USD Women's Basketball 2004-2005

( 2003-04 Season in Review)

The 2003-04 San Diego women's basketball team bid a fond farewell to two seniors who played a major role in building USD's program and welcomed an infusion of young talent who proved they will carry on the Toreros' tradition of athletic excellence. The combination of guidance and strength from the returning players and eagerness and enthusiasm from the young players resulted in a thrilling season-ending run in the WCC Tournament. The non-conference season saw USD crush Nevada 96-74 in the Torero home opener and rally back from a 14 point deficit to defeat cross-town rival San Diego State 65-60 at Cox Arena. USD celebrated Christmas with three late-December wins. The Toreros defeated UOP and Oral Roberts then knocked off a strong George– town team to advance to the championship of the San Diego Surf and Slam Tournament at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. USD entered the West Coast Conference Tournament as the #8 seed, pitting them against #5 seed St. Mary 's College in the first round. The Toreros moved on in the tournament with a thrilling 87- 81 double overtime victory against the Gaels in which three Toreros scored over 20 points (Helvey 28, Harris 24, Menuez 21). The 2003-04 season closed with a narrow loss against Portland in the second round of the WCC Tournament.

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Melissa Padgett (2000-04) provided the Toreros with excellent defense as a senior last season.

San Diego senior, Marta Menuez, capped off her career with the Toreros by firmly placing herself amongst USD's all-time greatest players. She became the 8th player in USD history to surpass 1,000 points in the game against Loyola Marymount on January 15, 2004; and ended her career as the 2nd leading scorer in USD history with 1,233 points. Menuez reached another milestone when she cleared her 600th rebound in the double over– time win over St. Mary 's becoming only the 5th player in USD history to do so. She finished her career with 614 rebounds, ranking her 5th on the all-time rebound list. With an average of 15.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, Menuez was named to the All-WCC First Team and received WCC Player of the Week accolades for the week of November 23 . Senior forward Melissa Padgett established herself as one of San Diego's greatest defensive players as her Torero career came to a close. In the To– reros' win over Georgetown, Melissa held All-America forward and current WNBA player Rebekkah Brunson to 10 points on 5-13 shooting. She was one of only three Toreros who started all 29 games averaging 31 .8 minutes per game. Padgett did almost everything for the Toreros. She led the team in blocks with 20 and was 2nd in steals, assists, and rebounds. She ended the season ranked among the conference leaders in each of those categories. Sophomore point guard, Polly Dong, ranked 2nd in the WCC in assists and by season's end had dished out 129 assists, placing her 3rd on USD's

Lindsay Helvey poured in a career-high 28points in USD'spostseason win over the Gaels.

all-time single season list. After only 2 seasons, Polly is already 8th on the all-time career assist list with 217. Dong started in all 29 games for the Toreros and averaged 28 minutes per game. She ranked 1st on the team in steals with 52 (6th in the WCC) and led the Toreros defense by taking the most charges (23) on the team.Sophomore guard Lindsay Helvey turned in an excellent '03-04 season, rebounding from a rookie campaign that saw her sidelined by injury for much of the year. Helvey