Recently in Azusa Pacific Category

Senior Briana Hall of Azusa Pacific University is this week's Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Week for her performances in games the week of Feb. 19-25.

The 5-foot-5 guard from Fontana earned her first career 30-point game by scoring 31 points in No. 12 Azusa Pacific's 76-64 upset of GSAC regular-season champion Westmont on Saturday in the last regular-season home game of her career.

She also had nine assists and three steals.

On the week she averaged 20.5 points and eight assists per game as the Cougars (22-6) also earned an 80-58 win over Masters. They secured the No. 2 seed in the GSAC postseason tournament which begins Friday.

For the season Hall, a Miller High School graduate, is averaging 15.6 points and 5.9 assists.

Claremont High School graduate Amber Williams, a senior at Azusa Pacific University, has been named Golden State Athletic Conference women's basketball player of the week.

The 6-foot center scored 51 points and grabbed 33 rebounds as No. 13-ranked Azusa Pacific won both of its conference games last week. She shot 16-for-35 (.457) from the field and 19-for-23 (.826) at the line and recorded double-doubles in both games.

Williams tallied 30 points and 19 rebounds at Point Loma Nazarene and 21 points and 14 rebounds against San Diego Christian.

She leads the GSAC in scoring and rebounding and has 12 double-doubles for the season.

Three of the seven area college football teams are off this week and one that is playing will be on the road. So there aren't many games to choose from.

Linfield, Ore. (0-1) at University of La Verne, 12:30 p.m.

Linfield has had two weeks to sit and stew about its 47-42 loss to Cal Lutheran. La Verne lost its opener to what looks like a very good Azusa Pacific team, also two weeks ago. La Verne's running game looked much improved and that's a good thing. It needs to do well there to have any chance at all of pulling a major upset and snapping its 12 game losing streak which dates back to the end of the 2008 season. Would love to call an upset here but it looks highly improbable.

In the community college ranks  . . .

Chaffey (2-1) at Ventura (2-1), 6 p.m.

The Panthers are coming off a 17-13 loss to Saddleback which doesn't look as dominating as it has been in the past. Chaffey has some nagging injuries, one of those an elbow injury to talented back Erin Madden who will probably be out a minimum of three weeks according to coach Carl Beach. That will hurt big time. Chaffey's offense has not been firing on all cyclinders and it needs to here to get the win on the road.

Santa Monica (2-1) at San Bernardino Valley (0-2), 6 p.m.

A year ago this might have been an easy game but Santa Monica has improved, although its nonconference schedule has not been as challenging as some. The Wolverines had a lot of players banged up two weeks ago in the loss to Riverside. The key here may be how the secondary of SBVC holds up. It has been torched badly in the first two games. Coverages has to be better for the Wolverines to get the W!

Saddleback (2-1)  at Victor Valley (0-3), 1 p.m.

The Rams continue their gauntlet of difficult nonconference games. This looks like the most winnable of the four with the trip to High Desert never an easy one for opponents. The Rams have had a revolving door at quarterback. Dave Hoover finally settled on one - Courtney Patton. But he injured an ankle last week and is questionable. Even if he does go the injury will probably take away some of his mobility which is his strong suit. So the Rams will probably be hard-pressed to pull this one off.

 

Biola University forward Rocky Hampton (Lake
Arrowhead, Calif./Temescal Canyon HS) has been named the Golden State
Athletic Conference men's basketball Player of the Week for the week of
Jan. 19-25 as announced by the conference office on Monday.

The junior from Lake Arrowhead, Calif., averaged 19.5 points and eight
rebounds to lead Biola to a pair of upset wins over nationally-ranked GSAC
teams last week. He finished the week shooting 16-for-25 (.640) from the
field and was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.

Hampton scored a season-high 25 points and added nine rebounds and five
blocked shots in Biola's 65-54 win at No. 23 The Master's College on
Saturday. He scored on 10 of his 14 shots attempts from the field and
converted all five free throw attempts to lead the Eagles.

On Saturday, Hampton scored 14 points and had seven rebounds as Biola
knocked off No. 15 California Baptist University 67-64 at Chase Gymnasium.
After being shutout in the first half, Hampton hit six of seven shots from
the field, scoring all 14 points and helping the Eagles to the upset
victory.

For the season, Hampton is averaging 11.3 points and 8.4 rebounds. He has
also recorded 38 blocks (2.1 per game) which ranks him first in the GSAC
in that category.

Hampton is the first Biola men's basketball player to earn the GSAC Player
of the Week award since the 2005-06 season, when Spencer Foster earned the
honor to close out the year.

Biola (14-5 overall, 5-4 GSAC) closes out the first half of the GSAC
schedule on Tuesday (Jan. 27), traveling to Hope International for a 7:30
p.m. contest.