Women S Basketball

The Vanguard University women's basketball team upset host Westmont College, ranked No. 24 in the NAIA, 64-62, Saturday to move into a third-place tie with the Warriors in the Golden State Athletic Conference. Debbie Candelaria made two free throws with 26 seconds left to give the Lions (12-8, 9-5 in the GSAC) a 63-62 lead. Westmont (14-8, 9-5) had a chance to take the lead, but the shot did not fall for the Warriors and Erin Edmiston sank one free throw with a second left to seal the win for Vanguard.

BREN EVENTS CENTER - UC Irvine fell to visiting University of the Pacific, 65-53, in a Big West women's basketball game Sunday. Pacific was ahead, 49-39, and went on a 9-3 run with 7:26 remaining to put the game out of reach. The Tigers outrebounded the Anteaters, 34-26, while shooting 52 percent for the game (28-54). Pacific was led by Selena Ho with 16 points and six assists. Vanessa Dupont added 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds. UCI had a trio of players in double-figures, with Cindy Oparah leading the way with 16 points, four steals and four rebounds.

UC Irvine senior Cindy Oparah was selected to the Verizon Academic All-District VIII women's basketball first-team as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America. She is one of five student-athletes that will be forwarded to the national ballot. Winners will be announced March 8. Oparah, a biological sciences major who plans to pursue a career in medicine, leads the Big West in scoring (15.7) and rebounding (9.6). She is ranked 25th nationally for rebounds.

UC Irvine's Wendy Gabbe made a 10-foot jump shot with five seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime, but the visiting Anteaters lost to the University of Portland, 72-69, in a nonconference women's basketball game Sunday. The Pilots took a 69-67 lead in overtime on Ashlee Giles' three-pointer with 36 seconds remaining, but Brandy Hudson answered with a layup to tie the score, 69-69. UCI's Cindy Oparah fouled Khalila O'Rielly-Williams, who made both free throws to put Portland ahead and Portland's Da'Love Woods made another free throw to seal the victory.

Kelly Boeke, a junior for the Vanguard University women's basketball team, was named the Lion of the Week for the second time this season. Boeke became the fifth female player in school history to score 1,000 points as the Lions pulled out wins over Point Loma Nazarene (63-51) and Concordia (61-52). She recorded her fourth and fifth double doubles (10 or more points and rebounds) of the season, averaging 16 points and 12 rebounds per contest as the Lions' center.

LONG BEACH - The UC Irvine women's basketball team witnessed a hot shooting night by Big West host Long Beach State, which won 91-60 Thursday in The Pyramid. The 49ers (6-7, 1-2 in the Big West Conference), winners of six of their last seven, shot 63% from the field and used a 17-6 run over the first 5:30 of the second half to coast to victory. The Anteaters (4-10, 1-2) went on an early 11-0 run after falling 10-0 to open the game. UCI's Cindy Oparah and Christina Callaway keyed the scoring run and led UCI throughout the night, each finishing with a double-double.

BREN EVENTS CENTER - Selena Ho, a two-time first-team All-Big West Conference point guard at the University of the Pacific, has been hired as an assistant of the UC Irvine women's basketball team. Ho, who earned a degree in business administration in May, ended her career this season ranked first all-time in the Big West and 24th among NCAA Division I players in three-pointers made (271). "Selena was the premiere point guard in the Big West Conference over the last four years," Irvine women's basketball coach Mark Adams said.

Tony Altobelli Doug Bennett, executive of Orange Coast College's Foundation and the public address announcer for all the women's basketball home games will be inducted into the California Community College Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on March 10. The ceremony will take place during a hall of fame luncheon prior to the state community college women's basketball tournament. Bennett is being honored for his "outstanding record of achievement and enthusiastic work toward the advancement of community college women's basketball in California."

Doug Oliver, who has spent time on the men's and women's basketball coaching staffs at UC Irvine, has expressed interest in the school's women's basketball coaching vacancy, Darrin Nelson, a senior associate athletic director in charge of the search for a new coach, said Tuesday. Oliver was a first-year assistant for then-coach Molly Goodenbour during the 2011-12 season. Goodenbour was fired on March 21 after four seasons in which the Anteaters went 44-76. Oliver spent two seasons from 2009 to 2011 on the UCI men's staff, working first with then-coach Pat Douglass, then with then-first-year head man Russell Turner.

