STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific women's basketball team (16-13, 9-9 WCC) will open up the 2020 UCU West Coast Conference Basketball Championships with a 12:00 p.m. second-round matchup against eight seed Santa Clara.
GAME INFO
Matchup: No. 5 Pacific (16-13, 9-9 WCC) vs. No. 8 Santa Clara (12-18, 5-13 WCC)
Date: Friday, March 6, 2020
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Venue: Orleans Arena
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
- The Tigers are led down low by Katrina McClane Award Watch List honoree Brooklyn McDavid, who registered a double-digit scoring performance in 22 of the Tigers' 29 regular season outings this year while averaging 14.8 points per game this season.
- Valerie Higgins became the first player this season to win two WCC Player of the Week awards after chasing a triple double (29 points, 11 rebounds, nine steals) at San Francisco on December 30. Higgins, a Preseason All-WCC selection and the reigning WCC Defensive Player of the Year, has logged 10 double doubles on the year, eight of which have come in conference play. Higgins has logged 25 overall for her Pacific career - fifth in program history - and after a 28-point/18-rebound performance against Portland on February 8, has now logged at least 10 doubles doubles in back to back seasons.
- McDavid is the seventh Tiger all-time to grab 200 offensive rebounds, doing so in just 71 career games. She enters Friday at 248 for her career, second all-time. McDavid also became the 24th Tiger in program history to score 1,000 career points with her first two buckets in Pacific's 64-63 win over Pepperdine on January 4.
- Pacific ranks 53rd in the country with 275 steals, with a WCC-leading 98 going to Higgins. The Granada Hills native is seventh in the nation in total takeaways. Her 98 after 29 games this season have already exceeded last season, when she logged 88 takeaways through the Tigers' first 29 contests on her way to being named the WCC Defensive Player of the Year. Higgins averages 3.8 takeaways per contest this season and set a new career high at San Francisco (Dec. 30) with nine, which ranks fourth all-time in Pacific history in single-game steals. Higgins is two steals shy of joining Shari Bates (1981-82) as the only Tigers ever to record 100 steals in a single season, and three shy of becoming just the fourth Tiger with 200 career steals.
TYGES IN THE TOURNAMENT
- Pacific opens its 2020 WCC Tournament campaign as the five seed for the first time in program history.
- The Tyges' five seed is the highest for the program since opening as No. 3 in the 2015 and 2014 WCC Tournaments.
- Pacific reached the semis in 2014 under 2014-15 WCC co-Coach of the Year Lynne Roberts.
- Pacific's only meeting with Santa Clara in the WCC Tournament came last year, when the Tigers downed SCU 76-60 in the second round behind 18 points from Higgins and 11 points from Brooklyn McDavid on a combined 12-of-33 shooting. Higgins also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and went 8 for 10 from the free throw line.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 98 - Valerie Higgins has logged 98 steals this year, seventh in Division I and first in the WCC
- 22 - Brooklyn McDavid has scored in double figures 20 times this year
- 24 - McDavid is the 24th Tiger to reach 1,000 career points, as of 1/4/20 vs. Pepperdine
- 3 - Pacific has won three WCC Player of the Week awards this year (Higgins 2, McDavid 1)
- 248 - McDavid has grabbed 248 career offensive rebounds, second in program history
LAST TIME OUT
- Pacific closed out the regular season last week at the Spanos Center with a thrilling 71-69 win over Santa Clara on Senior Day. The Tigers pulled ahead in Saturday's season finale, thanks in part to a clutch three from Sofie Tryggedsson with just over a minute left, one of three graduating seniors on Pacific's roster.
- Jordan Cruz led the Tigers with nine points off the bench, including the clutch third-quarter three to give Pacific more of a cushion with the 50-46 lead.
- Josephine Millard and Cassidy Johnson registered career highs against San Francisco on Thursday with 13 and seven points, respectively. Millard's 13 led the Tigers off the bench.
- Pacific outscored the Dons 11-1 off the bench in the first half, leading to a 20-9 advantage for the contest.
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS
- Santa Clara advanced to the second round of this year's WCC Tournament with a 72-65 overtime win over San Francisco on Thursday afternoon at the Orleans Arena.
- The Broncos are rolling into Las Vegas winners of three of their last four, with the exception of this past Saturday in Stockton.
- Emily Wolph, Tia Hay and Merle Wiehl all scored 11 points each in the tournament win over the Dons. Naomi Jimenez pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds.
TRACK THE ACTION
- Don Gubbins will have the audio call from Las Vegas on Pacific All-Access, and fans can catch all the action additionally on the WCC Network, NBC Sports California, ROOT Northwest, AT&T Rocky Mountain and BYUtv.
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