University of St. Thomas Athletics
Utah Valley
Women's basketball hosts Utah Valley in Saturday showdown
11/17/2023 9:17:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Tommies are 1-1 after a 101-62 win over UWRF
ST. PAUL, MINN. – The University of St. Thomas women's basketball season is officially off and running. With two games under their belts, the Tommies return to Schoenecker Arena on Saturday to host Utah Valley University before venturing to California for a holiday tournament next week.
This will be the second meeting all-time between St. Thomas and Utah Valley, as the Tommies and Wolverines squared last season in Orem, Utah. St. Thomas left the west with a victory, defeating Utah Valley 62-42 for its first road win of the 2022-23 season. This year, the Wolverines will look to return the favor in Schoenecker Arena, as they too are looking for their first road win of 2023-24.
Tip off between St. Thomas and Utah Valley is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Schoenecker Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tickets are still available for purchase online at www.tommiesports.com/tickets, and fans who cannot attend the game in person can follow along on the Summit League Network. The home of all Summit League action, the Summit League Network is a subscription-based platform with costs $9.99 per most or $79.99 for an annual plan. The fee provides fans and alumni with the opportunity to watch St. Thomas from a variety of devices through the Midco Sports Plus app, including phones, tablets, TVs, and web-based browser interference. Additionally, the app and its exclusive Summit League content will be available on AppleTV, Fire TV and Roku, allowing fans to sign in and watch through their account on multiple devices. Fans can subscribe at www.midcosportsplus.com.
Tommie Tidbits:
LAST TIME OUT: St. Thomas was unstoppable in its first game in Schoenecker Arena, as the Tommies earned a resounding 101-62 win over UW-River Falls for its first win of 2023-24. St. Thomas shot a blistering .565 from the floor, including a season-high .452 percentage from beyond the arc, and four different Tommies scored in double-digits. Jade Hill led the way with 26 points, while Amber Scalia tallied a career-high 24 thanks to 9-16 shooting, including a 4-8 mark from three-point range. Zoey Washington impressed in her Schoenecker Arena debut, scoring 15 points thanks to 6-7 shooting, while Phoebe Frentzel added a career-high 10 points in the victory.
TUNE IN: Basketball fans can follow the Tommies on their new streaming home, the Summit League Network, fueled by Midco Sports and the Midco Sports Plus App. The subscription-based service will provide a digital streaming platform for regular season home St. Thomas basketball games along with exclusive Tommie and Summit League content. Subscriptions cost $9.99 per month or $79.99 for an annual plan. Fans can also follow Live Stats on TommieSports.com.
THE OPPOSITION: Like St. Thomas, Utah Valley is off to 1-1 start in 2023-24. The Wolverines hung on for a 56-55 win over Weber State in their season opener before falling to BYU by a final score of 59-44 on Tuesday. Also like the Tommies, Utah Valley is known for its defensive nature, as it held its opponents to 67.9 points per game last season. That trend seems to have carried over to 2023-24, as the Wolverines held both Weber State and BYU to under 60 points. While Utah Valley does not give up a lot of points, the team struggles to score them, averaging just 50.0 points through two games this season.
IN SAMMY WE TRUST: Junior forward Sammy Opichka played a big role in St. Thomas' 62-43 win over the Wolverines last season. The then sophomore scored a team-leading 18 points on 7-11 shooting in the victory and added one rebound, four assists and two steals to her stat line. More significantly, Opichka was the only Tommie to score in double digits in the victory. It would mark the first and only time in 2022-23 St. Thomas would win a game with only one student-athlete scoring 10+ points.
PORTAL WOES: The Tommies will face practically a brand new team in Utah Valley on Saturday, as the Wolverines leading scorer and rebounder transferred. Jaeden Brown, the top scorer in last year's contest, now plays at Southern Utah, while the team's top rebounder Shay Fano transferred to Grand Canyon University. Three starters did return for the 2023-24 season, including Saige Gibb, Eleyna Tafisi and Ally Criddle, and the top scorer off the bench Kaylee Byon. However, the quad scored a combined 11 points against St. Thomas last season and shot a combined 5-21 from the floor.
