Women's NCAA

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Soph Nina Davis scored a career-high 43 pts in Baylor's rout of Ole Miss, 96-54. Davis shot 14/17 FG and 15/19 FT and grabbed 9 reb.

Another career-high was scored by Pittsburgh freshman Yacine Diop, 22 pts (on 10/13 FG shooting) and 10 reb, but her team lost to Duquesne 87-77. Diop is from Senegal and played with the 2012 U18 NT in the African Championship, where she was named tournament's MVP.

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Freshman Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State ranks currently third in D1 national scoring with 26.2 ppg.
One of the top HS 2014-class players, Mitchell was never selected to any USA Basketball cadet or junior teams.

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Career-high records set by three Southern California players in yesterday's OT win over CSU Northridge.

Sr Fw Alexyz Vaioletama scored 24 pts (11/19 FG) and freshman guard McKenzie Calvert had 21 (with four threes, among them the clutch basket that sent the game to OT). Finally, RS Soph Jordan Adams finished with 8 asst.
Vaioletama and Adams were already teammates in the USA cadet NT at the 2009 U16 Fiba Americas.

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Jr guard Jewell Loyd has replaced Skylar Diggins at Notre Dame as backcourt super star. She tops Irish scoring with 24.1ppg after 10 games and tied her team's scoring record with 41 pts in the last game won over DePaul in OT, 94-93. Loyd helped ND to rally from a 6-pt deficit to tie the game in regulation time and scored seven points in OT.

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Some sources indicate that soph guard Chrishae Rowe would transfer to Kentucky, after she was dismissed from Oregon last month.

She was the Ducks' leading scorer as a freshman in 2013-14 season and the second PAC-12 team's leading scorer (after Ariya Crook of USC) to be dismissed for unspecified rules violation prior to the current season.

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Texas jr center Imani McGee-Stafford back to the court for the first time this season, after a long recovery from a stress fracture on her leg.
She contributed with 4 pts and 4 reb in 9' play. Longhorns are currently 9-0 and ranked third.

Sr center Elizabeth Williams (Duke) had a monster double-double of 26 pts and 20 reb (+3 bs) in Duke's win over Oklahoma, 92-72.

#7 Stanford suffered another loss to unranked Chattanooga 54-46 and is now 6-3. After the upset of UConn, Cardinal have been quite disappointing and will probably drop out from the Top-10.

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Once among top HS players, Sr Fw Justine Hartman is ending her college career sitting on the bench at University of California.
Hartman led Brea Olinda, Cal, to the top-five 2011 national ranking and was selected to play at the McDonald's and WCBA All-American games. She was then ranked the #2 post player at national level (behind Duke's Elizabeth Williams). In 2009 she was named to the US U16 NT that won the Fiba Americas title, averaging 10.4ppg, among the best in a talent-loaded team. She couldn't participate in the 2010 U17 WC trials having missed the entire season for injury.
At college the 6-2 post was shifted to Fw. After a fine freshman season Hartman didn't meet the expectations, becoming an ordinary bench player.

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Sr Fw Bonnie Samuelson scored a career-high 30 pts vs UC Davis, ending Stanford's two-game losing streak. Stanford heavily fell to #16 in the national rankings. Bonnie sank 6 on 10 3-pointers, but her yesterday's performance was surpassed by the spectacular shooting show from freshman Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State who scored 39 pts, a school record, on 8/10 3-pts. In the process, Ohio State destroyed #21 ranked West Vriginia 96-54.

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On the way of 3-pointer performances, Dec 21st also recorded the awesome shooting of Iowa sr guard Melissa Dixon, who scored all her FGs from beyond the arc on 10/14 shooting. Led by Dixon's 31 pts, Iowa beat Drake 100-98.

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As non-conference schedule is nearly over, several DI colleges are still unbeaten.
Besides AP #1 South Carolina (12-0) and #3 Texas (10-0), some surprising teams own unblemished records such as #11 Oregon State (10-0), #14 Georgia (11-0), #19 Mississippi State (14-0) and unranked Princeton (13-0).

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UConn easily won the ACC opener vs Southern Methodist (96-45) and coach Geno Auriemma became the all-time leader in winning percentage with an 888-134 record. Moriah Jefferson scored a career-high 24 pts (adding 5 steals) for the winners.
Australian twins Alicia and Keely Froling of SMU had identical score (7 pts) on same FG shooting (3/7), with Alicia adding a FT and Keely hitting a three.

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UConn's dominance in ACC continued with a big win over Duke 83-52, in a game that was close just in first half. Huskies were again led by Moriah Jefferson (18 pts) but all starters scored in double digits. Sr Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis went past Maya Moore in school's history 3-pt made and is now second behind Diana Taurasi by just three. Duke's best scorers were freshman Azurà Stevens and sr Elizabeth Williams.

National leading scorer Kelsey Plum led unranked Washington with 32 pts in upset of #5 Texas A&M, that suffered its second loss in a row.

In another upset, Swedish center Amanda Zahui (20 pts + 15 reb) led unranked Minnesota over #10 Nebraska in Big10 opener, 72-69. It was this season's ninth double-double scored by soph Zahui (who redshirted her freshman year), a former Swedish NT junior star.

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Soph Leticia Romero of Spain, a Kansas State transfer, made her debut with Florida State contributing with 6 pts, 6 reb and 6 ast to Seminoles' win over Jacksonville in the final non-conference game. FSU is now 13-1 and would probably deserve a place in the top-25. While at KSU, Romero finished the 2013-14 season as one of the best freshmen prospect.

Another top-soph, guard Kaela Davis scored a career-high 35 pts for Georgia Tech, winning the local Holiday Tournament over Louisiana Tech.

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Injury toll of the first part of current season is already high. Among others:

Jr fw Xylina McDaniel (UNC) sidelined with lower leg injury, she underwent surgery last week and could miss the remainder of the season.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/12/xylina-mcdaniel-sidelined-by-leg-injury

Former UConn fw Michala Johnson, now at U. of Wisconsin as a 5th-yr senior, torn her ACL early in December. She was an All-Big 10 last season.

Two promising frewhmen, Lynee Belton of Duke and Regan Magarity of Viriginia Tech also suffered season-ending injuries. Fw Belton with torn ACL and Magarity with a calf injury that will probably sideline for the rest of season. Magarity was the Hokies' leading scorer.

Different case is Texas Christian's Alexia Standish, a jr guard and Texas A&M transfer, who decided to leave the team by mid-Dec, to pursue an academic career program within TCU.

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Fw soph Stephanie Mavunga was nearly perfect in FG shooting (13/14) as she scored 26 for UNC easy win over East Tennessee St. That's a career-high for Mavunga, who already earned international experience with the 2011 U16 NT at the Fiba Americas.