They’re back!! Abby Spurgin and Alisha Wilson are your PacWest Player and Defender of the week respectively for the last week of January. It’s the fourth time for Spurgin, who helped lead her Hawai`i Pacific Sharks to three road wins, averaging 24 points a game and nearly 11 rebounds a contest. The Sharks improved to 9-3 in conference play and are the Team of the Week. Academy of Art’s Wilson, just a sophomore, won her fourth career Defender of the Week with 34 rebounds in two games and nine steals.

2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics
D2SIDA West Region Poll
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Hawai`i Pacific’s Abby Spurgin, C, 6-3, Gr., Fredericksburg, Texas                    
Hawai`i Pacific’s Abby Spurgin pounded the boards, filled up the offensive stat sheet and helped the Sharks to three big road wins last week. The grad transfer from West Texas A&M totaled 72 points in three games (24 ppg), had 32 rebounds (10.7) and had seven blocked shots (2.3). In an overtime win over Academy of Art (72-65), the 6-foot-3 post had 23 points and seven rebounds, including the Shark’s first eight points in the extra period. In a double digit win over Holy Names Spurgin had 31 points and 13 rebounds, and in HPU’s huge victory over Dominican she had 18 points,12 rebounds and a season-high (and HPU record) seven blocked shots. Spurgin shot 58 percent from the field in those three games, and is second in the PacWest in that category at .540. She is also second in the PacWest in rebounds (9.8), and leads the league in scoring (22.8) and blocked shots (2.5). Her scoring total ranks third in all of NCAA Division II.

DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson, F/C, Soph., 6-1, Pomona, Calif.                         
It’s the third straight week for Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson to earn a conference award and the second straight week that she has been named Defender of the Week. She averaged 17 rebounds a game during a split of games with Hawai`i Pacific (loss) and Hawai`i Hilo (win). Wilson had 22 boards and 19 points in the overtime loss to the Sharks and came back on Sunday with 12 rebounds, 11 points and seven steals against the Vulcans. For the two games, the Urban Knight track and field star averaged 15 points a game, 17 rebounds, 4.5 steals and a block a contest.  For the 2022-23 campaign, Wilson is third in the conference in scoring (16.8), first in rebounding (13.9), second in field goal percentage (.540), fourth in blocked shots (1.2) and fifth in steals (2.4). Her nearly 14 rebounds a game ranks third in NCAA Division II national statistics.

SHARKS CAUSE HAVOC IN THE BAY: The PacWest Team of the Week is the HAWAI`I PACIFIC SHARKS. First-year head coach Katie Novak has her team on a roll in a very competitive PacWest Conference race. The Sharks captured road wins at Academy of Art (72-65, OT), at Holy Names (88-66) and in the victory of the week, over title contender Dominican (71-64). Against the Urban Knights, Kaylee Berry supplemented Abby Spurgin’s efforts (see above) with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Avery Cargill added 18 points, six assists and three steals. Allison Ross had 15 points and six assists in the victory over the Hawks, and then added 15 points and four assists versus the Penguins. There were 15 lead changes in the battle at Dominican, but HPU outscored their hosts 22-14 in the fourth quarter to pull away for the stunning win (earlier in the month, Dominican pounded the Sharks in Honolulu, 60-33). Hawai`i Pacific plays at Fresno Pacific on Tuesday before returning to Oahu for a three-game homestand.

TOP SIX ADD MORE SEPARATION: With just a little over a month to go in the PacWest regular season, the question of which six teams will advance to the conference tournament in Honolulu became a little more defined this past week. Azusa Pacific (12-1) is the current league leader by just a half game over Concordia (11-1), with Hawai`i Pacific moving up into the third spot (9-3) with their win over Dominican (11-4). Biola is fifth (9-4) and Point Loma sits on the coveted sixth rung (9-6). The Sea Lions have a 3.5 game lead over seventh-place Academy of Art (5-9) and 4.5 margin over eighth place Hawai`i Hilo (4-10). The PacWest Championship Tournament will be held March 2-4 at McCabe Gymnasium on the campus of Chaminade University.

DOMINICAN ROAD GAMES HIGHLIGHT THIS WEEK’S PACWEST SLATE: Once again, there are games every day this week in the PacWest, all the way through Saturday. Dominican might have the most on the line with a Thursday contest at Biola and a Saturday road match-up at first-place Azusa Pacific.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: In last Tuesday’s wild overtime game between Hawai`i Pacific and Academy of Art, Urban Knight guard Jadence Clifton had a career-high 29 points and also pulled down nine rebounds…Fresno Pacific picked up their second conference win by beating Hawai`i Hilo (58-49) with a balanced attacked that included three players in double figures Anisa Rillo’s 12 rebounds…In Wednesday’s Cornerstone Cup showdown, Azusa Pacific’s TyLee Manuel helped her team to a 73-69 victory with 21 points and ten rebounds. Alex Lowden had 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Laila Walker’s 21 points paced the Eagles…Olivia Crigler had 18 points for Chaminade in their 72-59 loss to Point Loma (Crigler had 20 against Biola). Haylee Saurette had 16 points for the Sea Lions, and Eiley Tippens added seven rebounds and four blocked shots…Dylan Benitez had 22 points for Holy Names in their loss to HPU and Ani Tu`utafaiva had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards…Keyonee Neal had a big week for Dominican, averaging 23 points a game, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots. The freshman had 26 points against Hawai`i Hilo, ten rebounds, and four blocked shots. Against the Sharks, she had 20 points…Brittney Cedeno had a season-high 28 points against HPU…UHH’s Mandi Kawaha had 11 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists against the Penguins.

APU HOLDS STEADY AT 3, GOLDEN EAGLES MOVE UP TO 6 IN REGIONAL POLL: In today’s D2SIDA West Region poll, Azusa Pacific held steady at No. 3, and Concordia climbed two more runs to No. 6. The 1/30/23 rankings look like this: (1) CS Dominguez Hills 19-1, (2) Western Washington 11-2, (3) Azusa Pacific 17-3, (4) Montana State Billings 18-4, (5) CS San Marcos 15-3, (6) Concordia 14-4, (7) Central Washington 15-5, (8) Chico State 14-6, (9) CS Los Angeles, (10) Cal Poly Pomona. Receiving Votes—Alaska Anchorage, Dominican.