Feb. 13, 2008
Complete Women's Basketball Release in PDF Format 
IN A NUTSHELL: The University of San Diego women's basketball team (12-10, 3-5 WCC) will look to make it four wins in a row on Thursday as they travel to the Pacific Northwest for a 7 p.m. game West Coast Conference against the University of Portland.
LAST TIME OUT: Senior point guard Amanda Rego recorded her second career triple-double with 10 points, 10 assists and 10 steals to help propel the University of San Diego women's basketball team to a 67-48 win over the University of San Francisco in a West Coast Conference game at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion Saturday afternoon. Rego wasn't the only star on the court for the Toreros with the program's second triple-double in its history, as Amber Sprague recorded a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Kiva Herman recorded a game-high 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and Sam Child added in nine points and Morgan Henderson recorded eight points. As a team, the Toreros hit 43 percent of their shots and out rebounded the Dons 35-33. In the first half, the Toreros came out hitting on all cylinders as they opened the game with a 17-5 run over the first 5:57 of action. Kiva Herman got things started for the game with a jumper and five different USD players recorded at least one point during this run that was capped on a pair of Kaila Mangrum free throws. A Carter 3-pointer then ignited a 11-2 Dons run that was capped on a Lisa Olden jumper to pull the Dons back to within three at 19-16 with 8:15 remaining in the first half. Mangum then hit a pair of free throws to spark a 8-0 Torero run over the next four minutes to give USD back the momentum and a 27-16 advantage. The Dons gave USD a brief scare as they got back to within one at 27-26 on a Carter 3-pointer, but a jumper by Sprague and a Henderson 3-pointer gave USD a 32-26 edge going into the break. In the second half, Lisa Olden hit a jumper for USF right out of the gates, but a Child 3-pointer then ignited a 9-0 Torero run that was capped off on a pair of Rego free throws to give USD a 41-28 lead. Finally after a little over a six minute scoring drought, the Dons' Shay Rollins hit a jumper to snap the Toreros run with 14:46 to go. The Toreros never took their foot off the gas as they quickly built up a 17-point lead at 47-30 with 12:24 to go and never looked back. The Toreros would go on to build their lead up to as many as 26 on a Sprague lay-up with 3:26 to go and would hold on for a 19-point victory.
SCOUTING THE PILOTS: Portland enters the game with an overall record of 14-9 and a 4-5 mark in the WCC after splitting a pair of games this past week, first defeating Pepperdine, 84-83, in double overtime and then falling to Loyola Marymount, 64-51, this past Saturday. The Pilots own a 28-23 all-time series edge over the Toreros including sneaking away from the Jenny Craig Pavilion with a one-point win back on Jan. 19. USD and Portland have shared two other common opponents in the non-conference portion of their schedules, with both teams defeating Pacific and Cal State Northridge. The Pilots are led by Laiken Dollente. She is the lone Pilot averaging double figures as she has a 14.6 points per game. Rachel Warren has the next highest scoring average with 9.4 points per game to go along with 6.5 rebounds per game. The Pilots are under the direction of 22nd-year head coach Jim Sollars. During his tenure in Portland, Sollars has posted an overall record of 299-327.
Amanda Rego NAMED WCC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior point guard Amanda Rego of the University of San Diego women's basketball team was tabbed as the West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday afternoon. Rego helped propel the Toreros to a 67-48 win over the University of San Francisco this past Saturday by notching in her second career triple-double. The San Diego native scored 10 points, recorded 10 assists and had 10 steals in the pounding over the Dons. This marks the only the second triple-double in program history, as Rego notched in the program's first triple-double back on Nov. 16 in a win against Toledo, as she scored 11 points, had 13 rebounds and recorded 10 assists.
GOING STREAKING: USD has now reeled off three straight wins to bounce back from a five-game losing skid, thanks to the 67-48 win over San Francisco this past week. This is only the second time this season that the Toreros have strung together three consecutive wins. The Toreros will look to extend their current winning streak to four on Thursday with a trip to Portland, and can even surpass the season-high four-game winning streak should they also defeat Gonzaga on Saturday at 2 p.m.
REGO GETS ANOTHER TRIPLE-DOUBLE: Senior point guard Amanda Rego recorded her second career triple-double in Saturday's win over San Francisco as she scored 10 points, had 10 assists and recorded 10 steals. This marks the programs second triple-double, as Rego recorded the programs's first triple-double back on Nov. 16 against Toledo as she recorded 11 points, 13 rebounds and had 10 assists. On the season, Rego is averaging 9.8 points per game and 8.3 assists per game.
SPRAGUE NOTCHES ANOTHER DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Amber Sprague recorded her West Coast Conference-leading ninth double-double of the season in Saturday's win over San Francisco. She scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds in the win. On the season, Sprague is leading the team in scoring with her 16.1 points per game average and a team-best 8.8 rebounds per game. Sprague is one of just two players in the league averaging a double-double (13.9 ppg, 10.6 rpg) in conference play.
