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SEATTLE -- Washington opens the 2015-16 season on Saturday at 2 p.m. when Santa Clara comes to Alaska Airlines Arena. The Dawgs look to continue the upward trend in the program the returned to the NCAA Tournament last season. The game is not available on TV, but there will be a live webcast via the link above and will be broadcast on 1150 KKNW AM radio and kknw.com.
What To Look For
- Washington lost their opening game last season at Oklahoma, but won its home opener vs. South Dakota.
- The Dawgs last opened at home in 2012, beating Sainy Mary's, 70-68.
- The Huskies are not ranked in either poll, but did receive votes in the Coaches Poll.
- Kelsey Plum was named the No. 10 player in the country in the ESPNW preseason rankings.
- The Huskies were picked sixth by both the coaches and the media in the Pac-12 preseason polls.
- Plum was chosen as preseason All-Pac-12 by the media.
Previous Matcups With Santa Clara
The last time Santa Clara faced Washington was over a decade ago, in 2001, when the Broncos defeated the Huskies 71-56. However, the UW holds the series lead at three games to two.
Entering the Year
Washington enters the 2015-16 season coming off four-straight 20-win seasons and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. Head coach Mike Neighbors has built the program into a nationally relevant squad and the Dawgs will look to carry the positive momentum to even greater heights this season. Much of the excitement revolves around All-America candidate Kelsey Plum who is coming off a Wooden Top-15 nomination last season and a summer playing with the best the United States had to offer at the Pan-American Games. She will be joined by returning starters Talia Walton and Brianna Ruiz, along with key reserve Chantel Osahor. Walton is coming off her best season at Washington and will be asked to take on an even bigger role in 2015-16. The Huskies will play a difficult non-conference schedule that includes neutral-site matchups with Syracuse and Texas Tech at the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas, a road game at South Dakota and a home game against Oklahoma. That combined with the always difficult Pac-12 conference should set up the Huskies with plenty of competition for the results needed to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Scouting Santa Clara
The Santa Clara Broncos, under head coach JR Payne, finished the 2014-15 season with an 11-18 overall record and a 5-13 record in the West Coast Conference. Led by Junior Marie Bertholdt, the Broncos forward who started all 29 games last season, Santa Clara looks to improve on last season. Santa Clara is losing 46.1 points per game from last year's roster due to graduation or injury. Resulting from that, the Broncos added seven new players to the 2015-16 team, with four being freshmen. So far in this season the Broncos have won their two exhibition matches against Notre Dame de Namur (90-50) and San Francisco State University (71-42).
2014-15 In Review
Washington returned to the NCAA Tournament last year off the strength of a 11-1 non-conference record and fifth-place finish in the Pac-12. Washington picked up some signature wins along the way, defeating Florida State at the Cancun Challenge, then upsetting No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 7 Oregon State at Alaska Airlines Arena. Overall, Washington now has three-straight wins over top-10 teams at home, having also upset No. 3 Stanford in 2014. For the season, the Huskies finished 23-10, falling to Miami (Fla.) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Washington was selected as a top-20 team during the midseason look by the NCAA and earned a No. 6 seed in the Big Dance. The Dawgs finished 11-7 in conference and beat Utah in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. The Huskies also led the conference in scoring at 75.0 ppg and led the nation in free-throw shooting at 78.0 percent.
Kelsey Plum
The Huskies return one of the top players in the country in junior guard Kelsey Plum. The native of Poway, Calif., was a Wooden Top-15 nominee and WBCA All-Regional selection last season. Her 746 points and 22.6 ppg scoring average both led the Pac-12 and were Washington records. Plum also set Husky records with 45 points against Oklahoma and with 207 made free throws. She returns to UW with 1,458 points career points after becoming the seventh-fastest to 1,000 in NCAA history. A veteran of the U-19 World Championship Gold Medal winning Team USA in 2013, Plum won silver for Team USA at the Pan-American Games this past summer.
Other Returning Starters
Washington returns two other starters in senior Talia Walton and redshirt sophomore Brianna Ruiz. Walton also surpassed 1,000 career points last year, while becoming the Huskies all-time leader in blocked shots with 149. She earned All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention after averaging 13.0 ppg on a career-best 46 percent shooting. Ruiz started 28 games as a redshirt freshman, connecting on 34 3-pointers and will play an even larger role in 2015-16.
