Friday, November 11
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
University of Washington
vs
Eastern Washington
Huskies Open 2016-17 Season Against Eastern Washington
November 10, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Overall, Washington is 25-17 in season openers and 1-2 under fourth year head coach Mike Neighbors. The Huskies have been victorious in 32 of its 42 home openers.
Washington is coming off a pair of exhibition victories, most recently cruising to a 99-57 win against Concordia University on Wednesday (Nov. 2), fueled by double-digit performances from Kelsey Plum (29), Mai-Loni Henson (14) and Chantel Osahor (12).
The Huskies have faced off against Eastern Washington 23 times, coming away with 22 triumphs. The two teams last met during the 2012-13 season when Washington defeated the Eagles (65-60) to advance to the second round of the WNIT on March 22, 2013 at home.
Washington will look to build off the best season in school history, an NCAA Final Four appearance and a 26-win season, the most since 1990. The season was highlighted by four wins in the NCAA Tournament. As a seventh-seed, the Huskies beat tenth-seeded Penn, second-seeded Maryland, third-seeded Kentucky and fourth-seeded Stanford to reach the first Final Four in program history.
Last year's historic team returns three starters, including the first WBCA All-American in program history, Kelsey Plum, the NCAA Lexington Region MVP, Chantel Osahor and a starter in every game last season, Katie Collier.
Plum returns as one of the most decorated players in collegiate women's basketball. Since arriving on campus in 2013, she has started in every game (104), scoring in double-figures in 102 of those contests, including 73 20+ point games, a program record. The Poway, Calif. native's 960 points last season led the nation and her 25.9 points per game ranked fourth. As a junior, she broke Washington's all-time scoring record (2,418) and also led the nation in free throws made (266) and minutes played (1,414).
Plum enters her senior year with career averages of 23.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists. Last week, she became the first player in program history to earn a spot on the Associated Press Preseason All-America Team. The point guard was also a unanimous pick on the preseason All-Pac-12 team.
After leading the team off the bench as a sophomore, Osahor had a breakthrough junior season in which she set the Washington single-season rebounding record with 417. She is one of only two returning Pac-12 players to average a double-double last season and her 3.41 assists per game were second-most among Pac-12 forwards. The Phoenix, Ariz. native led all post players in the Pac-12 with a 1.7 assist to turnover ratio (127 assists / 74 TO's).
Joining Osahor in the frontcourt is Collier who was the fourth leading scorer last season (6.0 ppg) and third in rebounds (5.5 rpg). The Covington, Wash. native scored in double-figures seven times and was a big defensive presence, leading the Huskies with 41 blocked shots.
Washington returns five other letterwinners from last year's team -- Deja Strother, Kelli Kingma, Mackenzie Wieburg, Hannah Johnson and Jenna Moser, as well as redshirt junior Heather Corral. The Huskies also welcome a quartet of talented freshmen – GiGi Garcia, Mai-Loni Henson, Aarion McDonald and Amber Melgoza.
EWU returns four of their five starters from last season's team that went 20-12 and finished the regular season in second place in the Big Sky Conference. EWU has had two straight 20-win seasons. The program's all-time leading scorer, Hayley Hodgins, is the lone starter not returning from last season's squad, but three double-digit scorers return in seniors Ashli Payne, Tisha Phillips and junior Delaney Hodgins.
RAISING A BANNER: Friday's game will feature a special pregame ceremony, as the Huskies raise their 2015-16 Final Four banner into the rafters at Alaska Airlines Arena.
SEATTLE – The No. 15 University of Washington women's basketball team opens its 2016-17 season on Friday (Nov. 11) at 7 p.m. PT inside Alaska Airlines Arena. The game will be streamed online via GoHuskies.com and will be broadcast on 1150 KKNW AM radio and kknw.com.
Washington will begin its campaign ranked as the No. 15 team in the nation, the highest preseason ranking in program history. The Huskies were also selected to finish third in the Pac-12 Conference, its highest ranking since 2003-04.Overall, Washington is 25-17 in season openers and 1-2 under fourth year head coach Mike Neighbors. The Huskies have been victorious in 32 of its 42 home openers.
Washington is coming off a pair of exhibition victories, most recently cruising to a 99-57 win against Concordia University on Wednesday (Nov. 2), fueled by double-digit performances from Kelsey Plum (29), Mai-Loni Henson (14) and Chantel Osahor (12).
The Huskies have faced off against Eastern Washington 23 times, coming away with 22 triumphs. The two teams last met during the 2012-13 season when Washington defeated the Eagles (65-60) to advance to the second round of the WNIT on March 22, 2013 at home.
Washington will look to build off the best season in school history, an NCAA Final Four appearance and a 26-win season, the most since 1990. The season was highlighted by four wins in the NCAA Tournament. As a seventh-seed, the Huskies beat tenth-seeded Penn, second-seeded Maryland, third-seeded Kentucky and fourth-seeded Stanford to reach the first Final Four in program history.
Last year's historic team returns three starters, including the first WBCA All-American in program history, Kelsey Plum, the NCAA Lexington Region MVP, Chantel Osahor and a starter in every game last season, Katie Collier.
Plum returns as one of the most decorated players in collegiate women's basketball. Since arriving on campus in 2013, she has started in every game (104), scoring in double-figures in 102 of those contests, including 73 20+ point games, a program record. The Poway, Calif. native's 960 points last season led the nation and her 25.9 points per game ranked fourth. As a junior, she broke Washington's all-time scoring record (2,418) and also led the nation in free throws made (266) and minutes played (1,414).
Plum enters her senior year with career averages of 23.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists. Last week, she became the first player in program history to earn a spot on the Associated Press Preseason All-America Team. The point guard was also a unanimous pick on the preseason All-Pac-12 team.
After leading the team off the bench as a sophomore, Osahor had a breakthrough junior season in which she set the Washington single-season rebounding record with 417. She is one of only two returning Pac-12 players to average a double-double last season and her 3.41 assists per game were second-most among Pac-12 forwards. The Phoenix, Ariz. native led all post players in the Pac-12 with a 1.7 assist to turnover ratio (127 assists / 74 TO's).
Joining Osahor in the frontcourt is Collier who was the fourth leading scorer last season (6.0 ppg) and third in rebounds (5.5 rpg). The Covington, Wash. native scored in double-figures seven times and was a big defensive presence, leading the Huskies with 41 blocked shots.
Washington returns five other letterwinners from last year's team -- Deja Strother, Kelli Kingma, Mackenzie Wieburg, Hannah Johnson and Jenna Moser, as well as redshirt junior Heather Corral. The Huskies also welcome a quartet of talented freshmen – GiGi Garcia, Mai-Loni Henson, Aarion McDonald and Amber Melgoza.
EWU returns four of their five starters from last season's team that went 20-12 and finished the regular season in second place in the Big Sky Conference. EWU has had two straight 20-win seasons. The program's all-time leading scorer, Hayley Hodgins, is the lone starter not returning from last season's squad, but three double-digit scorers return in seniors Ashli Payne, Tisha Phillips and junior Delaney Hodgins.
RAISING A BANNER: Friday's game will feature a special pregame ceremony, as the Huskies raise their 2015-16 Final Four banner into the rafters at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Players Mentioned
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