Women's Basketball November 06, 2026

Toreros Face UC San Diego in Inaugural Bill Walton Classic

San Diego, 1-0 after its first road win of the Alverson era, meets future WCC rival UCSD at approximately 3 p.m. Saturday at Pechanga Arena

SAN DIEGO — San Diego women's basketball (1-0, 0-0 WCC) meets UC San Diego (0-1, 0-0 Big West) on Saturday afternoon at Pechanga Arena in the inaugural National University Bill Walton Classic, the programs' first meeting since 2009 and their first since the Tritons moved to Division I. The Toreros opened the season Monday with a 61-56 win at New Mexico State, their first road win under second-year head coach Blanche Alverson, while the Tritons fell 79-63 at No. 15 Washington.

The women's game follows Colorado vs. San Diego State in the men's game, which tips at 12:30 p.m. PT on USA Network, and begins 30 minutes after that game ends, at approximately 3 p.m. Tickets ($60-$160) cover both games and are available at BillWaltonClassic.com.

Live statistics will be available on USDToreros.com.

THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY BILL WALTON CLASSIC
• Sports San Diego and the Bill Walton Foundation announced the Classic on April 22, 2026, at Walton's alma mater, Helix High School in La Mesa. The event is built to bring San Diego's three Division I basketball programs together under one roof and to honor the Hall of Famer, who died May 27, 2024, at age 71.

• Born in La Mesa, Walton led Helix to a 33-0 season and a CIF championship, won two national titles (1972, 1973) and three national player of the year awards at UCLA, and won NBA championships with Portland (1977) and Boston (1986). The 1978 NBA MVP, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

• "The National University Bill Walton Classic is meant to lift up our three local Division I basketball programs, unite San Diego's basketball community under one roof for an extraordinary day, and pay tribute to a true San Diego legend and Hall of Famer — Bill Walton," said Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego.

• The doubleheader anchors "San Diego Celebrates Bill," a Nov. 5-7 weekend of music, basketball and community giving. Details are at BillWaltonClassic.com.

• Pechanga Arena opened in 1966, was long known as the San Diego Sports Arena, seats 14,500 for basketball and was home to the NBA's San Diego Rockets (1967-71) and Clippers (1978-84). It hosted the 1975 Final Four, where UCLA won the national championship in John Wooden's final game, and is the current home of the AHL's San Diego Gulls.

LAST TIME OUT: TOREROS RALLY PAST NEW MEXICO STATE, 61-56
• San Diego rallied from a nine-point first-quarter deficit to win its season opener Monday night at the Pan American Center, the Toreros' first road win under Blanche Alverson. USD went 0-13 away from home in 2025-26, and the win snapped a 16-game road losing streak that dated to a 75-72 victory at Pacific on Feb. 13, 2025.

• Kiera Pemberton scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting in her USD debut, adding seven rebounds, two steals and a block without a turnover in 32 minutes. Kylie Ray had 19 points, four rebounds and three assists and made all six of her free throws — the last two with three seconds left to seal it.

• Ray opened the scoring with a 3-pointer off her own steal, but the Aggies answered with eight straight points and led 16-7 late in the first quarter. Sammie Wagner's layup gave USD a 22-20 lead with 4:42 left in the second, and New Mexico State went to halftime ahead 28-26 on a step-back 3-pointer with 1:03 left.

• The Toreros won the third quarter 27-20 and took the lead for good at 38-37 on Braelynn Barnett's 3-pointer off a Ray assist with 6:20 left in the period. Pemberton made all five of her shots in the quarter for 11 points, and her layup off an Aggie turnover with 1:18 left made it 51-43, USD's largest lead.

• New Mexico State pulled within 53-52 with 8:43 to play, then went more than six minutes without a point. Ray's layup off an Olivia Owens assist, Pemberton's steal and fast-break layup and her layup off an Eva Ruse feed built a 59-54 lead with 2:18 left, and the Aggies did not score after a jumper made it 59-56 with 1:09 to go.

• USD made 16 of 20 free throws, held New Mexico State to 2-of-14 shooting from 3-point range and scored 18 points off the Aggies' 20 turnovers. Ruse had a team-high 10 rebounds, four of them offensive, Owens had eight points, five rebounds and three assists, and Barnett (five points in eight minutes) and Ayla Williams (two points, three offensive rebounds in seven minutes) chipped in off the bench. Raina Tomasicka scored 24 off the bench for the Aggies.

