Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics

Top scoreboard

CAL POLY HUMBOLDT ATHLETICS
VISIT THE UNIVERSITY SITE
Patrice Saindon dribbles
Evan Wisheropp

Women's Basketball Sammi Sheppard, Assistant Sports Information Director

Busy and exciting week for Lumberjacks

ARCATA – Two important home games and a fun-filled fundraiser are keeping Humboldt State busy this week. On Tuesday, the Jacks host their annual Free Throw Frenzy Fundraiser Shooting Night before jumping back into competition on Thursday and Saturday.

First the Jacks host Cal State Dominguez Hills on Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. Saturday's game against Cal State Los Angeles is the Play 4Kay night, dedicated to spreading awareness to breast cancer, also with a 5:30 tipoff time.

UC San Diego is the first team to secure a bid in the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament after posting an impressive 22-0 record, 16-0 in conference play. The Jacks currently sit in the fifth spot, just one game behind Cal State L.A., with a 10-6 conference record (14-6 overall). The Golden Eagles stand at 11-5 against CCAA opponents, 13-7 overall, while Cal State Dominguez Hills rounds out the conference leaders at 3-20 overall, 2-14 in conference action.

Head-to-Head
Earlier this season, the Jacks beat the Torros 65-60 in Carson, but fell 57-71 to the Golden Eagles in Los Angeles. In the all-time series against CSUDH, Humboldt State leads 10-7. HSU also holds the upper hand in the overall series against CSULA 10-5.

Multimedia
Every Lumberjack basketball game is broadcast live over the local airwaves on KATA 1340 AM, beginning with the pre-game shoe 15 minutes prior to game time. Bicoastal Media Sports Director J.B. Mathers describes the action from courtside. Fans can follow the action live on the hsujacks.com website via the Jacks' ustream account at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-state-athletics where a video feed will be shown along with Mathers' play-by-play. Live stats can also be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/humboldt/wbball/.

Free Throw Frenzy
The Free Throw Frenzy is an annual fundraiser the Jacks put on every spring where Women's Basketball boosters work hard to raise funds for the program. Boosters captain a team comprised of two student-athletes and five other shooters who compete in the Shooting Night—there can be more people on each team helping raise money, but only seven team members can shoot. This year's Shooting Night will be on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m. in Lumberjack Arena. Prizes will be awarded to non-student-athletes for highest shooting percentage, most free throw made, and more. Each team shoots three 10-minute rounds, trying to make the most baskets in that period of time. There will also be other types of competitions during the night, as well as food donated from Wildberries, Big Pete's Pizza and Pepsi.

Play 4Kay Night
Each year, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association designates an organization to raise funds for spreading breast cancer awareness. According to the Play 4Kay website, the night "is an opportunity for a nation of coaches to raise breast cancer awareness and funds for research on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The official charity is the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in partnership with The V Foundation and WBCA. The late Kay Yow, former NC State University head women's basketball coach, served as the catalyst for Play 4Kay after her third recurrence of breast cancer in 2006. Yow was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and passed away on January 24, 2009."

"It hits home for me personally because I lost a cousin to breast cancer at an early age," said head coach Joddie Gleason. "I also have a friend who's battling the disease but is in remission. The cause is important and we're trying to spread awareness and raise money to help."

Fans are encouraged to wear pink to Saturday's game and can help contribute to the Lumberjacks' donation by visiting: http://bit.ly/play4kayhsu. HSU's goal is to raise $1,000 and as of Feb. 6, the Jacks have raised $175.

Lumberjack Notes
Last week, the Jacks lost to Cal State East Bay with only Kayla Williams scoring in double figures. The team turned it around Saturday against Cal State Monterey Bay and played what Gleason thought was the Jacks' best second-half performance.

"The team did such a good job of learning our scout, focusing for the game in a day and a half and transferring it over to the game and executing our defense," said Gleason. "We really got CSUMB out of what they wanted to play."

Gleason concentrated on getting her team to recognize each players' role on the team: contributing their best, on the court or on the bench, for the team.

"The focus was on playing the best we can and as hard as we can," said Gleason. "We need to not worry about the other team, it doesn't matter who we're playing."

Patrice Saindon provided a huge spark off the bench for the Jacks against the Otters, providing a lot of hustle and grabbing a career-high six steals on the night.

The Jacks average 66.5 points per game, ranking third amongst the conference leader board, and limit their opponents to 61.6 ppg. Four HSU players average double figures, led by Lisa Petty with 13.2 ppg and Kayla Williams with 11.9 ppg. Caitie Richards and Whitney Howard round out the four, averaging 10.5 ppg and 10.0 ppg, respectively.

After breaking the all-time leading rebound record at HSU just a couple games ago, Bree Halsey continues to distance herself from the previous record and currently has 860 career rebounds, averaging 9.4 rebounds per game this season. 

Torro Notes
Cal State Dominguez Hills averages just under 50 ppg, but gives up 63.0 ppg. In the previous contest between the Jacks and the Torros, CSUDH outscored Humboldt State in the second half and out-rebounded the Jacks, proving its not a team to be taken lightly. Porsha Davis leads the Torros in scoring, averaging 8.9 ppg, and Sherrie Hughes is the top rebounder for CSUDH. Collectively, the Toros rank amongst the top four teams with offensive rebounds.

Golden Eagle Notes
As a team, CSULA ranks in the top two for seven of the CCAA statistical categories, including field goal percentage offense and defense. The Golden Eagles average 69.2 ppg as a team, led by Lacy Ramon with 15.1 ppg—third highest in the conference. Tessondra Williams also averages double-digit points, scoring 11.3 ppg on average. The team leads the CCAA in steals (10.5 pg), due to a combined effort from Maryum Jenkins (45 steals), Jazzi Johnson (31 steals) and Ramon (30 steals).

Injury Update
Williams and Saindon have both been nursing injuries, but both are good to go for this week's games.

Gleason's Gabs
"CSUDH is a great rebounding team. They're physical and athletic. We have to do a solid job of rotating our defense and blocking out to secure rebounds. They're also balanced in scoring so you can't focus on one or two individuals. ... Hopefully our team will recognize that when we defend with the intensity we had against CSUMB for the entire game, good things happen. We want to carry that focus over into this week's games. ... [In the game against the Otters] there were a lot of hustle plays that had to be made because they wanted it so bad. It's something you have to bring night in and night out in our conference in order to be successful. ... Our loss to CSULA was a combination of them being a good team and us having a poor shooting night that took us out of our flow on offense. ... Saturday's game is going to be one of those tough CCAA games. Both teams are vying for one of the top four spots for the conference tournament, so both teams will come out to battle and bring it. I know our players won't need motivation from us, they'll be fired up to play. ... We're happy to be at home and play in front of our outstanding fans, friends and family. Not having rigors of being on the road and being able to rest is also a positive. At this stage, rest is very important."
Print Friendly Version