Weber State University Athletics
Wildcats Return Home to Host Eagles Thursday
2/12/2008 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Wildcats return home for Eagles Thursday
Weber State, coming off a 60-50 win at Northern Colorado last Thursday, returns home for two games this week beginning Thursday when the ?Cats take on Eastern Washington at the Dee Events Center. WSU is 9-12 overall and 3-6 in Big Sky play heading into this week's action.
Big Sky standings update
Montana and Idaho State are tied for first in the Big Sky standings with both teams at 7-2 in league play. Portland State, who will be in Ogden on Saturday, is in third place with a 7-3 record. The Vikings will play at Idaho State on Thursday. Montana State is fourth at 6-5 followed by Northern Colorado and Sacramento State. At 3-6, Weber State is currently in seventh place in the league standings.Tuomi leads Wildcats for 12th time this season
Weber State senior Sara Tuomi continues her strong play as of late as she led the Wildcats in the win at Northern Colorado. Tuomi led WSU with 24 points in the win and was 8-16 from the field and a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line, along with pulling down a team-high five rebounds. She scored 14 points in the final 8:30 of the game as Weber State went on a 22-4 run to finish out the game. She also made all eight free throws in that stretch and she has now made 31 straight free throws. She is second in the Big Sky and ninth in the nation in free throw percentage at .888 and is 46-48 from the line in Big Sky games. Tuomi also currently ranks third in the Big Sky in scoring and sixth in rebounding.
Tuomi is also moving up the Weber State record lists. She needs 20 more points to move into tenth place in WSU all-time scoring and needs 10 rebounds to move into tenth on the rebounding list. She is also seventh in career free throws made and eighth in career three-pointers made.
No three-pointer for WSU
For the first time since March 1, 2007 at Idaho State, Weber State failed to make a three-pointer in a game when they were 0-7 at Northern Colorado. That snapped a streak of 23 straight games with a made three-pointer.Wildcats still first in defense, last in offense
WSU continues to lead the Big Sky in scoring defense at 61.4 points per game but they also rank last in the conference in scoring offense at 58.3 points a game. WSU is also last in the league in field goal percentage at .364 and seventh in rebounding. They do rank third in free throw percentage, third in field goal percentage defense, and third in three-point defense.
Road sweet road
The ?Cats won their third conference game of the season Thursday, moving them to 3-6 on the year. They are now 3-2 on the road and 0-4 at home in Big Sky play. It is the first time since 1993 the ?Cats have started the home conference season 0-4.
60 is still the magic number
The ?Cats improved to 9-1 this season when holding their opponents under 60 points. They are 0-11 when the opponent scores over 60 points. Weber State is also 8-4 when scoring it scores 60 and 1-8 when scoring less.
?Cats host Eastern Washington Thursday
The Wildcats return home to host Eastern Washington this Thursday, February 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Dee Events Center. The game will be broadcast live on KWCR 88.1 FM with Eric Knighton calling the action. Audio and live stats are available at weberstatesports.com and the game will be broadcast live at bigskytv.org.
Quoting WSU head coach Carla Taylor
"I thought we did some good things in our win last week, especially on the defensive end. We are making improvements and we finally put a full game together and good some good contributions from our post players. Now we have to continue to build on those things."
About Eastern Washington
The Eagles of Eastern Washington enter this week's game with a 4-19 overall record and a 1-9 record in Big Sky play. They are coming off a 69-62 win Saturday over Northern Arizona. That win was their first conference win and snapped a 12 game losing streak for the Eagles, who hadn't won a game since December 15. EWU is 0-10 on the road this season, including 0-6 in Big Sky games.
Eastern Washington is eighth in the Big Sky in scoring defense, allowing 73.6 points per game. They are also fifth in scoring offense, eighth in field goal percentage defense, and last in three-point field goal defense. They also rank eighth in turnovers at 18.5 per game. EWU is second in the conference in rebounding defense at 37.2 per game.
The Eagles are led by junior Syndey Benson who is 15th in the Big Sky in scoring at 11.3 points and ranks seventh in rebounding at 7.2 per game.
Head coach Wendy Schuller
The Eagles are coached by Wendy Schuller who is in her sixth season with the team. She has a combined record of 84-110 at EWU and is 3-14 against Weber State. WSU head coach Carla Taylor is 36-8 all-time against Eastern Washington including 21-0 in Ogden.
All-time seriesWeber State leads the all-time series 43-19 over Eastern Washington and the ?Cats have won four straight and six of the last seven in the series. WSU has won 17 of the last 20 games played between the two schools. In addition Weber State is 25-5 all-time against the Eagles in Ogden and has won 21 straight games at home. The last time the Eagles won at the Dee Events Center was in February 1988, the year before Carla Taylor took over as WSU's head coach.
Earlier this season in Cheney
Weber State snapped a five game losing streak and picked up its first conference win of the year with a 68-49 win at Eastern Washington on January 12. The ?Cats shot 42 percent from the field and were led by Sara Tuomi with 19 points. Caitlin Anderson came off the bench to add 14 points.
Looking ahead
After Thursday the Wildcats will host Portland State on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. as part of Think Pink Week.
The Weber State women's basketball team is joining over 900 colleges and universities across the nation in participating in National Think Pink Week, sponsored by the WBCA. Think Pink is a global, unified effort across the nation to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.
Weber State's Think Pink game will be this Saturday when the Wildcats host Portland State at 2:00 p.m. All fans wearing pink will be admitted free to the game and 300 free pink T-shirts and 500 Think Pink bracelets will be given away.
