Huskies Host Weber State in Kids Day Game

Wednesday, November 13

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

Weber State

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Photo by: Red Box Pictures

November 12, 2019 | Women's Basketball

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Washington returns to action on Wednesday morning, hosting Weber State University in the annual Kid's Day Game at Alaska Airlines Arena. Tip off is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. The game will be live streamed through GoHuskies.com. Fans can also listen on the UW/Learfield IMG College broadcast with Gary Hill Jr. and Elise Woodward on the mic on Sunday on KKNW 1150 AM, on the TuneIn App and on GoHuskies.com.

LEADING THE BREAK...

The Huskies opened the 2019-20 season with a split of two games last weekend, beating Cal State Bakersfield 80-49 on Friday night, but losing a heart-breaker 64-62 to Tulane on Sunday.
Junior Missy Peterson leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.0 ppg including a 15-point performance against Tulane. She is shooting 60% from the field (9-of-15) and 54.5% from three-point range (6-of-11).
Senior Amber Melgoza moved into 20th place on the UW All-Time Scoring List vs Tulane with 1,223 points. She is just one point shy of moving into 19th place on the list and 39 points away from 18th.
Washington leads the Pac-12 and ranks 30th in the NCAA with 52 turnovers forced. The Huskies forced 31 CSUB turnovers–the most by UW since 2009 and the most by a Pac-12 team since 2016-17.
Washington is 20-4 in non-conference home games since 2016-17 and 35-6 since 2013-14.
The Huskies return 85 percent of their scoring from last year including Melgoza, an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention selection who led the team with 18.1 points per game in 2018-19.

Scouting the Wildcats
Weber State is off to a rough start this season, dropping its first two games by an average margin of 30 points. The Wildcats opened at UCLA where they lost 85-45, then lost their home-opener against Portland 78-59. Freshman Ula Chamberlain leads the team with 12 points per game thus far including posting 15 at UCLA in her collegiate debut. Sophomore Ciara James is contributing 10.5 points and 6.5 rebounds a contest. Junior Liz Graves, a transfer from BYU, scored a game-high 15 points against Portland.

All-Time Series vs Weber State
Washington leads the all-time series against Weber State 4-1 including a perfect 2-0 mark in games in Seattle. The Huskies won the last meeting between the two 69-56 in a game at Alaska Airlines Arena. In that game, Washington used a long 29-0 run early in the game to take a 39-16 at the half. WSU would make a run in the second half but could get no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

Up Next
The Huskies take a break before returning to action on Saturday, Nov. 23, hosting Seattle University at 2:00 p.m. After that, Washington heads to Puerto Rico for three games in as many days at the Puerto Rico Clasico.

For Openers
With its season-opening victory over Cal State Bakersfield, Washington improved to 28-18 in season openers all-time and has won four of its last five. The Huskies also moved to 35-11 in home openers with victories in five of their last six such games.

Home, Non-Conference Success
Washington has had success in non-conference home games over the last few years, posting a 20-4 record in such games since the start of the 2016-17 season. Going back a bit further, the Huskies are 35-6 in non-conference home games since the 2013-14 season. UW was 5-2 in non-conference home contests last year.

Melgoza Moving On Up
With a free throw in the second quarter against Tulane, senior Amber Melgoza moved past current Seattle Storm player and former UW standout Sami Whitcomb into 20th place on UW's all-time leading scoring list with 1,223 points. She needs just one more point to tie Amy Mickelson for 19th on the list and 39 points shy of Laurie Merlino for 18th.

Last year, Melgoza became the 28th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points with her first basket against Oregon on Jan. 27. She has amassed 1,149 points over the last two years, averaging 18.5 ppg over that stretch. (Melgoza didn't play much as a freshman, scoring just 53 total points in 25 games.)

Melgoza scored 579 points in 2018-19, the eighth-most points scored in a season in program history. She now has the 8th and 12th (2017-18) best single-season point totals in UW history. She has scored 30+ points in a game four times (third-most in program history) and also has 31 career 20+ point games. She had one of each to close out the season, scoring 21 in Washington's Pac-12 Tournament upset win over No. 11 Oregon State, then closed out the year with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting against No. 5 Stanford.

Turnover Machine
Washington has already forced 52 turnovers in two games, a mark which leads the Pac-12 and ranks 30th in the NCAA. The Huskies turned over Cal State Bakersfield 31 times in their season-opener, the most turnovers forced by a Pac-12 team since 2016-17 and the most forced by the Huskies since turning over BYU 31 times 10 years ago (Nov. 18, 2009).

Peterson Power
Junior Missy Peterson has opened the 2019-20 season on fire from the field, connecting on 60% of her shots from the field including going 6-of-11 (54.5%) from three-point range so far. Peterson leads the team with 26 points (13.0 ppg) and is tied for the team lead with eight assists.

Peterson capped off an impressive sophomore campaign with a great showing at the Pac-12 Tournament. She scored 71 points over her final five games of the season including recording a career-high 23 points twice. The first came against Cal on March 1 where Peterson connected on 9-of-12 from the field, matching the best shooting percentage by a Husky with at least 12 field goal attempts in at least 10 years (Kelsey Plum, 9-of-12 at BYU 12/22/16 and Jazmine Davis, 9-of-12 vs Furman, 11/29/14).

