March 4, 2008
Complete Women's Basketball Release in PDF Format 
IN A NUTSHELL: The University of San Diego women's basketball team (16-12) will open the West Coast Conference Tournament on Thursday as the No. 3 seed against the No. 6 seed, University of Portland. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. inside the friendly confines of the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
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 PILOTS: Portland enters the WCC Tournament with a 15-19 overall record and a 5-9 record in conference action after dropping a pair of games to Saint Mary's and Santa Clara this past week. The Pilots and Toreros split the season series with each team winning on the others home floor. Portland holds a 28-24 all-time record over the Toreros. The Pilots are led by sophomore guard Laiken Dollente, who averages a team-best 11.4 points per game as the lone Portland player in double figures. Portland is under the direction of 22nd-year head coach Jim Sollars. During his time in Portland, Sollars has posted an overall record of 300-337.
TOREROS ON THE AIR: All of the women's basketball games at the WCC Tournament will have a live audio and video broadcast on usdtoreros.com. First round and the semifinal round game will be brought to you by former Torero greats Paula Bott and Susie Erpelding. Should USD reach the championship game on Sunday, College Sports Television will be broadcasting the game live at 1:30 p.m. This marks the second consecutive season that the women's championship game will be on a live televised broadcast.
WCC TOURNAMENT FORMAT: The West Coast Conference Tournament will have a familiar look this year as all eight teams will play on Thursday at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion. Following Thursday's competition, the four remaining teams will be re-seeded with the highest remaining seed playing the lowest remaining seed in one semifinal and the other two schools meeting in the other semifinal. The WCC Championship will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon with winner receiving the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
BRAINS AND BASKETBALL: Morgan Henderson of the University of San Diego women's basketball team has been named to the All-West Coast Conference All-Academic team, the conference office announced Friday afternoon. Henderson, a 6-1 sophomore forward from Leawood, Kan., has posted an overall GPA of 3.54 while being valuable member of the Toreros women's basketball team. On the season, Henderson is averaging 9.0 points per game to go along with 5.1 rebounds per game and has helped the Toreros to a current 16-12 overall record and a 7-7 mark in the WCC, good for a tie for third place.
THREE TOREROS EARN ALL-WCC ACCOLADES: The University of San Diego women's basketball team had three players named to the All-West Coast Conference teams, the conference office announced Monday morning. Senior guard Amanda Rego and junior center Amber Sprague take home first-team All-WCC for the second consecutive year and freshman guard Sam Child was named to the All-Freshman team. Rego, a 5-10 guard from San Diego, helped propel the Toreros into a No. 3 seed in the upcoming WCC Tournament, as she averaged 10.1 points per game and 8.1 assists per game in league action, as she was named the WCC Player of the Week twice during the season. Rego became the all-time leader in both career-assists with 622 and in career-steals with 286. Rego also became the first player in the history of the program to record a triple-double, a feat she achieved twice this season. She also broke her own record with 16 assists in a win over Saint Mary's on Senior Night. Sprague, a 6-5 junior from San Diego, also put together an impressive season as she averaged a double-double in conference action with a 14.3 points-per-game average to go along with a 10.2 rebounds-per-game average. Sprague became the 10th player in the history of the program to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark this season and just the third to do it in three years. Sprague currently has 1,199 career points, good for fourth all-time. Child, a 6-1 freshman from Portland, Ore., bursted onto the scene in her first collegiate season and cracked into the starting line-up in just the second game of the year and hasn't left. Child averaged an impressive 11.8 points per game as a freshman in the WCC. Child was named the WCC Player of the Week once this season and she scored a career-high 27 points in a win against Loyola Marymount on Jan. 31, 2008.
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.
