Women's NCAA

[serbianhoops]

Abby Cole's move to basketball made official

[carlo]

Tennessee next season risks to be again a nightmare, same as last one. Andraya Carter, a 2015 graduate will forego her final playing eligibility year to recover from multiple injuries, while rising soph Tea Cooper injured her knee and is lost for the season. Both are guards, and Volunteers roster is down to 9 players.

[carlo]

2016-17 season is about to start without a clear favorite, with UConn and Notre Dame getting the most votes in various national rankings. Other top choices are Baylor, South Carolina and Maryland/Louisville.

As for the most talented players, a Top 25 survey has been delivered by ESPN. Juniors dominate the top three positions, led by A'ja Wilson (South Carolina), who is the top choice by AP as well, followed by Brianna Turner (Notre Dame) and Kelsey Mitchell (Ohio State).

Concerning the top freshmen, Baylor has two (ESPN) Top-10 2016 recruits, the #1 Lauren Cox and #8 Natalie Chou, Texas has #2 Joyner Holmes and #6 Alecia Sutton, UConn #3 Crystal Dangerfield (back from a long stop), Oregon #4 Sabrina Ionescu, Notre Dame #5 Erin Boley, Maryland #7 Destiny Slocum, Duke #9 Leaonna Odum and Ohio State #20 Tori McCoy.

[carlo]

Several high-ranked teams played in yesterday's non-conference games.

UConn won a close contest with Florida State, confirming to be a more "average" team than in the past seasons, while big soph center Kalani Brown led Baylor over UCLA with 25 pts, 19 reb an 6 assists. UConn will next host Baylor as the non-favorite team.

South Carolina saw action for the first time overcoming Ohio State thanks to a strong combined effort of two transfers, Kaela Davis (37 pts, 10 reb) and Allisha Gray (24). Getting early in foul trouble, big A'ja Wilson had a night to forget for Gamecocks.

[carlo]

Winning over Baylor after a strong Q4, UConn should get back to the first place in the national polls. Great game of diminutive freshman guard Crystal Dangerfield, who led her team with 19 pts and 5 assists. Huskies took care of Lady Bears bigs, as All-Am candidate Nina Davis and top freshman Lauren Cox were held scoreless.

Soph transfer guard Recee Caldwell scored a career-high 38 pts for Texas Tech in a losing effort vs Texas A&M.

[carlo]

Stanford lost a home game vs unranked Gonzaga, led by little-known soph fw Jill Barta with 26 pts.

Another soph, Jordin Canada of UCLA finished with a triple double (11 pts, 10 reb and 12 assists) in an easy win over Southern, while F/C teammate Monique Billings had a solid 22 pts + 15 reb performance.

Maryland scored its third consecutive 100+ game with 11 players scoring at least 4.

[carlo]

Soph guard Asia Durr led Louisville to the fourth win scoring 34 pts, her career-high. The 2015 top ranked recruit, Durr hit 8 threes on 13 attempts.

[carlo]

Sabrina Ionescu, one of this season top freshmen, led Oregon to the third straight win with 26 pts (and 5/7 threes), 8 reb and 4 asts.

Soph Kristine Anigwe scored 23 pts on 10/13 FG shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds for California's fourth win. Anigwe started another great season leading Cal in both ppg and rpg with 20.5 and 9.8.

[carlo]

Some career-high performances recorded yesterday:

- Soph Marina Marbrey (#1 Notre Dame) 27 pts;
- Soph K-L Samuleson (# UConn) 29 pts + 6 reb & 6 assists;
- Sr Alexis Brown (#5 Baylor) 6 three pointers;
- Jr Lexie Brown (Duke) 32 pts;
- Soph Stephanie Watts (North Carolina) 39 pts.

All winning efforts, btw.

[carlo]

Italy's Francesca Pan, a freshman at Georgia Tech, led Yellow Jackets to their fifth straight victory over Dayton (81-68) scoring 25 pts and grabbing 8 reb. Pan is a shooting guard and long time member of Italian junior national teams. She earned silver at this year's Euro U20 and led Italy to the 4th place as leading scorer at the 2015 U18 Euro and 2013 U16.

[carlo]

Sr guard Kelsey Plum dropped 44 pts, one shy of tying her career high, in Washington rout of Seattle 94-64. Plum also added 9 rebounds and 5 assists and is the current national leading scorer.

Soph fw Kitija Laksa of Latvia scored again 34 pts for South Florida win over Georgia. Laksa finished with the same score few days ago against North Carolina. Unbeaten USF Bulls field as many as 9 international players in their roster.

[carlo]

Triple double for Oregon freshman Sabrina Ionescu, with 11 points, 12 reb and 11 assists in Ducks win over San Jose State 91-62.

Season ending injury suffered by RS Sr Jordan Adams of USC (torn ACL). A promising tall guard at HS level, Jordan Adams won three golds with US U16/17/19 national teams, but her collegiate career has been often troubled through the years.

[carlo]

UConn celebrated its 80th straight win with an 80-43 rout of Chattanooga. Soph Napheesa Collier was nearly perfect in shooting with 11/12 FG as she led the Huskies with 23 points. Freshman Crystal Dangerfield dnp as she's still recovering from concussion suffered a week ago. #2 UCon will meet #1 Notre Dame on Dec 7.

[carlo]

Three career-highs for three juniors in yesterday's games.

Kia Nurse netted 33 pts in UConn rout of DePaul 91-46, hitting 12/16 FG (6/9 threes).

Aja Wilson led South Carolina over Texas with 32 pts, 12 reb and 4 blocks.

Guard Tyra Buss scored 38 pts on 10/14 FG and 14/15 FT in a losing effort of Indiana vs North Carolina State. As a HS senior in 2014, Buss averaged more than 45 ppg at Mt Carmel HS, Ill.

[carlo]

In a major upset, Rs Jr Rebecca Greenwell led unranked Duke to victory over #3 South Carolina 74-63. Greenwell finished with 29 points (hitting 4/7 threes).

UConn overcame a slow start to prevail over Texas 72-54. Super-soph Napheesa Collier led the Huskies with 25 pts (10/15 FG shooting), 8 reb and 5 steals.