• The win was USD's second straight over New Mexico State. Last season's 57-48 victory at the Jenny Craig Pavilion followed a similar script, with the Aggies leading at halftime before the Toreros took control in the third quarter.

ABOUT UC SAN DIEGO
• The Tritons (0-1) opened the season Monday with a 79-63 loss at No. 15 Washington. UC San Diego was tied 31-31 at halftime and within one possession deep into the third quarter before the Huskies pulled away with a 30-point fourth. Denver transfer Coryn Watts scored 15 points on 5-of-8 3-point shooting, Erin Condron had 14 points, six rebounds and three steals, and freshman Sadie Sin scored 12 in her collegiate debut.

• UC San Diego went 24-9 and 17-3 in the Big West in 2025-26, earning a share of its first Big West regular-season title and winning its second straight Big West Tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 60-48 win over Hawai'i in the final. The Tritons' second consecutive NCAA Tournament trip ended with an 86-40 loss at No. 3 seed TCU as a No. 14 seed. UCSD is only the second Division I women's program to reach the NCAA Tournament in each of its first two seasons of postseason eligibility after reclassifying from Division II.

• The Tritons were picked first in the Big West preseason coaches' poll for the first time since moving to Division I, receiving 10 of 12 first-place votes and 120 points, and opened the season at No. 5 in the CollegeInsider.com Preseason Mid-Major Top 25. Condron, sophomore guard Lev Feiman and graduate guard Rosa Smith were named to the Big West preseason team, the most preseason honorees in program history.

• Condron, a 6-4 senior forward/center from Woodend, Victoria, Australia, was an All-Big West First Team pick last season after averaging 15.6 points and 8.5 rebounds, setting UCSD's Division I single-season rebounding record (297) and leading the Big West in field-goal percentage (52.1). Her 32 points on Feb. 5 set the program's Division I single-game scoring record.

• Six Tritons return, including three starters: Condron, Smith (10.9 ppg, All-Big West honorable mention) and senior guard Dymonique Maxie (34.3 minutes per game, honorable mention). Feiman made the Big West All-Freshman Team after shooting 39.5 percent from 3-point range. Three transfers headline seven newcomers: Watts, an All-Summit League First Team pick who averaged 19.6 points at Denver; Jite Gbemuotor, an All-Big West honorable mention selection at CSUN (9.2 points, 8.3 rebounds); and Alexandra Cummins from San Jose State (8.5 ppg). UCSD started Condron, Maxie, Smith, Feiman and Cummins at Washington.

• Heidi VanDerveer is in her 15th season at UC San Diego, where she is 276-140, and has a 384-221 career record as a college head coach. Hired in May 2012, she led the Tritons to five straight CCAA regular-season titles (2016-20) in Division II and has taken them to seven NCAA Tournaments, including the last two in Division I. The younger sister of Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, she played at the College of Charleston and has also been a head coach at Eastern Washington, Occidental and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs and Minnesota Lynx.

ALL-TIME SERIES: USD LEADS 9-0
• San Diego is 9-0 all-time against UC San Diego and won the most recent meeting 88-69 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Nov. 14, 2009, in its 2009-10 season opener. Saturday is the first meeting since the Tritons moved to Division I in 2020 and a preview of a conference rivalry: UC San Diego joins the WCC on July 1, 2027, so the crosstown schools will play home-and-home every season beginning in 2027-28.

• Emily Hatch scored a career-high 20 points — 18 of them in the first half on 9-of-9 shooting — and four Toreros reached double figures as San Diego opened the 2009-10 season with an 88-69 win over the then-Division II Tritons at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. Morgan Henderson had 16 points and nine rebounds, Dominique Conners had 15 points and a game-high seven steals and Sam Child added 11.

• UC San Diego's press forced turnovers on USD's first three possessions, and the Tritons led 13-0 before Conners' free throw with 14:45 left in the first half. A 16-3 run tied it at 16, Henderson's layup put USD ahead for good at 21-20 with 8:04 left in the half, and the Toreros led 46-28 at the break after shooting 18 of 28. USD finished 30 of 53 (56.6 percent) under head coach Cindy Fisher.