CHILD LEADING THE CHARGE: Freshman guard Sam Child has been a huge reason the Toreros have won three straight games. During the current three-game winning streak, Child has been leading the team in scoring as she is averaging 15.7 points per game ,while shooting an impressive 66 percent from the field and hitting a little over half of her three point shots (5-for-9). On the season, Child is averaging 10.0 points per game and is shooting .486 from the field.
A LOOK AHEAD: San Diego will continue their road swing on Saturday as they head to Spokane, Wash. for a 2 p.m. WCC game against first-place Gonzaga. After this week's road swing, USD will return home to play Saint Mary's and Santa Clara next week.
FISHER REACHES 100: Head Coach Cindy Fisher picked up her 100th career victory in a win over Pepperdine on Feb. 2. Fisher has spent time as a head coach at the University of Wyoming and is currently in her third year as a head coach at San Diego. For her career, she now has a 101-119 overall record.
THE STREAK CONTINUES: With 18 more double digit scoring performances under her belt this season, junior center Amber Sprague extended her scoring streak to 74 consecutive games. In fact, Sprague has scored a minimum of four points in every game she has played in a Torero uniform. The San Diego, Calif., native has 55 career double-digit scoring performances in 74 games and after a season-high 30-point performance against UCLA, a 28-point outburst against UC Irvine, and a 20-point outing against Portland she now has 16 career 20-point or more outings. Sprague has scored 1,095 points during her current streak, averaging 14.8 ppg, and shooting .462 (445-for-963) from the floor and .855 (248-for-290) from the free throw line.
SPRAGUE REACHES A MILESTONE: Junior center Amber Sprague became just this 10th player in the history of the program to surpass the 1,000 career-point total with her 17 points against San Francisco on Jan 12. She also has become just the third player to reach 1,000 points in three seasons joining the all-time leading scorer Susie Erpelding (1,510 points) and Debbie Theroux (1,015 points).
REGO'S TRIPLE-DOUBLE: San Diego senior point guard Amanda Rego recorded the first triple-double in program history in a Nov. 11 win over Toledo. Rego posted 11 points, had a team-best 13 rebounds and a game-high 10 assists. Rego came close this past season at recording a triple-double in a game against Holy Cross as she had nine points, 13 assists and a program-record 10 steals in a win over the Crusaders in the opening game of the Surf N' Slam Tournament.
TOREROS TABBED AS THE WCC PRESEASON FAVORITE: San Diego was chosen as the favorite to claim the West Coast Conference women's basketball title, edging out defending conference champion Gonzaga in the 2007-08 WCC preseason coaches poll. The Toreros, who set a program record with 21 wins and hosted a WNIT contest for the first time last season, received four first place votes and totaled 58 overall points, while the Bulldogs garnered three first place votes, and received 55 total points to finish second in the annual coaches poll. Gonzaga, who is coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance was picked to finish second. Pepperdine came in third in the voting followed by Loyola Marymount at fourth. Saint Mary's was picked to finish fifth and San Francisco sixth. Santa Clara (seventh) and Portland (eighth) round out the preseason coaches poll.
MEET THE COACH: Head coach Cindy Fisher is entering her third season at the helm of the Toreros program. She was named the program's third head coach on April 19, 2005 after taking over for Kathy Marpe, who stepped down after directing the program for 25 years in 2005. In only her second season at the helm of the program, Fisher orchestrated the biggest turn around in school history, a 12-game improvement from 9-19 in the 2005-06 season to a 21-9 record in 2006-07 season. The turn around was the fourth best in the nation. Under her tutelage, the Toreros placed three players on the All-WCC lists highlighted by Amanda Rego being named the WCC Co-Player of the Year. Rego and Amber Sprague both took home first-team All-WCC honors and Morgan Henderson was named to the All-WCC Freshman team. For her efforts, Fisher was named the 2007 WCC Co-Coach of the Year. At Wyoming, Fisher's Cowgirl teams showed improvement in each of her five seasons, culminating with an 18-12 mark during the 2002-03 season. The 18 wins were the school's most victories since 1989-90. She also led the Cowgirls to their first postseason appearance since 1989-90 with a trip to the 2003 WNIT, where Wyoming notched a first-round win over Montana before falling in the second round.
THREE TOREROS OUT FOR THE SEASON: Junior guard Kelly Winther, sophomore forward Sara VanderHorst and redshirt freshman guard Hannah Morgenstern are all out for the season. Winther and VanderHorst will take a redshirt year. Winther had the second highest points-per-game average for the Toreros a year ago with 10.9 and she led the team in three-point shooting with a team-best 37 three-pointers made. VanderHorst saw limited action in 2006-07 as she scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in 16 games.
GAMETRACKER AVAILABLE: All San Diego women's basketball home games can be followed via Gametracker on the Toreros athletic web site at www.usdtoreros.com. Gametracker is a service of Online College Sports, the official web provider for San Diego athletics, and is a real time update of the action. Selected San Diego road games are also available via Gametracker. To see if Gametracker is available for a game, go to San Diego Events at the top-right of the home page. If Gametracker is available there will be a Gametracker link.
