The UC Riverside women’s basketball team concluded the 2008-09 season with a 64-51 loss to Creighton University in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Saturday evening at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha. The Bluejays improve to 22-11 and advance to the second round of the WNIT, while the Highlanders finish with a 19-12 overall record.

The first half was very reminiscent of UCR’s most recent game against Cal Poly, in which there were numerous tie scores and lead changes within the first 20 minutes of play. Creighton went up by as much as eight points at the 6:58 mark, but the Highlanders whittled the lead to three, 30-27, at the break.

Kemie Nkele led UCR in the first half with 10 points and nine rebounds, including a last second layup at the buzzer. The Highlanders saw a 17-15 lead at the 9:21 mark turn into a 10-0 Bluejay run, giving Creighton their largest lead of the half.

UC Riverside, who averages just 14.4 turnovers per game, committed 12 in the first half alone as the Bluejays were able to capitalize on UCR’s miscues by converting 20 points off turnovers. The Highlanders were also outrebounded, 19-16, but most importantly gave up six more boards on the offensive glass, giving Creighton seven second chance points compared to UCR’s one.

In the second half the Bluejays drained 4-of-5 three-pointers and opened up a double-digit lead on multiple occasions. The Highlanders closed the gap to nine points, 51-42, with 7:33 remaining in the game, but could get no closer as the Bluejays held on for the win.

Nkele led the Highlanders with 18 points and 12 rebounds, her seventh double-double on the season and the 45th of her career. Seyram Gbewonyo added 10 points, Roney Friend had eight, Tainoisouti Lott contributed six, Chanel Foster had five, and Alyssa Morris added four.

For the game the Highlanders shot 42.9 percent from the floor but just 21.4 percent from beyond the arc. Conversely, Creighton shot 41.4 percent from the field but hit 50.0 percent of their long balls.

This was UCR’s first postseason WNIT appearance, but third postseason in the last four years. Creighton is 21-5 all-time in the WNIT, including a 2003 Final Four berth and a 2004 WNIT Championship.

The Highlanders say goodbye to eight seniors, each of whom have given so much to the UC Riverside women’s basketball program. Compiling a 70-54 record the last four years, the Highlanders won two Big West Conference Championships, went to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, and competed in the postseason in three of four years.

This season alone, UCR tallied a school-best 13-game win streak; had a school-best 14-2 conference record; and defeated their first top-25 opponent in a 50-47 win over then-No. 16 Vanderbilt back in December. Their 19 wins on the season also tied the record for the second-most wins in school history.

Nkele concludes her career as the all-time leader in rebounds and blocked shots, and finishes 130 points away from the top spot in total points. Four different Highlanders also rank among the top-10 in multiple categories including games played, games started, rebounds, assists, field goals, and blocked shots.

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Western Washington University men’s basketball guard Ira Graham has been selected to play in the 2009 National Association of Basketball Coaches/NCAA Division II All-Star Game at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m. ET.
Graham, a 6-foot-1 senior from Fontana, Calif. (Fontana High School), was named to both the first-team NABC West District and Daktronics West Region all-star squads.  He will play for the West team.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Graham finished his four-year career with 1,465 points, tying him for seventh among school leaders.  He scored 515 points as a senior, becoming the first Western player to have two 500-point seasons.

Graham, a two-time, first-team league all-star, helped the Vikings to a 21-6 record, the school’s first outright GNAC title and the first round of the NCAA II West Regional.  He averaged 19.1 points, being held under double figures in just two games, and 3.2 assists.

Graham was Western’s top scorer and ranked second among GNAC point leaders in each of the last two seasons.

“It’s certainly a high honor and one that is well deserved,” Western coach Brad Jackson (24th year, 445-256) said of Graham’s selection. “Ira has had one of the outstanding individual seasons in the West Region, and he will be an excellent representative of our university.”

Graham will be the second Viking to compete in the NABC DII all-star contest.  Western’s Ryan Diggs participated in the inaugural game in 2006, receiving co-MVP honors.

The all-star game is comprised of teams from the East and West, with at least two players from each of the eight NCAA II regions competing in the contest.   The all-stars will attend both the NCAA II Men’s Basketball Championship semifinals, March 26, and the national championship game, March 28, being recognized during halftime of a semifinal game.

