Feb. 27, 2008
Complete Women's Basketball Release in PDF Format 
IN A NUTSHELL: The University of San Diego women's basketball team (15-11, 6-6 WCC) will hit the road for their final two regular-season games, as they first head to Malibu for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Waves of Pepperdine University. USD will then head to Los Angeles for a 2 p.m. game against Loyola Marymount to conclude the regular-season before returning to the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Mar. 6 to begin play in the WCC Basketball championships.
LAST TIME OUT: Senior point guard Amanda Rego was shinning in her final regular-season home game as she paced the University of San Diego women's basketball team to an 81-71 win over Saint Mary's College. With the win, the Toreros improve to 15-11 overall and move to 6-6 in the WCC. With the loss, the Gaels fall to 13-15 overall and 5-7 in the WCC. Rego was spectacular, as she recorded a double-double with 14 points and set a new single-game record with her 16 assists. Sam Child led all USD scorers with a 20-point performance on 10-for-14 shooting. The third USD player to record double-figures was Amber Sprague as she had 13 points, while going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field. Kiva Herman was the final USD player in double figures as she put up 16 points and pulled down six rebounds. As a team, USD hit on 59 percent of their shots, and out rebounded Saint Mary's 40-28. After the Gaels had scorched USD in the first half hitting on 9-of-12 from beyond the arc and hit 50 percent of their shots to take a 14-point lead going into the break, the Toreros had a complete switch of momentum in the second half. USD began the frame with a pair of Rego free throws to ignite a 16-0 Torero run to take a two point lead at 49-47 with just 14:27 to go. San Diego then kept the pedal to the medal as they continued with the momentum and went on a 14-5 run to complete a 30-5 USD run to and give USD a 63-52 lead on a Child jumper. USD would go on to build their lead up to as many as 14 before settling for a 10-point win. In the first half, the Gaels were red hot as they jumped out to a 14-4 lead. Jontelle Smith looked very impressive for the Gaels in the first half as she scored 19 points, including going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. The Gaels would go on to build up the lead to 14 going into the break as they hit 9 of their 12 three pointers.
SCOUTING THE WAVES: Pepperdine enters the game with an overall record of 8-17 and are 3-9 in the WCC after defeating Loyola Marymount this past Saturday, which marked only the second time this season the Waves have won back-to-back games. Pepperdine owns a 33-20 all-time record against USD, but the Toreros captured the first meeting earlier this season in San Diego 83-72. Pepperdine is led by senior guard Daphanie Kennedy, who averages a team-best 19.5 points per game to go along with 4.8 rebounds per game. Two more players are averaging double figures with Miranda Ayim dropping in 12.5 points per game and Teiosha George adding in 10.2 points per game. The Waves are under the direction of fourth-year head coach Julie Rousseau. During her tenure in Malibu, Rousseau has posted an overall record of 48-74.
SCOUTING THE LIONS: Loyola Marymount enters the week with an overall record of 14-13 and a 6-6 mark in the WCC after dropping a game to Pepperdine this past Saturday. The Lions are currently in a tie for third with USD. San Diego holds a 29-24 all-time series lead over the Lions including capturing the first meeting earlier this season in San Diego 72-56. Senior guard Amanda DeCoud leads the team with a 11.0 points per game average. Freshman guard Renahy Young is the only other player averaging double-figures for the Lions as she scores 10.8 points per game. Young leads the team in conference games averaging 13.1 points per game. The Lions are under the direction of 13th-year head coach Julie Wilhoit. During her tenure in Los Angeles, Wilhoit has posted an overall record of 181-190 and for her career she has amassed a 302-260 record.
SWEET CHILD O' MINE: Freshman guard Sam Child continues to impress all who watch her play as she has progressively gotten better and better each game. In Saturday's win over Saint Mary's, Child scored a team-high 20 points, marking only the second time in her career she has scored 20 or more points. Child has now scored in double figures in the last three consecutive games and she has now moved her average up to 10.4 points per game. Child also has the second highest shooting percentage on the team at .483.
EIGHT(Y) IS GREAT(Y): The 81 points by the Toreros against Saint Mary's this past Saturday marked the fourth time this season that San Diego has eclipsed the 80-point plateau (vs. Toledo and vs. UC Irvine and vs. Pepperdine), winning all four games. In fact, the Toreros have won six of their last seven games when scoring at least 80 points dating back to this past season.
REGO SETS NEW SINGLE-GAME RECORD: Senior guard Amanda Rego broke her own single-game record of 14 assists with a 16 assist performance in the win over Saint Mary's this past Saturday. Rego is currently averaging 8.4 assists per game good for second-best in the nation. Rego has already become the all-time assist leader at USD with 605 and she also holds the all-time steals record with 404. In Saturday's win over Saint Mary's Rego notched in her fifth double-double as she recorded 14 points. On the season, Rego is one of four USD players averaging double figures as she pours in 10.2 points per game.
REGO NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior point guard Amanda Rego of the University of San Diego women's basketball team has been tabbed as the West Coast Conference Player of the Week, it was announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Rego, a San Diego native, helped lead USD to a pair of wins over Santa Clara and Saint Mary's to move the team into a tie for third place in the WCC. For the week, Rego averaged 17 points per game, 9.5 assists per game and seven rebounds per game. In the win over Santa Clara, Rego led the team with a 20-point performance and she pulled down eight rebounds. She then followed that up with a 14 point, six rebound and 16 assist performance against Saint Mary's. The 16 assists set a USD single-game record, that Rego set herself Nov. 19, 2006 in a win over San Diego State when she recorded 14 assists. On the season, Rego is averaging 10.2 points per game and 8.4 assists per game.
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 AND THE TRIPLE-DOUBLE: Senior point guard Amanda Rego recorded her second career triple-double in a win over the University of San Francisco on Feb. 9, 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.
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.
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 21 more double digit scoring performances under her belt this season, junior center Amber Sprague extended her scoring streak to 78 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 58 career double-digit scoring performances in 78 games and after a season-high 30-point performance against both UCLA and Portland, a 28-point outburst against UC Irvine, and a 20-point outing against Portland she now has 17 career 20-point or more outings. Sprague has scored 1,160 points during her current streak, averaging 14.8 ppg, and shooting .467 (472-for-1,006) from the floor and .860 (258-for-300) from the free throw line.
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.
