University of San Francisco Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco women's basketball team hosts two non-conference games this holiday weekend, welcoming defending Big Sky Conference champion Northern Colorado on Friday and UT Arlington of the Sun Belt Conference on Sunday.
 
GAME 4 INFORMATION
Date/Time: Nov. 23, 2018 – 2:00 p.m.
Opponent: Northern Colorado (2-2, 0-0 Big Sky)
Site: War Memorial at the Sobrato Center
Live Video: https://bit.ly/2zhCMOr
Live Stats: https://bit.ly/2AgDmvg
 
GAME 5 INFORMATION
Date/Time: Nov. 25, 2018 – 2:00 p.m.
Opponent: UT Arlington (2-1, 0-0 Sun Belt)
Site: War Memorial at the Sobrato Center
Live Video: https://bit.ly/2POI5Pt
Live Stats: https://bit.ly/2OUOQtL
 
USF AT A GLANCE

• The Dons (2-1) are off to a 2-1 start in the early goings of the 2018-19 season. Their only defeat came on the road at the hands of the No. 7 team in the country – Stanford – on Thursday.
   
• USF has scored at least 62 points in each of its first three games this season. They rank fourth in the West Coast Conference and among the country's top half in scoring offense with 70.7 points per game.
   
• San Francisco is averaging 36.3 rebounds per game – fourth in the WCC – and boasts the WCC's top rebounding margin at +4.7.
   
• Julia Nielacna has increased her scoring total in each of the first three games of her collegiate career. The 6-foot true freshman out of Poland scored 11 points in the season opener versus San Jose State, then tallied 15 points at No. 7 Stanford on Thursday, and scored 24 points versus Cal Poly on Sunday. She is the team's leading scorer at 16.7 points per game, sixth in the WCC.

ABOUT THE BEARS
Northern Colorado (2-2) most recently defeated neighbor Colorado State, 53-47, on Tuesday. UNC has won back-to-back games entering Friday's contest. Three of the Bears' four games so far this season have been played in Colorado with just one trip to Baton Rouge, La., for a narrow five-point defeat at LSU on Nov. 11.
 
Savannah Smith comes into Friday's game as the Bears' leading scorer at 17.3 points per game. She will take aim from deep with a team-high 13 made 3-pointers on a team-high 38 attempts (34.2 percent). Ali Meyer is the Bears' leading rebounder with 8.5 boards per game.
 
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS
UT Arlington (2-1) has had a similar start to its season as the Dons, dropping just one game to a Power-5 Conference team in a one-point loss to Arkansas on Nov. 14. The Mavericks' first road trip of the year will take them to five different cities with two stops in California and three more back to the Midwest.
 
Cierra Johnson (15.0 ppg) and Lauren Billie (13.0 ppg) are UTA's leading scorers. Katie Ferrell (6.3 rpg) and Terryn Milton (5.0 rpg) are the Mavericks' leading rebounders. Ferrell is also the ball distributer for UTA with 6.7 assists per game. The Mavericks are shooting 41.7 percent from 3-point range through their first three games, but they have struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 68.3 percent.
 
LAST GAME VS. THE MUSTANGS
Julia Nielacna scored 13 points in the fourth quarter Sunday – including the eventual game-winning shot with just 25 seconds left – to lead the San Francisco women's basketball team to a thrilling 65-62 non-conference victory over Cal Poly at the Kelp Bed on the campus of Cal State Monterey Bay. Already with nine of the Dons' previous 11 points, Nielacna hit a 17-foot jumper on the other end to put the Dons back ahead for good at 63-62. Cal Poly missed their answer– a layup from the left side by Devin Stanback. Nielacna gave USF some breathing room with two free throws with just six seconds left, and Maddie Willett missed a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer, giving San Francisco the victory.
 
UP NEXT
The Dons hit the road for a three-game road trip starting Thursday in the Pacifc Northwest, first at Pac-12 Conference member Washington State, then at Idaho on Dec. 1. San Francisco returns to War Memorial at the Sobrato Center on Dec. 15 versus two-time defending Big West Conference champion UC Davis.