• The series dates to 1980-81. USD's other recent wins came at UC San Diego on Nov. 8, 2003 (90-70), and at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Nov. 14, 2008 (66-51).

FAMILIAR FACES
• UC San Diego assistant coach Alexandria Young is a 2018 USD graduate who spent five years with the Torero women's basketball program as a player. She joined the Tritons in June 2023 after three seasons as Gonzaga's director of basketball operations and is in her fourth season on Heidi VanDerveer's staff.

• Tritons associate head coach Vanessa Nygaard, a Carlsbad High graduate, was head coach of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury in 2022-23 and spent four seasons as a Pepperdine assistant (2004-08). She played for Tara VanDerveer at Stanford and six seasons in the WNBA.

• VanDerveer and USD assistant Jualeah Woods worked together on Beth Burns' San Diego State staff in 2007-08, when VanDerveer was the Aztecs' associate head coach. Woods coached at SDSU from 2005-13.

• Kylie Ray's grandfather, Jim Harrick, coached UCLA to the 1995 national championship — the Bruins' first since 1975, when John Wooden's final team won the title at the San Diego Sports Arena, now Pechanga Arena.

• Pemberton and UCSD's Coryn Watts were Summit League opponents in 2024-25, when Pemberton earned All-Summit League Second Team honors at North Dakota and Watts was a freshman at Denver.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
#9 KIERA PEMBERTON | SENIOR | 6-1 | FORWARD | LANGLEY, B.C. | WALNUT GROVE SECONDARY | NORTH DAKOTA / BAYLOR
2026-27 Season
• Pemberton scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting in her USD debut at New Mexico State, adding seven rebounds, two steals and a block without a turnover in 32 minutes. She made all five of her shots in the third quarter for 11 points, and her steal and fast-break layup with 3:30 left, followed by a block on the Aggies' next possession, helped close out the 61-56 win.

#6 KYLIE RAY | JUNIOR | 5-8 | GUARD | LA CRESCENTA, CALIF. | CRESCENTA VALLEY | UTAH
2026-27 Season
• Ray scored 19 points with four rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes at New Mexico State, opening the game with a 3-pointer off her own steal and sealing it with two free throws with three seconds left. She made all six of her free throws and has hit 91 of 101 (90.1 percent) as a Torero.

#24 OLIVIA OWENS | SOPHOMORE | 5-10 | GUARD | COLUMBUS, OHIO | PHOENIX COUNTRY DAY
2026-27 Season
• Owens had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 26 minutes at New Mexico State. Her third-quarter 3-pointer cut a five-point deficit to 35-33, and she assisted on Pemberton's 3-pointer later in the quarter and on Ray's layup that made it 55-52 with 4:56 left.

#15 EVA RUSE | JUNIOR | 6-2 | FORWARD | NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. | MULGRAVE SCHOOL
2026-27 Season
• Ruse had a team-high 10 rebounds, four of them offensive, with an assist and a steal in 22 minutes at New Mexico State. Her feed set up Pemberton's layup for a 59-54 lead with 2:18 left, and she came up with a steal on the Aggies' next possession.

#20 BRAELYNN BARNETT | SOPHOMORE | 6-1 | FORWARD | AURORA, COLO. | CHERRY CREEK | GEORGETOWN
2026-27 Season
• Barnett scored five points in eight minutes in her USD debut at New Mexico State. Her two free throws tied the game at 35 with 6:59 left in the third quarter, and her 3-pointer off a Ray assist with 6:20 left put the Toreros ahead 38-37 — they did not trail again.

#11 SAMMIE WAGNER | GRADUATE | 6-1 | GUARD/FORWARD | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS | RONALD REAGAN | OREGON
2026-27 Season
• Wagner started her USD debut at New Mexico State and played 27 minutes with two rebounds and a steal. Her layup with 4:42 left in the second quarter gave the Toreros a 22-20 lead, their first since the opening minutes.

#22 AYLA WILLIAMS | SOPHOMORE | 6-0 | POST | LAS VEGAS, NEV. | CENTENNIAL
2026-27 Season
• Williams had two points and three offensive rebounds in seven minutes off the bench at New Mexico State. Her two free throws with 1:43 left in the third quarter made it 49-43.

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