Washington State University Athletics

WSU hoping to break 1-4 slump.

January 5, 1999

W-BASKETBALL: WSU Takes On Arizona, ASU At Home

THIS WEEK:	
Thursday, Jan. 7 - WSU vs. Arizona, 7:00 p.m. PST, Friel Court, Pullman
Saturday, Jan. 9 - WSU vs. Arizona State, 1:00 p.m. PST, Friel Court, Pullman

NEXT WEEK:	
Friday, Jan. 15 - WSU at Oregon State, 7:00 p.m. PST, Gill Coliseum, Corvallis
Sunday, Jan. 17 - WSU at Oregon, 1:00 p.m. PST, McArthur Court, Eugene

-- Upcoming Games --

Arizona - The Cougs lead the series 15-9 after splitting last year's
two-game series.
ASU - The Sun Devils hold a 13-11 series advantage after a sweep last year.

WSU OVERALL:  6-4
WSU IN PAC-10:  0-1
WSU AT HOME:  4-2
WSU ON THE ROAD:  2-2
WSU STREAK:  -2

COACH: Harold Rhodes (Washington State '77); WSU/Career record: 189-259 (17th year).

THIS WEEK: The Washington State women's basketball team, 6-4 overall and 0-1 in Pac-10 Conference play, enters the second weekend of league action at home Thursday, hosting the Arizona Wildcats, 1-1/6-5, at 7:00 p.m. Saturday the Cougars play host to the Arizona State Sun Devils, 0-2/6-5, in a 1:00 p.m. game. Both contests will be played at Friel Court. The Cougars are coming off a loss at Washington Monday, while Arizona gained a split last weekend in two league games, losing to #9 UCLA before slipping past USC. ASU, on the other hand, fell to both USC and UCLA. Alke Dietel continues to pace WSU in scoring, averaging 19.0 points. She also is the team's top rebounder at 6.2 boards per outing. Tricia Lamb is averaging 16.9 points and Cathy McNeely 10.9.

McNEELY INJURED: Junior Cathy McNeely suffered a knee sprain in the closing seconds of Monday's game at Washington and will not see action this weekend. She could be ready the following week for games in her home state of Oregon. She prepped at Philomath High near Corvallis.

LAST WEEK: Washington jumped to a 47-29 halftime lead and never let WSU back in the game in registering a 91-69 win in Seattle Monday...Cathy McNeely and Jennifer Kerns each scored 17 for WSU.

DIETEL AND LAMB RECORD DOUBLE-DOUBLES: Two current Cougars have recorded double-doubles in their careers, sophomores Alke Dietel and Tricia Lamb...each had one as freshmen last year and Dietel has two this season:

WSU'S TV APPEARANCES: The Washington State Cougars will make six television appearances this year, including at least three that will be shown live...WSU's TV exposures include:

RECORD FALLS: WSU hit 14 of 33 treys against Gonzaga Dec. 18 to set school records for three pointers made and attempted...the Cougs came back with a 13-for-22 performance at St. Mary's College Dec. 21, giving WSU 27-for-55 (.491) in those two games...against Washington the Cougs were just 3-of-18.

COUGS ROTATE 10 INTO LINEUP: The Cougars' starting lineup includes three sophomores, forward Alke Dietel and guards Katie Nyseth and Tricia Lamb, junior Cathy McNeely (before her injury) and senior Sheri Quinton...WSU's rotation includes 10 players, seven of whom average 20 minutes or more per game...they are Lamb 29.3 minutes, Dietel 28.7, Quinton 27.9, Nyseth 27.7, McNeely 23.9, sophomore Yvonne Volkman 22.7, and junior Jennifer Kerns 20.5...Victoria Harrod 11.9 and Jennifer Stinson 11.5 are among the first off the bench on the front line, along with freshman Romie DeAnda 7.0.

DIETEL OFF TO FINE START: Sophomore Alke Dietel, who was the Pacific-10 Conference's Freshman of the Year last season, is currently averaging 19.0 points and 6.2 rebounds through 11 games to lead WSU in both categories...Dietel was named the most valuable player at the Howard Bank Classic hosted by Vermont in late November...in early December she scored 37 points and grabbed 17 rebounds while being named to the Cougar Classic all-tournament team...last season Dietel averaged 11.9 points and 4.4 rebounds...she currently leads all Pac-10 scorers.

COUGS IN PAC-10: WSU currently leads the 10 Pacific-10 Conference teams in three-point field goals per game at 8.20...the Cougs also lead the league in free throw percentage, 72.6% and in three-point percentage, 36.1%....Alke Dietel is the league's top scorer with a 19.0 average and she also is 12th in rebounding at 6.2...Tricia Lamb is third in scoring at 16.9 after leading all scorers through the first month of the season.

WSU NATIONALLY: WSU's Tricia Lamb and Alke Dietel are ranked tied for 20th, averaging 2.7 treys per game...Dietel is 47th in scoring at 19.0...WSU's 8.2 treys per game ranks first nationally. (as of 1/5/99)

PAC-10 RANKINGS (Updated Jan. 6)

Individuals - Lamb scoring/16.9/3rd, 3-pt FG%/.370/8th; Dietel scoring/19.0/1st, rebounding/6.2/12th, FT% .795/t-3rd, 3-pt FG%/.391/4th; Nyseth steals/2.30/9th; McNeely 3-pt FG%/.375/9th; Quinton rebounding/5.0/t-10thth.

Team Offense - scoring/79.6/2nd, scoring margin/+5.5/5th, FG%/.407/7th, FT%/.726/1st, 3-pt FG%/.361/1st, 3-pt FG/8.20/1st;

Team Defense - scoring/74.1/7th, FG%/.454/10th.

