Northwest Notes November 11, 2010

Zags sign four in

men's basketball

SPOKANE - Guards were the order of the day Wednesday for Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few as three of the four players who inked national letters-of-intent were perimeter players.

Joining the Bulldogs next fall will be Gary Bell, a 6-2, 175-pound guard from Kentridge High in Kent, Wash.; Kyle Dranginis (6-5, 175), a guard from Skyview High in Nampa; Kevin Pangos (6-2, 175), a guard from Denison Secondary School in Newmarket, Ontario; and Ryan Spangler (6-8, 220), a forward from Bridge Creek High in Blanchard, Okla.

Bell averaged 22.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for the Chargers last season and scored a career-high 55 points versus Auburn-Riverside. California, Washington, Arizona State, USC, UCLA and Washington State also offered Bell a scholarship.

Dranginis is a two-time Idaho state Player of the Year and this past season as a junior was four points shy of tying the state 4A tournament record with 75 points in three games as Skyview finished fifth at state. Dranginis averaged a team-high 20.3 points, 6.3 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 2.0 steals for the Hawks. Utah, Utah State, Boise State, Notre Dame, WSU, Portland and San Diego were also interested.

Pangos helped lead Canada to the bronze medal at the FIBA U-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, this past July. The team captain and starting point guard averaged 15.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg and 4.1 assists as Canada went 5-3 overall and defeated Lithuania 83-81 for the bronze medal. He picked Gonzaga over Notre Dame and Virginia.

Spangler, who also plays quarterback for his high school team, averaged 26.0 ppg and 18.5 rpg as a junior, the team losing in the game to advance to state. He was not heavily recruited until this past summer when he played AAU ball as most observers thought he would pursue a collegiate football career. After getting interest from 30 schools this past summer, he narrowed his choices to Gonzaga, Colorado, TCU and Tulsa before selecting the Zags.

Three joining WAC

The Western Athletic Conference is expected to announce today the addition of the University of Texas-San Antonio and Texas State University, along with the University of Denver as a non-football member.

A person familiar with the decisions, speaking on condition of anonymity because final approval of the additions were still being worked out, said that the three schools will become members of the WAC in 2012.

Vandal men

sign three

during early period

MOSCOW - Forward Xavier Bazile of Mt. Tahoma High School (Tacoma, Wash.); Wendell Faines, a forward from Saddleback Junior College (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and Anthony Jones, a guard from Paris (Texas) JC have signed letters of intent with the Idaho men's basketball team, Idaho coach Don Verlin said.

The 6-4, 190-pound Bazile averaged 19.6 points and 8.0 rebounds as a junior last year in earning first-team all-Narrows League Bay Division honors. He was a second-team honoree as a sophomore.

Faines helped lead Saddleback to a 26-5 overall record and California state title in 2009-10. He started 26 of 31 games and averaged 7.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and a team-leading 1.8 blocks per game. He also shot 51.4 percent from the field, which was the best on the team.

Jones, a 6-4, 200-pound guard, will be a sophomore at Paris JC this season. As a freshman last year at Holmes College (Miss.), Jones averaged 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. He earned second-team all-state honors from the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges.

Presley among three to

sign with WSU women

PULLMAN - Tia Presley, the all-time leading scorer at Gonzaga Prep, is one of three players to sign with the Washington State women's basketball team, Cougars coach June Daugherty announced.

Presley, a 5-foot-8 guard, led the GSL in scoring in both her sophomore and junior years and has a career scoring average of 19.2 points a game, including averaging nearly 24 points a game last year. She is on track to surpass current Tennessee standout player Angie Bjorklund from University High in Spokane as the all-time GSL leading scorer.

Daugherty also signed Jordan Kelley (Gillette, Wyo.) and Shalie Dheensaw (Victoria, British Columbia).