REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Basketball team qualified for their 18th-straight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament, all under Head Coach Rich Murphy going in as the No. 4 seed, which gives them a first round home game against No. 5 Chapman University inside Currier Gym on Tuesday, February 24 at 7:00pm.
Tickets are available online using this link. You can also purchase tickets on-site for $10. SCIAC students, faculty and staff with institutional ID and children under 12 are free.
Team/player stat rankings
Redlands leads all SCIAC teams in scoring at 74.5 points per game (PPG) during conference play, nearly six points higher than second place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). Their margin of victory of 11.9 also paces the conference by more than two points over SCIAC regular season champion California Lutheran University (CLU).
The Panthers are sixth at 62.7 PPG and sixth in margin of victory at 0.4. Chapman and Redlands, though, are separated in field goal percentage and field goal percentage against by only 0.05 percent, 41.0 to 40.5 and 40.6 to 40.1.
The Bulldogs are led by AJ Wick who is third in scoring at 15.3 PPG. Freshman Teagan McIlroy is 13th at 12.1. The Panthers' leading scorer is Maile Nakaji who averages 14.6 PPG, the sixth-highest and Layla Woods who is 12th at 12.6.
Notably every point for Wick and Woods have come from inside the three-point line or at the free throw line, while McIlroy has 15 made three-pointers, while Nakaji is the conference leader with 37.
Wick is second in the conference in rebounding at 11.3 RPG and Woods is sixth at 7.2 RPG. Leila Hosn leads the conference at 4.0 assists per game (APG) while Kira Watanabe is fourth, averaging 3.2 APG.
Records watch
Head coach Rich Murphy is one win away from 300 in his career. He is already the school's winningest coach as he looks to become the first to reach the 300-win plateau.
On the court Wick will be looking to become the 13th player in program history, and the second this season along with Colbi Zorich, to reach the 1,000-point mark as she sits 13 away with 987.
In single-season history McIlroy currently ranks fourth in free throw percentage at 88.1 percent (59-of-67), placing her 3.5 percent behind record holder Lacey Baldiviez from 2005-06.
The team's 73.5 overall PPG would break the program record from 1990-91 and their 78.6 percent from the line would break their 2022-23 percentage of 73.1.
Head to Head
Redlands who comes in with an 18-6, 11-5 SCIAC record took both games against Chapman on the season winning 75-57 at home on December 3 and then 77-63 on the road back on January 28. In the history between these two teams Redlands is 19-23 against the Panthers but currently riding a three-game winning streak and have won 11-of-the-last-12 meetings dating back to 2020.
Tournament schedule
The winner of this game heads to Thousand Oaks to face off with the No. 1 seeded California Lutheran University Regals on Thursday, February 26. The final is set for Saturday, February 28 at the site of the highest remaining seed with the winner earning SCIAC's automatic qualifying bid into the NCAA Tournament.
