Concordia’s Jasmine Rachal fought to keep her team’s championship hopes alive with two big games and 50 total points to gain the Player of the Week award. Ultimately, Azusa Pacific topped Hawai`i Hilo to earn the PacWest regular season trophy in their only game of the week. Fresno Pacific is the Team of the Week after upsetting Hawai`i Pacific and defeating Chaminade. Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson had more rebounds in one game than anyone else in the conference had in two and earned yet another Defender of the Week award.
2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Concordia’s Jasmine Rachal, G, 5-7, Grad., Brea, Calif.
Concordia graduate guard
Jasmine Rachal earned her second Player of the Week award this season by leading all PacWest scorers for the week. The SoCal native had 29 points in a 69-65 loss to Biola, knocking down an extremely efficient 10-of-16 shots, including 5-of-9 from three-point range. She was also 4-of-4 at the free throw line to keep the Golden Eagles close. A few nights later against Hawai`i Hilo, the fourth-year star (fifth year at CUI) had 21 points and seven rebounds, giving her 50 points for the week. Rachal, a Second Team All-PacWest selection in 2021-22, now has 1,591 points in her career.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson, F/C, 6-1, Soph., Pomona, Calif.
ART U’s
Alisha Wilson pulled down 23 rebounds on Sunday during a 65-40 win over Holy Names, a high number even for her. That is her highest total of the season (and her career), after yanking 22 boards in three different games during the 2022-23 season. That 23 rebounds is the fourth highest total in PacWest history. She also had six steals in the win over the Hawks, one theft short of her season high. This is the seventh Defender of the Week award for Wilson, second only to former Azusa Pacific shot-blocking machine Laura Pranger, who had 11. Wilson, also an All-American in track and field, leads the PacWest and all of Division II with 14.9 rebounds per game and is second in the PacWest with 2.7 steals per contest.
SUNBIRDS FINISHING STRONG: The PacWest Team of the Week is the
FRESNO PACIFIC SUNBIRDS. FPU opened the week with an upset on the road, a 72-64 victory over playoff-bound Hawai`i Pacific, and they finished their island trip with a 71-37 conquest of Chaminade. The Sunbirds, after beginning PacWest play by losing their first nine games, have reversed course. They have since gone 7-2 for a 7-11 conference record (12-13 overall). They won’t make the conference playoffs, but have been one of the hottest teams in the PacWest on the backside of the schedule.
Rachel Berry had 21 points and seven rebounds in the upset of the Sharks. Against Chaminade, all 13 players scored and FPU had a season-low five turnovers.
PLAYOFF FIELD IS SET: The six-team field for the PacWest Championships is now set, one full week before the end of the regular season. The seedings cannot yet be cemented, but regular season champion
Azusa Pacific has secured the No. 1 seed and automatic first round bye with a 16-2 mark.
Dominican (14-5), Concordia (13-5) and
Hawai`i Pacific (12-5) are jockeying for the No. 2 spot and other first round bye.
Point Loma (12-7) and
Biola (11-7) round out the top six. On Thursday, March 2, the No. 6 seed will take on No. 3 to open the tournament (12:30 HT), followed by No. 4 vs. No. 5 (2:45 HT). The winners advance (losers are out) to Friday semifinals games at those same two times. Saturday’s championship is set for 2 pm. Ticket information and other tournament info can be found at the
Tournament Central webpage, for the March 2-4 tournament at Chaminade University.
THE SHUFFLING CONTINUES THIS WEEK: The final week of the regular season is here, and all that is left is for the shuffling of who ends up where—thus determining who plays who in Honolulu. Any of the games can effect that situation, but games directly involving playoff teams include tonight’s (Monday)
Hawai`i Pacific at
Azusa Pacific game, Thursday’s
HPU at
Concordia contest, and Saturday’s
APU at
CUI and
HPU at
Biola games.
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Azusa Pacific claimed the PacWest title this past week. At 16-2, APU has a 2.5 game lead over second-place
Dominican with two games left to play. They essentially clinched the title, their fourth in the PacWest (2016, 2019, 2022 and 2023) with a 64-55 victory over Hawai`i Hilo last Thursday with yet another balanced output.
TyLee Manuel led the team with 19 points, supplemented by
Molly Whitmore’s 16 points and 11 rebounds, along with
Alex Lowden’s four steals…Hawai`i Pacific’s
Abby Spurgin is getting playoff ready with 43 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots in her two games last week…Dominican's
Brittney Cedeno ranks first in all of NCAA Division II with 111 steals and 4.11 steals per game….
Jazmine Soto totaled 39 points and seven steals in two games for Holy Names, including 25 points against Dominican…
Bree Olson had 17 rebounds in UH Hilo’s 67-63 win over Concordia.
NCAA POLL MAKES 2022-23 DEBUT ON WEDNESDAY: The first official NCAA West Region poll will be released this Wednesday.
Azusa Pacific has held steady all season in the “unofficial” D2SIDA poll, and they were the only PacWest team listed in last week’s practice NCAA poll, which just listed 10 teams in alphabetical order. The final poll, which will come out the Sunday after the conference tournaments are completed, will determine the eight-team field for the regional tournament—that will include the three conference tournament champions. Last’s week’s NCAA listing looked like this, alphabetical order.
Azusa Pacific (20-4), Cal Poly Pomona (14-8), Cal State Dominguez Hills (22-1), Cal State LA (17-5), Cal State San Marcos (19-3), Central Washington (15-6), Chico State (15-8), Montana State Billings (19-4), Seattle Pacific (11-10), Western Washington (20-2).