with a few more practices ahead before the weekend, there should be no problem for us to hit the court full speed."…The Jacks enter this weekend's games with a 1-1 CCAA mark. Katie Franci continues to lead the team, averaging 14.7 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game. Brittney Taylor averages 14.0 ppg and is third on the team with 6.1 rebounds per game, just behind Halsey's 7.0 average. As a team, the Jacks are shooting .459 percent from the field and .342 percent behind the arc, while they hold their opponents to a .373 and .282 percentage from the field and three-point range, respectively. …HSU has increased it's scoring margin to +17.1 and rebound margin to +9.0 and is averaging 9.3 steals per game.

Opponent's Notes: San Francisco State resumes play this weekend with a 7-2 overall and 1-1 league marks, after just barely defeating Academy of Art 59-57, Monday night. The Gators recorded their second win over Central Washingon this season on Dec. 12, a 52-36 decision. …SF State recorded it's lone CCAA win over Cal State Stanislaus, 57-53, and then fell to Chico State the following night, 51-49. …The Gators are averaging 56.9 points per game with a +6.8 scoring margin and are averaging 41.9 rebounds per game with a +5.3 rebounding margin. Desiree Butler leads the team, averaging 8.3 points per game, while ZaLisha Oliver and Krystle Mays follow closely behind with 7.4 ppg each. Mays averages a team-high with 6.2 rebounds per game, as Dominque Hunter contributes 5.6 rpg. …Cal State Monterey Bay holds a 6-2 overall mark and is 1-1 in league play. The Otters defeated Chico State in their CCAA season-opening game 50-46, but then fell to Cal State Stanislaus 85-79 the next night. CSU Monterey Bay comes into this weekend's games off of an 83-52 win over non-conference foe William Jessup, Dec. 13. …Dana Andrews, sister of former HSU player Haley Andrews, averages a team-high 17.0 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game, while Janet Oseguera ties Andrews in rebounds per game. Helen Suarez is also averaging in double digits with 13.3 ppg. Suarez and Andrews lead the team with a total of 18 and 13 steals, respectively. Andrews contributes to the team's .331 three-point percentage with a .412 percent from behind the arc (21-51) and the team's .739 percentage at the line registering a .838 percent from the free throw line (31-37). The Otters are posting a +5.1 scoring margin and +3.5 rebounding margin.

Head-to-Head: HSU leads CSUMB 5-1 in the all-time series record. The Lumberjacks defeated the Otters in their last meeting, 85-54. …The Jacks hold a 22-27 all-time series record against the Gators. Last season HSU split the two team's meetings, with the Jacks taking the first meeting, 49-43 and then falling to the Gators, 76-65 later on in the season.

Gleason's Comments: With head coach Joddie Gleason out of town on personal business, assistant coach Skip Gleason offered the following. "The main focus is making sure that we are crisp with our own execution.  We want to make sure that our timing and tempo is right on the offensive end, and that we have had plenty of repetitions in practice so that we can finish the play with the score.  On the defensive end it will be all about making sure everyone is back on the same page with our defensive philosophy and principles.  Communication, rotations and intensity, finished by the block out and rebound will be very important for this weekends games, and will be the focus in practice this week." …
"Both of this weeks opponents are off to strong starts and have high expectations.  San Francisco is a very athletic, defensive oriented team that rebounds well at both ends of the court.  Taking care of the ball offensively and keeping them off the glass are important factors to keep them from scoring.  We want to force them to take contested shots at the offensive end and then we have to finish the job with the rebounds." …"Monterey Bay is also off to a strong start to the season.  They look to get up and down the court a little bit more than San Francisco and would expect to see a higher scoring game the second night.  Containing their point guard Helen Suarez will be important as she does a nice job of creating for her teammates and creating for herself.  As important will be the way we handle Dana Andrews, who can score from all the different places on the court."