IRVINE, Calif. -- Point Loma opened its conference season by snapping Hawai`i Pacific’s 37-match winning streak with a 69-54 win on Thursday.
Point Loma defeated the Sharks at home in February of 2019 and no team had defeated Hawai`i Pacific in a PacWest regular season game since then until the Sea Lions did it again last week.
Cara Liggins scored 16 points with 12 rebounds for a double-double for PLNU. In the process she surpassed her former teammate Roya Rustamzada for eighth place among the PacWest’s all-time leading scorers with 1549 points.
Azusa Pacific and Biola also started the conference season with a pair of wins, each beating Fresno Pacific and Holy Names at home. Biola is now 6-2 on the season which equals the team’s best start since joining the PacWest in 2017.
Dominican opened its conference season with a win over Academy of Art.
Brittney Cedeno played in her third game this season and filled the box score with 17 points, eight assists, five rebounds, four steals and two blocks. It was the fourth game in a row between the two teams that was decided by 10 points or less with both teams winning two of the last four meetings.
Concordia won two of its three games in Hawai`i last week with
VanderKlugt averaging 14.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game during the trip, while
Jasmine Rachal led the team with 17.3 points per game. The Eagles will be back in Irvine on Friday to host Academy of Art at 5 p.m. The Urban Knights lead the season series 5-3 against Concordia going into Friday’s game.
Weekly awards for the week of November 29-December 5
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Amiah Simmons, Biola
G, Fr., 5-7 -- Osawatomie, Kan.
Simmons has now scored 20 points or more in five-consecutive games to help Biola win four of those games. Against Fresno Pacific, Simmons scored 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting to lead the Eagles to their third win in a row over the Sunbirds. Two days later, she scored 24 points against Holy Names and made 7 of 8 field goals from inside the arc. She also had five assists, four rebounds and a steal to give Biola a 2-0 start to conference play. Simmons is now averaging 19.4 points per game with a 51.4 field-goal percentage. She ranks second in the conference in scoring and fourth in field-goal percentage as a true freshman. Simmons has scored at least 10 points in every game this year as she helped the Eagles get off to a 6-2 start to earn the No. 10 spot in the D2SIDA regional rankings.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK
Laura Pranger, Azusa Pacific
F, Sr., 6-2 -- Parker, Colo.
Pranger made her season debut this week against Holy Names and Fresno Pacific and in just two games became the PacWest leader in blocks this season with 17. She had nine blocks against Fresno Pacific on Friday, which is tied for the seventh-most in PacWest history for a single game. Pranger now has her name appear five times in the PacWest’s top-10 single game block performances. She also had eight blocks and a steal in the win against Holy Names, while playing just 18 minutes in a lopsided victory. She now has 267 career blocks which is the second most in PacWest history. She is 53 away from Sarah Nelson’s record at Dominican. Pranger also had 10 defensive rebounds, including seven against Holy Names. For the week, she averaged 20 points, 10.9 rebounds and 15.5 blocks per 40 minutes. In the win over the Sunbirds, she finished with 18 points, nine blocks, four rebounds and three 3-pointers. Her nine and eight blocks are the two highest marks in the PacWest so far this year.