The 2023-24 PacWest Player of the Year showed up big last week in pair of games for Azusa Pacific. Kelly Heimburger averaged 28 points a game, including a 30 point outburst against CSU Los Angeles. Westmont won two games to garner Team of the Week, and it was impossible to deny Lisa Kiefer the Defender of the Week award for the third straight time after she pulled down 35 rebounds in a pair of games for the Warriors. 

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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Azusa Pacific's Kelly Heimburger, F, Grad., 6-0, San Jose, Calif.                            
Azusa Pacific's Kelly Heimburger went on a scoring binge in a pair of games last week. Last year's PacWest Player of the Year and Defender of the Year put up 26 points on Tuesday during a 80-52 victory over Cal Poly Humboldt and had 30 in a one-point loss at CSU Los Angeles. Averaging just under 15 points a game coming into the week, Heimburger was sizzling hot with .579 shooting accuracy (22-for-38), was 8-of-16 from three-point range and converted all four of her free throws. In the battle of unbeatens against the Golden Eagles (74-73), the San Jose native and fifth-year Cougar added eight rebounds, had four blocked shots and two steals. 

DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Westmont's Lisa Kiefer, F, Jr., 6-2, Marburg, Germany                                        
Westmont's Lisa Kiefer goes back-to-back-to-back with the PacWest Defender of the Week award after pulling down a total of 35 rebounds in two games. That's an average of 17.5 per contest, and the first-year Warrior had a consistent pair of games with 18 rebounds in an overtime win over CS San Bernardino and 17 in a victory over The Master's. The Montana transfer also had eight points and three steals versus the Coyotes and dished five assists against the Mustangs. Kiefer is the first PacWest player to win the award three weeks in a row since the 2018-19 season when Azusa Pacific's Laura Pranger won the award 11 straight weeks.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Westmont was the only team in the PacWest with a 2-0 week, with an impressive overtime win over CS San Bernardino (70-66) and a 15-point margin over The Master's (87-72). At home against the 'Yotes, the Warriors outscored their visitors 10-6 in the overtime period to get the win, with Sage Kramer leading the way with 16 points and seven boards. Lisa Kiefer provided the backboard work with 18 rebounds (see above). Bailey Fong's three-pointer with 32 seconds left in OT gave her team a six-point lead to secure the win. Against the Mustangs, Kramer had 21 point, nine rebounds and three blocks and Kiefer had 17 rebounds for the win. Westmont, now 3-3, will take time off before opening PacWest play on December 5 at Fresno.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Alli McDonald had a big week for Point Loma as the Sea Lions split two games. The Sonoma State grad transfer totaled 26 points and 24 rebounds as PLNU lost to Regis by two (71-69) and beat St. Martin's (59-46)...Chaminade's Sameera Elmasri filled up the stat sheet during a loss to Alaska with 20 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals...Academy of Art improved to 5-0 with a 69-50 win over Sonoma State, paced by Yasmine Sifaoui's 14 points and ten rebounds. The Urban Knights then suffered their first loss of the year on Saturday to Chico State, 74-52...With a 28-point second quarter, Vanguard defeated Westcliff, 70-59...In that 74-73 APU loss to CSULA, the Cougars trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter before rallying within a digit. It was the first loss for APU, who is now 5-1. CS Los Angeles improved to 4-0...Dominican had four players in double figures in topping CS San Bernardino, 74-58...Jayla Green had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds in Fresno Pacific's 61-48 win over CS East Bay...Hawaii Pacific improved to 2-0 with a 75-65 victory over Alaska behind Ella Berge's 19 points.

WEST REGION RANKINGS: It's still a very long time until the official NCAA Division II West Region ranking come out, but until then we have a placeholder in the D2CSC listing. Today's poll (Nov. 25) looks like this. (1) Montana State Billings (7-1), (2) CS Dominguez Hills (6-0), (T3) Azusa Pacific (5-1), (T3) CS Los Angeles (4-1), (5) Cal Poly Pomona (4-1), (6) Alaska Anchorage (6-1), (7) Central Washington (4-0), (8) Simon Fraser (6-1), (9) Chico State (4-1), (10) Point Loma 3-3. RV--Western Washington, Academy of Art, Hawaii Pacific.  

THIS WEEK IN THE PACWEST: Even with Thanksgiving on Thursday, PacWest teams will still play 17 games this week in the final moments before PacWest play begins the first week of December. To see the complete schedule, click here.