MALIBU, Calif. –The Pepperdine women's basketball team hits the road to the Pacific Northwest to take on WCC-leading Gonzaga and third-place Portland.
 
GAME #18: Thursday (January 23) at McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Wash.: Pepperdine (9-8, 3-4 WCC) vs. #13 Gonzaga (18-1, 7-0 WCC) at 6 p.m.
 
GAME #19: Saturday (January 25) at Chiles Center in Portland, Ore.: Pepperdine vs. Portland (11-7, 4-3 WCC) at 2 p.m.
 
COVERAGE: Both games this week will be live broadcast through the WCC Network, with links to live stats and broadcasts available on the women's basketball schedule page at PepperdineWaves.com. Fans can also follow @WavesHoops on Twitter for live, in-game updates.
 
SERIES VS. GONZAGA: The Bulldogs hold a 42-30 all-time advantage over the Waves, and have won the past six meetings. The last time the Waves won was in the 2016-17 season, when the Waves defeated the Bulldogs 79-69 in Malibu.
 
SERIES VS. PORTLAND: The Waves have a 38-30 advantage over the Pilots all-time. The two teams have split the last four games, with each team winning at home last year. The Waves defeated the Pilots 82-68 at home before falling 85-63 on the road.
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Waves took on PCH Cup rival LMU. Paige Fecske scored 26 points, including shooting 4-for-9 from three, in the 84-77 loss.
 
RECORD CHASING: Barbara Sitanggan is steadily climbing her way to the top of the all-time Pepperdine assists record. She currently sits in third with 432 assists, 11 behind Desi Marcelin in second and 20 behind the all-time mark. Sitanggan is also ninth all-time in free throws made with 326  ... Paige Fecske is just three points from becoming the program's 24th member of the 1,000 point club. She also has made 156 3-pointers in her career, fourth all-time at Pepperdine.
 
WCC LEADERS: Paige Fecske is near the top of the West Coast Conference in a few offensive categories. She is 14th in the conference in scoring, putting up 12.6 points per game. She is also third in the conference in free throw percentage, making 86.2 percent of her foul shots.
 
Monique Andriuolo is also at the top of the conference thus far. She is 10th in the conference in rebounding, bringing 6.6 boards down per game. Andriuolo also has 29 blocked shots, good for second in the WCC.
 
Barbara Sitanggan is currently third in the conference in assists with 73, and sixth in steals with 31.
 
LAST YEAR: Last year was Pepperdine women's basketball's best season in a long time. The Waves posted their first winning season since 2012. Pepperdine had its best WCC finish (third) and WCC seeding (third) since 2011. The Waves also won 20 games for the first time since 2010, the 12th such season in program history. The Waves lost one of the all-time great women's basketball players in Yasmine Robinson-Bacote, who graduated as the fourth-leading scorer in Pepperdine history with 1,772 points as well as having the fourth highest scoring average, scoring 15.3 points per game.

RETURNERS: The Waves bring back the West Coast Conference's assist leader from last year in senior Barbara Sitanggan. Sitanggan had 176 assists last year, compared to just 46 turnovers, which was good for the third best assist-turnover ratio in the nation. She also scored 11.1 points per game, good for second on the team.
 
Also returning for the Waves is redshirt-senior Paige Fecske. Fecske was named an All-WCC honorable mention as a junior in 2018 and had a promising start last year, scoring 9.5 points per game in five games before suffering a season-ending injury.
 
Pepperdine also brings back senior Deezha Battle, who scored 8.5 points per game last year, mainly coming off the bench. She led the team with 47 made three-pointers, making just under 37% of her shots from beyond the arc. Battle was second on the team in assists, dishing out 68. 
 
Malia Bambrick returns for her sophomore season as a Wave coming off a WCC All-Freshman team designation last year. She scored 8.0 points per game and brought down 109 rebounds in 2018-19.
 
THE ROSTER: The Waves return a total of eight players from last year's squad: three seniors (Deezha Battle, Barbara Sitanggan, Paige Fecske), two juniors (Monique Andriuolo, Mia Satie) and three sophomores (Malia Bambrick, Jayda Ruffus-Milner, Jayla Ruffus-Milner). Joining the team this year are freshman Destiny McAllister, sophomore transfer Cheyenne Givens, and graduate transfers Danijela Milisic, Hannah Friend and Tara Dusharm.
 
PRESEASON RANKINGS: The Waves were picked to tie for sixth with Loyola Marymount in the annual WCC preseason poll. The entire poll is as follows: 1. Gonzaga, 2. BYU, 3. Pacific, 4. Saint Mary's, 5. Santa Clara, T6. Pepperdine, T6. Loyola Marymount, 8 San Diego, 9. San Francisco, 10. Portland.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY: Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports – one of just 18 schools to have accomplished this feat – and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment and is the only school not affiliated with a BCS-level conference. The Waves have earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #50 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.