Team Misc. - rebound margin/-7.2/10th.

PACIFIC-10 STANDINGS (Pac-10/Overall): Oregon 2-1/11-2, UCLA 2-0/10-4, Washington 1-0/5-5, Arizona 1-1/6-5, Oregon State 1-1/9-2, USC 1-1/5-6, Stanford 1-1/5-8, Washington State 0-1/6-4, California 0-2/6-5, Arizona State 0-2/6-5.

ARIZONA OVERALL:  6-5
ARIZONA IN LEAGUE:  1-1
ARIZONA AT HOME:  4-3
ARIZONA ON THE ROAD:  2-2
ARIZONA STREAK:  +1

WILDCAT NOTES: The Wildcats open the Pac-10 season with a split at home against UCLA (lost 84-77) and USC (won 73-63) before heading to the state of Washington...Arizona is 4-32 at home and 2-2 on the road, including 1-0 in neutral games...balanced scoring has been a key to Arizona's success this season...the five Wildcat starters all average 8.8 or more points, with guard Felecity Willis leading the team at 13.2...freshman Elizabeth Pickney tops the team in rebounding at 6.6...Angie Lackey has led or shared the team scoring leadership four times, Bristol and Willis three times...Bristol has led the team in scoring in each of the last three games...head coach Joan Bonvicini is three wins short of 450...she has guided Arizona to three consecutive 20-plus win seasons...two players are wearing protective face masks after suffering broken noses, Lisa Griffith and Julie Brase (the granddaughter of men's head coach Lute Olson)...three or more players have scored in double figures in eight of Arizona's nine games...Arizona is giving up 7.1 treys per game, nearly double what they allowed last year...Felecity Willis has stepped up her offense from last season...a year ago she averaged 7.0 points...this year she is averaging 13.2 through 11 games...Arizona has used five different lineup combinations this year...Griffith needs 13 treys to set a Wildcat career record...she currently has 82...when Arizona scores 80 or more points, bet on a win...they are 104-15 over the last 27 years when scoring 80 or more.

SERIES RECORD: The Wildcats have won three of the last four games between the two teams, including a split last year when each team won on the road, WSU 64-61 at Arizona on Tricia Lamb's three-pointer at the buzzer, and Arizona 71-66 in Pullman...WSU, owning a 15-9 series advantage, had won four straight in 1995 and 1996 before Arizona came back with three wins the last two years...the Cougars' last home win over the Wildcats was 71-65 in 1996...the Cougs are 7-5 against Arizona in Pullman and 8-4 in Tucson.

FIVE-GAME SPLIT: In WSU's first five games this year, all wins, the Cougs averaged 40 rebounds per outing, but in the last five games (one win), the rebounding average has dipped to 33...in the last five games WSU has been out boarded by nearly 12 per contest...while WSU's turnover total is only five more in the last five games than it was in the first five, the Cougars are not forcing as many turnovers...in the last five games WSU has forced 113, five per game less than in the first five games...WSU's field goal percentages have also dropped in the last five games, from .418 in the first five to .395 in the last five games...the Cougs have also experienced a similar dip in three-point shooting, from .383 to .342.

ARIZONA STATE OVERALL:  6-4
ARIZONA STATE IN LEAGUE:  0-2
ARIZONA STATE AT HOME:  4-3
ARIZONA STATE ON THE ROAD:  2-2
ARIZONA STATE STREAK:  -2

COACH: Charli Turner Thorne (Stanford '88); School record: 20-38 (3rd year); Career record: 59-78 (6th year).

SUN DEVIL NOTES: Arizona State enters Pac-10 play coming off a win over San Jose State Dec. 30 and then a pair of Pac-10 losses at home to USC and UCLA...before taking on the Washington schools...ASU's roster shows the wide recruiting area they cover, with players from the East Coast, Canada, Norway and New Zealand...their starting five (each has started all 11 games) include players from California (two), Arizona, New Jersey and Texas...ASU features a balanced scoring attack that includes seven players who average between six and 11 points per outing...five different players have paced ASU in scoring, with Kristina Sand the leader four times, including each of the last three games...Rachel Holt, Leaf Newman and Natalie Tucker have each led the scoring parade twice...on the board, freshman Leah Combs has been the dominant player, topping the team five times in the first 11 games, although Newman has been the top rebounder twice in the last three games...Holt was second in scoring last year (10.3 ppg) and Newman was fifth (6.6)...the other three ASU starters are new to the program, incuding Combs (freshman), Kitchen (a transfer from San Jose CC) and Tucker (a sophomore transfer from Texas A&M)...the Sun Devils have plucked two players from Washington, including Spokane's Jennifer Bennett, a sophomore from Mead High...she has played in six games...the second player is Aubrey McFadyen from Redmond.

SERIES RECORD: ASU's sweep last year has boosted the Sun Devils to a 13-11 lead in the series...prior to last year WSU had won five of the last six, including sweeps in 1995 and 1997...last year ASU won in Pullman 79-70 after capturing an 80-60 victory in Tempe...WSU's last home win over ASU was 84-70 in 1997...WSU is 8-4 against ASU in Pullman and 3-9 in Tempe.

HAROLD RHODES GRADES COUGARS: "Overall I would rate our performance as a "B" through the first 10 games. Last year we averaged just over 66 points and this year we are almost at the 80 point mark, so that improvement earns an "A". Where we are not consistent in on defense, including our press, and rebounding. They all rate from a "C-" to a "C+". I thought our press was better early in the year, but lately we are not making our reads and we are not consistent in the transition. Defensively we need more pressure on the ball and we certainly need to do a better job rebounding."