Make that 10 in a row for Azusa Pacific after a trio of wins last week to earn the PacWest Team of the Week. Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson rebounded (36) and stole (8) her way to yet another Defender of the Week award and while Dominican’s Brittney Cedeno’s all-around game earned her Player of the Week honors.

2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics
D2SIDA West Region Poll
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dominican’s Brittney Cedeno, G, 5-9, Sr., South San Francisco, Calif.        
As is typical almost every single night, Dominican’s Brittney Cedeno filled up the stat sheet during a loss to league leading Azusa Pacific and a win over Biola. In the 65-54 victory over the Eagles, the senior guard had 18 points, 11 rebounds, four steals and five assists. Versus the Cougars, she had 20 points and four assists. For the week (2 games), she averaged 19 points, seven rebounds, four steals and four assists. Cedeno has scored in double figures in 14 consecutive games and has at least one steal in every contest. The Penguin standout leads all of Division II in steals, and it isn’t close. She has 104 steals on the season (78 is next closest) and averages 4.33 per game (3.44 is next).

DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson, F/C, Soph., 6-1, Pomona, Calif.             
Make it four in a row for Academy of Art’s Alisha Wilson to earn a conference award, the third straight week that she has been named Defender of the Week. She averaged 18 rebounds per game and four steals a contest in a win over Biola and a loss to Azusa Pacific. She pulled down 22 rebounds against the Eagles and had a trio of steals, while yanking down 14 boards against the league-leading Cougars with 11 points and five steals. It’s the third time this season that she has grabbed 22 rebounds in a game, and she has twice pulled down 18. The sophomore leads the PacWest in rebounds per game (14.3) by a large margin and lists second in all of NCAA Division II. Wilson is also third in the conference in scoring (16.0), second in field goal percentage (.526), fourth in blocked shots (1.1) and second in steals (2.6).

COUGARS CRUISE PAST TRIO: The PacWest Team of the Week is the AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS. APU won its eighth (Chaminade), ninth (Academy of Art) and tenth (Dominican) in a row to maintain a slight lead over Concordia for the top spot in the PacWest. APU is now 20-3 overall and 15-1 in the PacWest, and they have not lost since December 19 against Dominican. They got revenge on the Penguins this week (82-73) behind Paige Uyehara’s 28 points and Kelly Heimburger’s balanced line of 18 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three steals. The Cougars beat their three opponents this week by a combined 56 points and on the season have a +14.5 point differential.

PLAYOFF PICTURE BECOMING CLEARER: With three weeks 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 (15-1) is the current league leader by just a game over Concordia (13-1), with Dominican moving up into the third spot (12-5). Hawai`i Pacific is fourth (9-4) and has the most remaining games (seven), with Point Loma now fifth (10-6) and Biola is sixth (9-6). Still mathematically alive are Academy of Art (6-10), Fresno Pacific (4-10) and Hawai`i Hilo (4-10), but they basically need to win out and get a lot of help. The PacWest Championship Tournament will be held March 2-4 at McCabe Gymnasium on the campus of Chaminade University.

MORE BIG GAMES LOOM: Of course, every game is big at this point in the season, but a few seem larger than others. Today (Monday) Concordia is at Fresno Pacific as the Golden Eagles hope to stay alive for a conference title and the Sunbirds need to win to keep their playoff hopes beeping. On Wednesday, Biola is at Point Loma in a battle between the fifth and sixth place teams. On Saturday, Concordia is at Point Loma and Biola hosts conference-leading Azusa Pacific.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: In Azusa Pacific’s trio of wins, Paige Uyehara averaged just over 20 points a game and Kelly Heimburger averaged 12 points, almost seven rebounds and 3.3 assists…In the Cougar’s 78-57 win over Chaminade, APU had a 59-40 rebound edge over the Silverswords. Mary-Lee Mitchell had a double-double for Chaminade with 13 points and 11 boards…Point Loma had 16 steals in a 75-66 win over Holy Names to win their fourth straight. Jasmine Soto had 25 points and nine assists for the Hawks…Fresno Pacific pasted Hawai`i Pacific 79-51 despite Abby Spurgin’s 25 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for HPU…The Sunbirds also knocked off Chaminade (82-43) and have now won five of their last six games…Jasmine Rachal had 26 points for Concordia in their only game (on the court) of the week, a win over the Silverswords…The Golden Eagles also received a forfeit victory when Holy Names didn’t have enough healthy players to suit up…Dominican had a big win over Biola (65-54) with freshman Keyonee Neal accounting for 20 points and seven rebounds…Academy of Art held Biola to just 35 points (49-35) with point guard Jadence Clifton supplementing Alisha Wilson’s numbers with 19 points and nine rebounds.

REGIONAL POLL LOOKS THE SAME: In today’s D2SIDA West Region poll, Azusa Pacific held steady at No. 3, and Concordia remains at No. 6. The 2/6/23 rankings look like this: (1) CS Dominguez Hills 21-1, (2) Western Washington 18-2, (3) Azusa Pacific 20-3, (4) Montana State Billings 20-4, (5) CS San Marcos 17-3, (6) Concordia 15-4, (7) Chico State 16-6, (8) Central Washington 16-6, (9) CS Los Angeles 15-6, (10) Alaska Anchorage 14-7. Receiving Votes—Dominican (2).