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Quickly...Wichita State (3-14, 0-6) plays host to SIU (11-6, 4-1) Friday night inside Charles Koch Arena in Wichita in the first-of-three-straight home games. WSU also plays host to Evansville, 2 p.m., Sunday. The Aces play at Missouri State Friday night, while MSU visits Wichita on Jan. 30.
-The Shockers are coming off a 50-44 loss at Bradley Sunday in Peoria, Ill. The Shockers were led by
Rangie Bessard, who has 27 points and 18 rebounds, both career highs, while five other Shockers got on the scoreboard led by
TaQuandra Mike's seven points.
-WSU dropped the first game of the road swing with a 60-55 loss at Loyola Friday night. WSU was led in scoring by
TaQuandra Mike's 17 points and
Rangie Bessard's 16 points, while Loyola's Nieka Wheeler led three double-figure Ramblers with 18 points.
-Bessard leads WSU in overall scoring with 13.7 points a game and also on the boards with 7.7 a game in the 11 games she has played in 2015-16 since becoming eligible after sitting out after transferring from Minnesota.
-WSU was led in scoring through the first six games by freshman
Jyar Francis, who currently averages a team-third 8.8 points a game off the bench, before missing four games with a concussion and returning for the Tennessee Tech game.
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TaQuandra Mike averages a team-second 12.2 points a game. Bessard also leads the Shockers in MVC-Only scoring at 14.2 points a game while Mike is second with 13.2 a game. Lockhard is third in MVC games with 5.8 a game.
-The Shockers returned five players from last year's NCAA Tournament team, including three who came off the bench for WSU. Junior guard
Jaleesa Chapel returned with the most experience, having played in 63 games with two starts the previous two years, while
Aundra Stovall and
Brittany Martin both also played a year ago off the bench.
-Eleven Shockers will suit up against the Salukis. Freshman
Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage was released against exhibition opponent Oklahoma Christian Dec. 29, to play after knee surgery prior to her arrival at WSU, and she got her first career start against Indiana State.
Marija Pacar recently returned after a concussion, while the Shockers added a scholarship player,
Hannah Mortimer, a 5-4 transfer guard from Brown Mackie College in Salina, Kan. Mortimer was awarded a scholarship before the UNI game after showing an outstanding contribution to the team. Junior
Brittany Martin was also released after a knee injury to play at Indiana State. WSU has at times suited six players due to injury this season.
-After playing just one home game in November, WSU played just one game on the road in December, Tuesday, at Tennessee Tech. Six of the Shockers' seven games in December were at home, while four of five November games were away from Wichita.
Fifth Shocker N-O-W... Rangie Bessard, last week's MVC Newcomer-of-the-Week, averaged 21.5 points and 12.0 rebounds in the Shockers' two games last week and picked up her third double-double of the season at Bradley. The sophomore transfer from Rosharon, Texas, had a career-high 27 points and career-high 18 boards at Bradley to be a double threat. She has at least 20 points in two of the last three games, as well, and has led the Shockers in rebounding in 10 of the 11 games she has played since joining the team at the break.
The honor is the fifth for the Shockers in 2015-16 and Bessard's second of the season, while
TaQuandra Mike,
Jyar Francis and
Diamond Lockhart have also been named Newcomer of the Week this season.
Swat That...Despite missing eight games,
Brittany Martin has 14 blocked shots in the seven games she's played for an average of 2.0 blocks per game. The 14 blocks have come in just 125 minutes played.
Stepping Up to The Valley... TaQuandra Mike has scored double-figure in five-of-six Valley games and 12-of-16 overall. Mike has also scored in double-figures in 12 of her last 15 games, including a stretch of seven-straight. In comparison, she had a total of nine points in the Shockers' first three regular-season games.
Getting Minutes... Five Shockers averaged more than 30 minutes a game led by
Aundra Stovall's 35.1 a game. In addition, 10 of the 11 Shockers average more than 10 minutes a game with
Jyar Francis getting the most off the bench with 19.3 a game.
This Weekend's Opponents, SIU and Evansville
SIU Basketball... (11-6, 4-1 MVC) Head Coach Cindy Stein is in her third season at SIU and carries a 33-44 records at SIU and a 315-250 record in 19 years as a head coach.
Double Trouble... Dyana Pierre notched her fifth-straight double-double in the win over Evansville on Saturday, scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 boards. Pierre's 10 double-doubles this season are the most in the Valley and are tied for the ninth-most in the nation, while her 47 career double-doubles rank second in MVC history. Pierre is currently averaging 13.7 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.
Macklin Atop SIU Scoring List...Cartaesha Macklin scored SIU's first two points in the win over Evansville on Saturday and became SIU's all-time leading scorer in the process. She broke Amy Rakers' 25-year old school-record of 1,538 career points, set in 1991.
Evansville Basketball... (2-14, 1-4 MVC prior to Friday)Head Coach Otis Epps is in his fifth season at Evansville and carries a UE and career record of 44-97. UE plays at Missouri State Friday night prior to coming to WSU Sunday.