CLUB 100: The Tommies scored 101 points in their dominant win over UW-River Falls last Saturday, but St. Thomas isn't known for its high scoring offense. In fact, that was the first 100+ point performance for the Tommies in the DI era and since 2015. St. Thomas last scored in triple digits as a team on December 5, 2015 in a 100-28 victory over Carleton College. Since then, St. Thomas has only scored 90+ points twice, last weekend and then in a 92-19 win over Northland College in December 2021.
HISTORIC MARGINS: The Tommies beat the Falcons by 39 points on Saturday, which is the team's second largest margin of victory in the Division I era. However, it still pales in comparison to St. Thomas' victory over Northland in 2021. The 73-point difference counts as the largest margin of victory in program history, according to available records. The previous record for largest margin of victory was 72, set in the 100-28 win over Carleton in 2015.
20/20 VISION: Jade HIll scored a season-high 26 points in the Tommies win over UW-River Falls last weekend. It's her first 20+ point performance since February 18, 2023, when Hill scored 21 points in a 71-57 win over Western Illinois. However, the now junior scored 20+ points four times in her first season at St. Thomas, including a career-high 27 in a loss to Oral Roberts. Since joining the program, Hill has scored 20+ points in seven games, and the Tommies are 4-3 in those games.
HOME SWEET HOME: St. Thomas is hard to beat in Schoenecker Arena. Since head coach Ruth Sinn took over in 2005-06, the Tommies are 192-46 on their home court. In fact, St. Thomas has only posted one losing record at home in the past 18 seasons and lost just six games at home from 2011 to 2019. Since making the leap to Division I, though, St. Thomas is 11-16 in home games, which includes a 7-6 record in 2022-23.
BLISTERING DEBUT: First year guard Zoey Washington made quite the first impression in Schoenecker Arena last weekend. Washington scored 15 points on 6-7 shooting in her home court debut and also pulled in three rebounds and two steals. It marks the third consecutive year the Tommies have seen a first year player score double-digit points in their first ever home game. Jade Hill scored 12 points in her Schoenecker debut in 2021, while Amber Scalia scored 14 against South Carolina State in 2022.
STEALIN' VICTORIES: St. Thomas tallied 12 steals as a team against UW-River Falls and forced 26 Falcon turnovers in 40 minutes of play. Last year, the Tommies recorded 10+ steals seven times, including a DI program record 20 in a 67-41 win over Presbyterian. However, a double-digit steal performance did not always result in a win. St. Thomas won just two games when recording 10+ steals in 2022-23 and lost five, including three Summit League games. A big reason: turnovers. The Tommies committed more turnovers than steals in all those losses, and only recorded one positive turnover-steal ratio in 2022-23.
CAPITALIZERS: One thing became very clear in St. Thomas' first two games of 2023-24: the Tommies won't throw away their shot, specifically after forcing a turnover. St Thomas scored 21 points off turnovers against Drake before scoring 40 in the win over UW-River Falls. The Tommies tied the Bulldogs for points scored in the paint, as both teams scored 36 during the game, and scored 16 fastbreak points compared to Drake's 11. In the home opener, the Tommies outscored the Falcons in every statistical category, including points off turnovers (40-13), second chance points (14-10), bench points (35-27), points in the paint (44-16) and fastbreak points (20-5)
TALE OF TWO QUARTERS: There have only been two games this season, but already St. Thomas has established itself as a second half team. Of their 170 points scored this season, the Tommies have scored 93 in the second half and scored 49 of those 93 points in the fourth quarter. On the flip side, it's taken St. Thomas a hot minute to settle into games. The Tommies have surrendered 49 points in the first quarter this season and have held their opponents to under 40 points in the remaining three.