The 20 participants in the all-star game were chosen from a pool of 265 teams in Division II.

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Cal Poly Pomona 59

BYU-Hawaii 58

LAIE, Hawaii – The thought crossed one’s mind as the Brigham Young University Hawaii pep band played “Eye of the Tiger” – the theme song from the motion picture Rocky III – prior to the Seasiders-Cal Poly Pomona NCAA Division II West Region title game.

The thought: Well, if Rocky could deliver an upset, why not the Broncos?

And what an upset it was.

On Wednesday night in the nation’s 50th state, Rocky showed his face again in the form of the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos men’s basketball team, which took on No. 3 Brigham Young Hawaii, winners of 24 straight and the West Region’s top seed.

Senior Larry Gordon (Pomona) placed a put-back shot with 3.6 seconds left and the Broncos went on to upset the host Seasiders 59-58 before a raucous crowd of 4,221 at the Canon Center.

“We didn’t change anything that we hadn’t done all season,” said coach Greg Kamansky, who will lead his Broncos to their third NCAA Elite Appearance in the last seven years. “We spread the court and played decisive. I thought we played tentative for the first 35 minutes.”

The Broncos will face Central champion Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday afternoon in Springfield, Mass., in the opening round of the Elite Eight.

Inside the game’s five minutes, the Broncos took control. Trailing 56-43 with 6:39, the Broncos held off the athletic Seasiders with a shocking 16-2 run to end the game.

What was even more surprising was the fact that the Broncos held BYUH without a field goal in that span. Seasiders’ senior Lucas Alves hit a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left to give his team a 58-57 lead.

After Alves’ free throws, the Broncos called time out. They brought the ball up court. Gordon held the ball and drove inside. He placed a shot that missed, but he rebounded the ball and placed it up off the glass and dropped through with 3.6 seconds remaining.

“We were going to work it on a ball screen,” said Gordon, who finished the night with 18 points, 15 rebounds and was named the West Region’s Most Outstanding Player. “The defender over played and put up a shot. I was able to rebound, put it back and I’m thankful that it found a way to drop through the net.”

The double-double was Gordon’s 11th on the season and his 34th in his career. In his three West Region games he secured a double-double in each game and totaled 74 points and 38.

“To be down 13 and come back … we believe in what coach says,” Gordon said. “He told us to calm down, slow down and dig down on defense.”

BYUH built its largest lead of the game (42-27) on a 3-pointer by Alves with 14:11 remaining.

CPP answered, though, with a 10-2 run in the next two minutes when junior Dahir Nasser drove in and scored a layup with 12:12 and BYUH leading, 44-37.

Cal Poly Pomona made its exasperating run when it trailed 56-43 with 6:39 remaining. A pair of layups from Tobias Jahn (Babenhausen, Germany) and junior Robert Summers (Los Angeles) cut the lead to inside 10 at 56-47.

Summers hit the second of two free throws and Gordon hit a pair of free throws and the Broncos drew within 6 at 56-50 with 3:21 left.

BYUH turned the ball over twice on its next two possessions and Jahn drove inside with a strong layup and the Broncos got inside five points – 56-52 for the first time since the first three minutes of the game.

The Seasiders had a chance to increase its lead back to six, but Alves missed two free throws; a rare occurrence for the 75 percent shooter on the season.

The Broncos drove and kicked the ball out to Thompson, who buried a 3-pointer – his second on the game – and CPP silenced the crowd as it drew within one point at 56-55 with 1:47 left.

BYUH missed two jump shots – one by Nathan Sims and the other from Jermaine Odjegba – and the Broncos earned their first lead of the game on Jahn’s two free throws with 53 seconds left.

Jahn, who joined Gordon on the West Region All-Tournament team, scored 14 points with three assists. Junior Austin Swift (Santa Cruz) scored nine points – all in the first half – before fouling out of the game with 6:39 left.

Sims scored 11 and Trenson Akana had 10 for the Seasiders, who finished the season 27-2.

The Broncos held BYUH to a shocking 34 points below its season average of 92 points. The Seasiders’ 58 points was their lowest of the season.

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