Moving On Up... Sara Dickey scored 13 points in Saturday's loss at Southern Illinois, and she now has 1,404 for her career. The junior is ranked fifth on Evansville's all-time scoring list, and is now 26 points shy of fourth place.
Rebound the Basketball... Sasha Robinson is 41 rebounds away of moving into Evansville's career top-10. She joined the 500-rebound club earlier this month.
Shockers in Early League Play...-The Shockers are coming off a 60-55 loss at Loyola Friday night. WSU was led in scoring by
TaQuandra Mike's 17 points and
Rangie Bessard's 16 points, while Loyola's Nieka Wheeler led three double-figure Ramblers with 18 points. WSU won the first quarter, but dropped the final three quarters by 2, 5 and 5 points, respectively.
-At home, WSU was led in scoring against Drake by
Rangie Bessard's 20 points and her seven boards were also a team high. WSU led 35-32 at the half, but Drake's offense took over to out-score the Shockers, 26-9 in the third quarter and 29-12 in the fourth quarter. Against UNI,
TaQuandra Mike had nine points as the Shockers' leading scorer against UNI, while
Rangie Bessard had nine rebounds to top WSU rebounders. After trailing 34-13 at the half, WSU won the second half, 31-21, but its wasn't enough to overcome the first half deficit.
-WSU opened league play on the road with a 0-2 start in the league with losses at Indiana State, 59-33, and at Illinois State, 70-49.
TaQuandra Mike had 18 points at Indiana State and 12 at Illinois State as the Shockers' top scorer.
-WSU's offensive night at Indiana State (20.8 percent) contributed to the loss.
TaQuandra Mike had a team-leading 18 points in 6-of-18 shooting while
Rangie Bessard's seven boards led WSU on the glass.
-At Illinois State, WSU shot better (38.9 percent (21-54), but gave up 56.1 percent (23-41) to Illinois State defensively. ISU won the second quarter, 24-13, and the fourth quarter, 19-10. Mike had 12 points for WSU and
Rangie Bessard had 11.
Sticky Fingers... TaQuandra Mike leads WSU with 39 steals in 16 games played. Her 2.53 steals a game ranked 56th in the country to open the week.
Alex Harden holds the WSU season steals record with 108 a year ago. The Shockers' 9.9 steal a game also ranked 55th as a team.
On the Glass... Rangie Bessard has led the Shockers in rebounding in 10 of the 11 games she has played since joining the team at the break. She leads WSU in rebounding with 7.7 a game overall and 8.7 a game in MVC-Only games. She has also been the team's leading scorer in four of those games.
Finally Together... Wichita State's two leading scorers finally got the chance to play together at Tennessee Tech.
Rangie Bessard (15.8) and
Jyar Francis (12.4) had 14 and 11 points, respectively, in the game. Bessard became eligible after her transfer Dec. 11 against Tennessee, which was Francis' first of four games out with a concussion.
Getting Healthy... With the return of
Marija Pacar (concussion),
Jyar Francis (concussion),
Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage (knee) and
Brittany Martin (knee), and the addition of non-scholarship
Hannah Mortimer, the Shockers have adding depth to the bench. Pacar missed three games, Francis missed four games and Bessard (transfer) missed the first six games.
Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage (knee) missed the first 11 games and was released to play the exhibition game Dec. 29.
Brittany Martin missed eight games. WSU has 11 players eligible for the first time this season in the shockers' two Valley game to open the regular season. In all, Wichita State's five players who missed games due to injury or transfer rules, were not available for a total of 32 games.
Defending Champions Picked Fifth...WSU was picked in the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason poll to finish fifth, its lowest position in the preseason poll since 2010-11 when the Shockers were also picked fifth. WSU finished fifth that season, then finished third in 2011-12 after being picked third, before going onto three-straight titles.
Picking Up Speed... Rangie Bessard has now played her first 11 games as a Shocker. She collected her third double-double of the season at Bradley (27 pts/18 rebounds), her second double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 boards at Tennessee Tech, and also had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Prairie View A&M. She has already earned All-Tournament honors at the Winter Classic and earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors two times in her short WSU career.
On Jody Adams... Adams (Tennessee, '94) is in her eighth season at Wichita State as the only Shocker women's basketball coach to make an NCAA appearance and win an MVC regular-season and MVC Tournament championship at WSU. Her 2012-13 team accomplished all of that, then the 2013-14 and 2014-15 teams repeated the exact same feat. WSU has won three-straight MVC regular-season and MVC Tournament titles and competing in three-straight NCAA Tournaments.
At 29-5 overall, the 2014-15 team broke the school's season win record by three games.
She is 150-98 in her eighth season at WSU and 179-106 overall in her ninth season as a head coach, which includes a 24-8 record as head coach at Murray State in 2007-08.
In addition, WSU is 90-29 (.785) overall at home under Adams, including 16-0 in 2014-15.
Adams is first on the WSU all-time wins list. She passed Linda Hargrove, who won 113 games at WSU from 1989-98, on Fri., Feb. 21, 2014 in a win against Illinois State.
Next Up... Wichita State completes the three-game homestand Jan. 30 against Missouri State, the Shockers' travel partner in league play.