Other Returners
The Huskies return perhaps the best bench player in the conference last season in junior Chantel Osahor. Likely to be elevated to a starter this year, Osahor was a key weapon off the bench last year, averaging 5.1 points and 6.4 rebounds in just 21.1 minutes per game. The multi-talented post also had an assist/turnover ratio of 53/26, which was among the best in the nation for a frontcourt player. Also returning in the post and looking for a bigger role this year is redshirt junior Katie Collier. The Huskies best shot blocker is now two seasons removed from her ACL injury and ready for her best season at UW. In the backcourt, the Dawgs return a pair of sophomores in Khalia Lark and Kelli Kingma, along with senior Alexus Atchley. Lark came on towards the end of last season with her slashing and scoring ability from the wing, while Kingma is probably the Huskies' best ball-handler outside of Plum. Atchley is a former walk-on that earned a scholarship and will be one of the team captains this season. Other returners are post Mathilde Gilling and guard Mackenzie Wieburg, both capable of helping the Huskies this season as well.
Incoming All-American
The Huskies have just one freshman this year, but she is a McDonald's All-American in 6-5 post player Deja Strother. Strother will make an immediate impact along the Washington frontline with her rebounding, defense and post scoring. In her senior season at Inglemoor HS in Bothell, Wash., Strother averaged 17.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. She was rated as high as No. 35 in the country by Prospects Nation and is now the third McDonald's All-American on the Washington team, joining Katie Collier and Kelsey Plum.
Graduated Greats
Washington lost two of the program's all-time great players to graduation in guard Jazmine Davis and forward Aminah Williams. Davis left as the Huskies all-time leading scorer, while Williams is the all-time leading rebounder. Both players will be missed, but the Huskies believe they have the depth to overcome the losses of two greats that helped rebuild the program from a Pac-12 afterthought to a NCAA Tournament team. The duo won 84 games at Washington, never less than 20 in a season. Davis scored 2,277 points in her Husky career, leaving as the all-time leading scorer, but also sixth in Pac-12 history. She also holds the Husky record for free throws, 3-pointers, field goals attempted, 3-pointers attempted and free throws attempted. Davis is also the only four-time All-Pac-12 Player in Washington history. Williams was probably the best rebounder in the country for her size, measuring at 6-0, but averaging 10.8 rpg as a sophomore, 10.4 as a junior and 9.3 as a senior. Her 1,142 total rebounds are a UW record, but she also holds the school record for games played at 132.
Head Coach Mike Neighbors
Head coach Mike Neighbors begins his third year with the Huskies. Last year, he joined Chris Gobrecht and June Daugherty as the only Washington coaches to lead the Dawgs to the NCAA Tournament. Neighbors now has an overall record of 43-24, including 21-15 in the Pac-12, third best among active conference coaches with only Tara Vanderveer and Lindsey Gotlieb posting better records against the Pac-12.I n his first season, Neighbors was named a finalist for the Maggie Dixon Award, an honor given to the top coach in Division I. Neighbors was a longtime assistant coach, including two years with the Huskies under previous head coach, Kevin McGuff.
2014 Pac-12 Honors
Jazmine Davis and Kelsey Plum earned All-Pac-12 honors with Davis becoming the first four-time recipient in Washington history. Talia Walton was also named Honorable Mention All-Pac-12, while Aminah Williams was Honorable Mention All-Defensive Team.
2014 Pac-12 All-Academic
Washington had two players honored as Pac-12 All-Academic as Kelsey Plum and Aminah Williams were named honorable mention. Williams was nominated for the Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year after graduating with a double major in Medical Anthropology/Global Health and Sociology.
Pac-12 Tourney In Seattle
Seattle will once again be an epicenter of women's basketball as the Dawgs have a great home schedule this season, while the Pac-12 Tournament will be played at KeyArena for a fourth-straight year. The Pac-12 Tournament is set to begin on March 3 and will continue until the final on March 6. Washington hopes 2015 will be the year they can make a deep run in the tournament in front of their home fans.