Once the Huskies reached the Pac-12 Tournament, Peterson caught fire, scoring a team-best 42 points including once again scoring 23 in UW's first round win over Utah on Thursday. Over the first two games of the tournament, Peterson was lights out from three-point range, making 11-of-14 (78.6%) from beyond the arc and shooting 65.2% (15-of-23) overall.

Peterson suffered a pair of small fractures in her nose early in the year and had to wear a mask beginning in mid-December. Peterson has been struggling with injuries throughout her UW career: entering UW recovering from a lingering foot injury, suffering a season-ending knee injury midway through her freshman year and dealing with a broken nose through much of this season.

Rees Among Pac-12's Best Freshmen
Darcy Rees proved she is among the top post players in the best conference in the NCAA as a freshman. A surprising omission from the Pac-12 All-Freshmen team, Rees averaged 7.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in her first season at UW, but those numbers moved up to 9.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game over the final 20 games of the season–all against Pac-12 competition.

Rees recorded her first collegiate double-double with 16 points and career-high 10 rebounds in the Huskies Pac-12 Quarterfinal win over Oregon State, connecting on a career-high four three-pointers in the game.

Van Dyke Opens Strong
Sophomore Haley Van Dyke opened the 2019-20 season with a solid showing against Cal State Bakersfield, pouring in career-highs of 15 points and nine rebounds to lead the Huskies. Van Dyke, who has put in a lot of off-season work, proved she is ready to be another scoring threat for Washington this season while adding three assists and three steals. She followed that up with an eight-point game against Tulane where she hit 4-of-8 from the field with four rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Van Dyke's most impressive stat from the CSUB game may have been from the free throw line where she was a perfect 6-of-6. She had struggled from the charity stripe last season, shooting just 46.2 percent (18-of-39) from the line. Her season-high was four free throw attempts in a game last year, but she reached the line six times in the opener, making all six.

Freshmen Start Strong On Montlake
Washington added three freshmen to the roster this off-season with two making their debuts over the weekend.

Ali Bamberger scored eight points in her collegiate debut against Cal State Bakersfield on Friday, hitting 2-of-6 from the field including draining a three-pointer for her first collegiate bucket. She added five rebounds and three steals in the contest. Bamberger added five points, three rebounds and two steals with her first collegiate block in 16 minutes against Tulane.

JaQuaya Miller missed the season opener after being under the weather during the week, but looked sharp on Sunday in her first action. She scored eight points in 16 minutes, hitting a tough putback for her first collegiate bucket.

Nia Lowery is out for the start of the season with a foot injury which will sideline her for the first month of the season.

Melgoza Again on Meyers-Drysdale Watch List
Senior guard Amber Melgoza has once again been named as one of 20 candidates on the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Preseason Watch List awarded annually to the best shooting guard in NCAA DI women's basketball. The winner of the 2020 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award will be presented at The College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy's in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, April 10, 2020, along with the other four members of the Women's Starting Five.

That Halftime Lead...
The score at halftime has gone a long way to determine the score at the end of the game for the Huskies. Last season, the Huskies were 10-0 when leading at halftime, but 1-21 when trailing or tied at the break. Over the last two seasons, Washington is 18-5 when leading at the half but is 1-39 when tied or trailing at halftime. Washington picked up its first win when trailing at the half in its 68-67 upset win over Oregon State in the Pac-12 Tournament last year. The Huskies' loss to Tulane was its first loss when leading at halftime in over three seasons.

2018-19 Recap
After a bit of an up-and-down season, the Huskies really came together and made some noise at the end of last year. Washington finished the season with a 3-3 record, picking up their first Pac-12 road win, beating a nationally-ranked team for the first time in two years and making an impressive run through the Pac-12 Tournament to reach the semifinals for the second time in program history.

The key to the run was the defense. After starting the conference schedule by allowing 78.4 ppg in its first 14 Pac-12 games, UW allowed just 63.6 points over its last six games (all vs Pac-12 teams). The Huskies also took care of the ball, committing just five turnovers in the upset win over Oregon State in the Pac-12 Tournament Quarterfinals. Washington looks to ride that end-of-season momentum into the 2019-20 season.

Radio Show
Washington Head Coach Jody Wynn joins Elise Woodward for the UW Coaches Show throughout the season at Chinook's at Fisherman's Terminal. The show is carried live on KOMO AM 1000 in Seattle at 6:00 p.m. every Monday through March 16. It can be heard online at GoHuskies.com or via the TuneIn App, available in the App Stores.

Moser's Incredible Journey Continues -- Part 2
Jenna Moser returns to the University of Washington for yet another season, this time as the Director of Player Development with the Huskies. Moser, who came back for a second "senior" year last year while pursuing a Master's degree in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration, joined the program as a practice player in 2014-15, not earning a roster spot until her second year at UW. Over the next two seasons she appeared in just 14 games, playing 30 total minutes and scoring four points. But in 2017-18, she was awarded a scholarship and provided leadership to the young team. Over the next two years, she was the only player to start every game, finishing her UW career with 414 points, 187 rebounds, 140 assists and 99 steals.