After a week off to celebrate the holidays, the Humboldt State women's basketball team returned to practice on Monday to begin preparation for the rest of the regular season and specifically for a pair of California Collegiate Athletic Association road matchups this weekend.

On Saturday the Lumberjacks will be in Seaside to face the Otters of Cal State Monterey Bay in a 5:30 tip-off. The next night Humboldt State plays San Francisco State in the city with a tip-off, again, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Main Gym on the Gators campus.

Live Stats
All Lumberjack basketball home games can be tracked online by using the Live Stats feature on hsujacks.com. Real time statistics, momentum tracker and other information are featured on the game viewer. The feature can be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/humboldt/wbball/.

On-the-Air
Every Lumberjack basketball game is broadcast live over the local airways on KATA, 1340 AM, beginning with the pregame show 15 minutes prior to game time.  Bicoastal Media Sports Director J.B. Mathers describes the action from Lumberjack Arena and HSU Assistant Athletic Director Dan Pambianco goes on the road with the Jacks. … Audio is also streamed live over the Internet through the hsujacks.com web site. The new UStream format allows an interactive chat between listeners during the webcast.  The specific URL for access is located at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-state-athletics.

Head-To-Head
The Lumberjacks lead the all-time series 7-1 versus Cal State Monterey Bay.  The Jacks have won the last four meetings and five of six since they joined the CCAA in the 2006-07 season.  The last meeting, last year, was a 78-56 HSU victory in Seaside.  The two sides first faced off in the 2001-02 season, a 72-43 Jacks win.  In its seven wins, HSU is averaging 79 points per game while giving up just 55 for an average margin of victory of 24 points.  The lone loss came in the 2006-07 season, a 77-67 final in Seaside. … This will be the 55th time the Jacks and SFSU have met.  The Gators hold a 30-24 lead all-time.  HSU won the last match-up, a 76-71 final in San Francisco, and has taken five of six games the teams have played as CCAA opponents.  The schools first met in 1974-75 in the NorCal Regional.  SFSU won the game 50-49 and then ran off 16 more wins over HSU before the Jacks finally broke through, a 68-62 win, in the 1984-85 season.  The Lumberjacks and Gators have been member's three conferences at the same time: The Golden State Conference, the Northern California Athletic Conference and currently the CCAA. 

Projected Starters
F - #00 Bree Halsey, 6-0, So., Fresno, Calif.
G - #21 Paige Peterson, 5-10, Sr., Moorpark, Calif.
G - #32 Andrea Bobic, 5-8, Sr., Lancaster, Calif.
G - #33 Taylor Kilgore, 5-10, Sr., Rocklin, Calif.
C - #34 Brittney Taylor, 6-0, Sr., Playa del Rey, Calif.

Lumberjack Links
Following are links to more information on the Lumberjacks basketball program

Complete Roster
Schedule
2009-10 Statistics
Complete Release in PDF Format

Lumberjack Notes  
HSU has equaled its best eight-game start (6-2 in 2006-07) in the Gleason era.  The Jacks can equal that '06-'07 team's 7-2 start with a win at Cal State Monterey Bay to open this road trip.  With its win over Sonoma State on Dec. 8, HSU has gotten off to a 4-0 start in conference.  The 4-0 start is the best for a Gleason coached team and has the Humboldt State in first place in the CCAA. ...HSU is averaging 71.6 points per game, tops in the CCAA, while outscoring opponents by 10.4 points per game and outshooting them .428 to .366 percent. ... Brittney Taylor is leading the Jacks in scoring at 18.8 ppg and is shooting .561 from the field.  Bree Halsey is the squad's top rebounder at 9.3 rpg. She is the team's second leading scorer at 10.8 ppg.  Andrea Bobic is averaging 10.1 points and leads the team in made 3-pointers (16). ... The Jacks are the top-scoring offense (71.6) in the CCAA and rank third in scoring margin (+10.4) and field goal percentage (.428). Defensively HSU is third in the conference in field goal percentage (.366).  In addition the team ranks the top half of the CCAA in 11 additional statistical categories including first in total 3-pointers made (52) and assists (131) and the Jacks rank second in blocks per game (4.3).

Cal State Monterey Bay Notes
The Otters (5-1, 2-1 CCAA) finished its pre-holiday schedule with a pair of wins.  CSUMB defeated CCAA and bay-area rival San Francisco State, 50-47, on Dec. 9.  They then traveled to Menlo College on Dec. 13 and downed the Oaks 69-65 in overtime. Its other CCAA games were a win over Cal State Stanislaus and a loss to Chico State.  Cal State Monterey Bay is led by senior forward Veronica Williams (12.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.0 spg), junior guard Michelle Santizo (10.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.2 apg) and junior forward Julie Heurung (6.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg). The Otters have scored an average of 58.5 points per game are shooting .373 from the field. … Renee Jimenez is in her second season as the head coach at Cal State Monterey Bay.  Last year she led the Otters to an 11-15 record.

San Francisco State Notes
The Gators (5-6, 1-2 CCAA) have yet to win or lose more than one game in a row.  In its last two games SFSU defeated Dominican University 62-40 ahead of a loss to No. 9 Emporia State 55-48.  In conference matchups, the Gators defeated Cal State Stanislaus between losses to Chico State and Cal State Monterey Bay.  San Francisco State is averaging 57.0 points per game while allowing 57.8 and is shooting .389 from the field.  SFSU is led by senior forward Donisha Tate (9.9 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 1.0 apg) and freshman guard Sidney Dobner (6.0 ppg, 2.2 apg, 1.8 spg). ... Joaquin Wallace is in his fifth season as head coach of the Gators.   His overall record entering this year was 36-68.

Gleason's Comments
“Coming out of the break we are looking at the conference portion of our schedule as an entirely new season.  We are really excited for what is coming up. We have had some injuries in the first part of the year, but everyone is seems to be getting healthy or healthier right now.” … “Monterey Bay is an interesting opponent.  On one hand, they have a nearly entirely new line-up and a young coach.  But on the other they play a similar style to our own.  They like to run and shoot from the perimeter, especially from 3-point range. So it is a matchup we like.” … “San Francisco State is the polar opposite of us.  They want to slow down the pace and be very methodical in what they do.  It will be a real test to see who can impose their will on the game.  Who ever does has a very good chance of winning.”