UC Irvine Athletic Director Mike Izzi told Anteaters' women's basketball coach Molly Goodenbour on Wednesday that her contract would not be renewed, ending her four-year tenure with the program. Goodenbour, a former Final Four MVP at Stanford where she played on NCAA championship teams in 1990 and 1992, was 44-76 at UCI. She guided UCI to a tie for third place in the Big West Conference and the No. 3 seeding in the conference tournament this past season. UCI lost in the quarterfinals to eventual conference tournament champion UC Santa Barbara to finish 13-16.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL UC Irvine 86, Long Beach State 61 IRVINE - Senior Kassandra McCalister had 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to lead the host Anteaters in the Big West Conference game Thursday. Sophomore Jacquelyn Marshall had 18 points and nine rebounds, while three other Anteaters scored in double figures. The win for UCI (10-12, 6-3 in conference), sets up a first-place showdown with visiting Cal State Northridge (7-2 in conference) on Saturday at 4 p.m. Anete Klintsone had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists for UCI, which avenged a 63-51 loss at Long Beach State on Dec. 31. Kiara Belen had 10 points and six rebounds, while Kelly Meggs had 12 points off the bench for the winners.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Wyoming 51, UC Irvine 42 LARAMIE, Wyo. - Jazmyne White and Anete Klintsone scored eight points each to lead the Anteaters in the nonconference game Wednesday. White also led UCI (4-8) with eight rebounds. Wyoming (4-7) led, 32-14, at the half. Wyoming's Ashley Sickles scored a game-high 24 points.

Anete Klintsone, a captain of the Latvian under-20 women's national basketball team who averaged 15.8 points for Jefferson Community College in Hillsboro, Mo. last season, has signed a national letter of intent to play at UC Irvine, Anteaters Coach Molly Goodenbour announced Tuesday. Klintsone, a 5-foot-7 guard, played two seasons at Jefferson, earning first-team All-Region 16 honors as a sophomore. She made 76 three-pointers last season and ranked fourth in the national community college ranks by shooting 46% from three-point range.

OCC women's basketball team will play host to Southwestern in second round of SoCal Regionals. The Orange Coast College women's basketball team will play host to Southwestern of Chula Vista on Saturday in the second round of the Southern California Regional playoffs. The Pirates (22-8), who finished second in the Orange Empire Conference, return to the playoffs after missing the postseason last year. It's the 20th trip to the playoffs in Coach Mike Thornton's 22 seasons at the helm of OCC, the No. 5 seed in the SoCal Regional.

IRVINE — There was a time when UC Irvine's Mikah Maly-Karros looked through the jungle of hands, arms and torsos presented by triple-teaming defenders and saw a challenge. Now, she sees a teammate on the perimeter waiting to make the defense pay. The Anteaters lightened the prolific post player's inside burden by making a season-high nine three-pointers Tuesday in a 73-56 nonconference women's basketball triumph against Portland at the Bren Events Center. The win ups UCI's record to 8-4, the program's best start since the 1994-95 Anteaters also opened 8-4. To find a better start at UCI, one must go back to the 1984-85 team that opened with a 9-2 record that eventually became 13-3.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Orange Coast 86, Chaffey 71 IRVINE — Alyssa Hanson and Amanda Deal scored 18 points each for the Pirates in the semifinal game of the Irvine Valley Tournament Friday. Samantha Hansen added 13 points, while Helena Robel and Sami Little scored 10 points each for OCC (9-2), ranked No. 17 in the state. Hanson also had six assists and three steals and Michelle Yamasaki also had six assists. The Pirates will face Irvine Valley in today's title game at 4 p.m. at Irvine Valley.

COSTA MESA — Going cold in the second half Saturday prevented the Orange Coast College women’s basketball team from playing in the championship game of its Coast Christmas Classic. The Pirates (10-4) hit nine of 28 for 32.1% in the second half and lost to Canyons, 63-58, in the semifinals. They’ll play for third place against Cerritos today at 3 p.m. Canyons (6-4) will face Saddleback in the title game, scheduled for 5 p.m. Freshman Samantha Hansen led the Pirates with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore Jenna Lujan added 10 points.

Molly Goodenbour came to UC Irvine to embrace a challenge and the Anteaters’ newly hired women’s basketball coach said Wednesday her players should expect to be challenged by her and her future staff. “I told them they were going to be challenged in ways they probably hadn’t been challenged before,” said Goodenbour, the 2008 California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Coach of the Year at Chico State, where she led the Wildcats to a school-record win total in a 28-6 season that included a conference title and the program’s sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament.