USF gets much-needed boost with dos Santos’ return
The WCC women’s basketball tournament opens Thursday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
USF claimed the fourth seed — and two days off — after BYU dropped its regular-season finale against Portland. Santa Clara lost to lower-ranked Pepperdine — its first-round opponent — to finish in eighth, and seventh seed St. Mary’s has been dealt a number of struggles a season after winning the Women’s Basketball Invitational.
A look at the three Bay Area teams entering the postseason:
No. 4 USF vs. TBD, Saturday, 1 p.m.
Aside from having byes on Thursday and Friday, the best thing to happen to USF (19-11, 9-9) is the return of redshirt sophomore Debora dos Santos, who missed 14 games before playing in the Dons’ regular-seasonending 61-51 win at Loyola Marymount on Saturday.
Dos Santos, who is second on the Dons with 7.1 rebounds per game, broke a finger at the end of December, and USF struggled in the paint, especially on the defensive end. The Dons have come a long way from their rebounding struggles a season ago, but without Dos Santos, those problems were amplified.
Kennedy Dickie is averaging a team-leading and career-best eight rebounds per game, putting her in the top five in the conference. The Dons’ 38 rebounds per game rank third in the conference, but the 37.9 they allow are second most.
Playing in her second game after the injury, dos Santos will have a lot on her shoulders.
“I think that’s our challenge,” USF coach Molly Goodenbour said in January. “To find ways to, again, be able to be competitive and be able to beat teams whoever we have at the post.”
Ioanna Krimili, averaging a WCC-second-best 17.3 points, is one of the most dangerous shooting guards in the nation when she has the hot hand. The junior scored a season-high 35 points against Penn on Nov. 21 — a game in which she made eight 3-pointers — and is the program’s alltime 3-point record holder. No. 8 Santa Clara vs. No. 9 Pepperdine, noon
Thursday
The Broncos (15-16, 6-12) open the tournament against the Waves (10-18, 513), who beat Santa Clara 7459 in Saturday’s regularseason finale.
Tess Heal has been a positive all season for a Santa Clara team that hasn’t been able to stay healthy for two seasons. The freshman guard is third in the WCC with 17.2 points per game.
Lara Edmanson adds 10.6 points for an offense that has averaged 71.7 points per game overall (69.8 in conference play). The defensive part hasn’t happened as Santa Clara allowed a conference-high 71.6 points in WCC games.
Pepperdine averages 63.1 points a game, but its season high came in Saturday’s victory over the Broncos.
No. 7 St. Mary’s vs. No. 10 Loyola Marymount, 2:30 p.m. Thursday
It’s been a tough season in Moraga. Following the WBI title last season, hopes were high that the Gaels (1217, 6-12) might make an NCAA Tournament run. Instead, they found themselves facing adversity throughout the season.
St. Mary’s will open against LMU (7-22, 4-14), looking to recapture some of the postseason success they found last year.
“We’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” St. Mary’s center Ali Bamberger said earlier this season. “Being resilient and being competent. We’re young but still old at the same time, and that’s made us have grit and resilience.”
Bamberger, a 6-foot-3 Carondelet-Concord alum, is one of the best post players in the conference: a 48.2 percent shooter who averages 8.4 rebounds per game. Taycee Wedin is the WCC’s all-time leading 3-point shooter, with her 76 this season giving her 399 in her career. Her 40.4 percent shooting from distance ranks fourth in the WCC.
The Gaels need to control their turnovers; they average the second most (17.6) in the WCC and are next to last in turnover margin (minus-3.76). The key for St. Mary’s will be staying on offense as long as possible, and letting Bamberger and Wedin get as many touches as they can.