Washington Wraps Up Regular Season vs #7 Stanford on Sunday

Sunday, March 3

Seattle, WA

2:00 PM

University of Washington

Stanford

Photo by: Brian Morse / Washington Athletics

Washington Wraps Up Regular Season vs #7 Stanford on Sunday

March 02, 2019 | Women's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)Tickets

OPENING TIP
• Washington closes out the regular season on Friday, hosting #7 Stanford on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Arena.

• The game will be carried on Pac-12 Network Washington with Ann Schatz and Tracy Warren on the call. Fans can listen to the game on the UW/Learfield IMG College broadcast with Mike Gastineau and Mia Fisher-Augustavo on KKNW 1150 AM, on the TuneIn App on GoHuskies.com.

• Washington will honor three seniors after the game: Hannah Johnson, Deja Strother and Jenna Moser. Johnson and Moser have been with the team for the last five years with Strother joining the Huskies four seasons ago.

• Sophomore Missy Peterson scored a career-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting against California on Friday. It was her 11th game in double-figures this season but just her fifth in Pac-12 play.

Scouting the Cardinal
Stanford looks to wrap up the No. 2 seed in next week's Pac-12 Tournament with a win on Sunday. The Cardinal enter the game with a 24-4 record, though three of those losses have come in Pac-12 play including two on the road. Stanford is 6-2 in conference road games, but four of those games have been decided by 10 points or less.

Senior forward Alanna Smith continues to be among the best players in the conference if not the country, averaging 20.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.5 blocks per game. In addition to being a dominate inside player, Smith also is a threat from outside, ranking second on the team with 64 three-pointers made and connecting on 39.8% from beyond the arc. The senior spent the summer playing with the Australia National Team, scoring a team-high 10 points in the championship game vs the United States.

All-Time Series vs Stanford
Stanford holds a 49-17 edge in the all-time series including winning the last four games and 21 of the last 24 overall. The Cardinal are 18-10 against the Huskies all-time at Alaska Airlines Arena and have won three-straight and eight of the last nine. UW's last home win over Stanford was an 87-82 victory on Feb. 9, 2014.

Last season, the Huskies nearly pulled off an impressive upset before falling 86-79 to Stanford in the next-to-last game of the year. Amber Melgoza scored 40 points as Washington battled from down double-figures to pull within three midway through the fourth period. However, the Huskies could get no closer the rest of the way.

Earlier this season, Stanford cruised to a 91-54 win in Palo Alto as the Huskies struggled to get the offense rolling. It was Stanford's 18th-straight win over UW at Maples Pavilion.

Up Next
Washington heads to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament which begins on Thursday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Last Time Out
Missy Peterson scored a career-high 23 points while Amber Melgoza contributed 22, but despite a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, Washington was unable to overcome a bad third in a 70-65 loss to California.

Peterson had a career night, scoring 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting including a career-high five from three-point range on six attempts. She nearly outscored Cal in the fourth quarter, tallying 10 of her 23 points over the final 10 minutes while the Golden Bears would score 13.

Melgoza added 22 points in the game, scoring 20+ points for the 15th time this son and ninth time in 16 Pac-12 games on the year.

The game came down to a 3:30 stretch in the third quarter. After trailing by two at 37-35, Cal opened the third quarter on a 16-2 run, taking a commanding 53-37 lead. Washington would battle back in the fourth, cutting the lead to 13 at the end of the quarter and using a 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 60-56 with 7:28 to play. Washington would again close the gap to three on a Rees jumper with 4:28 left but could get no closer.

Melgoza Reaches 1,000
Junior Amber Melgoza became the 28th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points with her first basket against Oregon on Jan. 27. The junior has averaged 13.7 points per game through her first three seasons–the 14th-highest per game average of any of the Huskies' 1,000-point scorers. With 1,134 career points, Melgoza needs 11 points to move into UW's Top 25 scorers list.

Against Arizona, Melgoza became just the ninth player in program history to score 1,000 combined points over a two-year span. She has amassed 1,042 over the last two seasons for an 18.6 ppg average. (Melgoza didn't play much as a freshman, scoring just 53 total points in 25 games.) If she keeps up her current pace, Melgoza should end up in the UW Top 10 by the end of her career.

Amber Alert
Melgoza continues to pace the Huskies, averaging 18.3 points per game this season–seventh-best in the Pac-12. She has been red-hot lately, scoring 122 points over her last six games (20.3 ppg). Once again, she has picked up her play in conference action, scoring 20+ points in nine Pac-12 games, averaging 18.1 ppg. Overall, Melgoza has scored 20+ points in 15 games this season and 29 times in her career. She led the Pac-12 in scoring in conference games last season, averaging 20.6 ppg.

Melgoza also leads the team in assists (2.8/game), rebounds (4.5/game) and is second in steals (1.3/game). If she leads the team in all four categories, she would become the second player in program history to do so (Giuliana Mendiola 2x, 2002-03, 2003-04).

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. This season, the Huskies are 9-0 when leading at halftime, but are 0-19 when trailing or tied at the break. Over the last two seasons, Washington is 16-4 when leading at the half but is 0-38 when tied or trailing at halftime.

Productive Peterson
Missy Peterson scored a career-high 23 points in a tough loss to Cal on Friday. The sophomore connected on 9-of-12 from the field in the game, 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). It was her 11th game in double figures this season and fifth game scoring 17+ points.

After an injury-plagued freshman year, Missy Peterson has been solid during her sophomore season, despite battling a broken nose and having to wear a protective mask through much of the season. This year, Peterson is averaging 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

Peterson struggled with injuries her freshman year as a lingering foot injury kept her off the court until just before the start of the season. After playing sparingly through 18 games last year, Peterson suffering a season-ending knee injury at Washington State on Jan. 17. She rehabbed during the off-season and returned strong, but has been dealing with a nose injury through much of this season, wearing a custom mask to protect it.

Have a Game Henson
Junior Mai-Loni Henson had her best all-around game of the season on Sunday in the victory at Colorado. Henson matched career-highs with 17 points and four steals, connecting on 6-of-11 from the field including three three-pointers. She also had eight rebounds–including four offensive boards–and added three assists.

Henson, who had a then-season-high 14 points three weeks ago at USC, is averaging 5.3 points per game this season and is second on the team with 4.0 rebounds per game.

Rees Among Pac-12's Best Freshmen
Freshman Darcy Rees is proving her own among some of the top post players in the best conference in the NCAA. Rees is averaging 6.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game on the season, but has picked it up in Pac-12 play. With one game remaining, Rees is averaging 9.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, shooting 44.9% from the field.

The freshman from Adelaide, Australia, had a solid stretch in February, reaching double-figures four times over a five-game stretch including scoring a career-high 20 points at USC.

Fear the Mask
Washington has had a pair of players don a protective face mask this season. Missy Peterson has suffered a pair of knocks to the nose throughout the early part of the season. She had been wearing it consistently since December, but was able to play without it on Friday. Despite wearing the mask, Peterson missed the game at WSU after suffering a shot to the side of the head, causing a concussion. Alexis Griggsby has also been wearing a mask after suffering a break after an inadvertent elbow late against Oregon State.

Montana State of Mind
Sophomore guard Montana Hagstrom has made the most of her time in the lineup this season, including playing a season-high 25 minutes in the game at Washington State two weeks ago. In that game, she hit a pair of three-pointers to match her season-high of six points in a game.

Hagstrom, who walked-on with the team after playing one season at Bellevue College, missed last year due to injury. She played limited minutes in mop-up roles earlier this season until a pair of injuries to teammates against Oregon gave her more time. She responded with a three-pointer to give the Huskies a lead over No. 5 Oregon in the first half and finished with six points. The early triple was her first basket of UW career. She followed that up with six points at USC on Friday on a pair of three-pointers, adding two assists.

Strength of Schedule
Once again, the Huskies are not shying away from playing a difficult schedule in 2018-19. UW plays nearly one-third of its schedule (10 games) against seven teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 or receiving votes including seven games against four teams in the Top 10. The Huskies have the 20th-toughest schedule among the 351 NCAA DI programs when looking at the cumulative record of its opposition this year (481-300, .616).

The Pac-12 conference boasts four teams in the AP Top 25 including three in the Top 10: #6 Oregon, #7 Stanford, #9 Oregon State, and #21 Arizona State with UCLA receiving votes.

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 18. The show can be heard online at GoHuskies.com or on the TuneIn App.

Husky Pen Pals
Washington has adopted a class of fourth graders at Terrace Elementary School in Riverside, Calif. The Huskies have been sending letters back and forth with the 30 kids in Ms. Ditta's class and had a chance to meet their pen pals while on their trip to LA in early February. More information on the program can be found on the UW Athletics website at https://uwathletics.exposure.co/winwin.

Wynn Adds Talented Trio on Signing Day
UW coach Jody Wynn announced the signing of a talented trio to National Letters of Intent during the November early signing period: JaQuaya Miller (Renton, WA/Kentridge HS), Ali Bamberger (Concord, CA/Carondelet HS), and Nia Lowery (Sacramento, CA/McClatchy HS).

Miller is a local product and one of the top post recruits in the country. The 6-3 post from Renton is a 4.5-star rated recruit by Prospects Nation, ranked No. 41 overall (sixth-best post in the country) and the top overall prospect out of Washington state.

Bamberger, a 6-3 post, is ranked as the No. 8 player out of California (No. 2 post player) and No. 81 overall in the Class of 2019 by Prospects Nation heading into her final season at Carondelet High School in Concord, Calif.

Lowery, a 5-11 wing from Sacramento, is rated as a four-star recruit by Prospects Nation from McClatchy High School. As a senior, she helped guide the Lions to a NorCal Division I Title, an appearance in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship and a berth in the state tournament.