Wichita State Shockers (7-19, 4-11)  at Missouri State Lady Bears (18-9, 11-4)Worth Noting... Wichita State (7-19, 4-11) plays at Missouri State, the Shockers' travel partner, Saturday afternoon in the ninth Missouri Valley Conference weekend of the season. The Shockers have won four of their last eight conference games after a seven-game losing streak.  

-The Shockers have split the last two Valley weekends, losing to Bradley (55-50) before defeating Loyola (65-62, OT) in Wichita on Feb. 12/14 and winning at Evansville before dropping an 80-66 loss at SIU on Feb. 19/21.

-WSU is coming off the 80-66 loss at SIU, despite 23 points from Rangie Bessard and 19 from TaQuandra Mike. The 66 points were the most for the Shockers since winning 76-62 at Florida International 22 games ago.

-WSU's last win was 44-31 at Evansville behind 16 points from Bessard and 12 from Mike. WSU held the Aces to 31 points, which ties for the second least points allowed in MVC history, and to 22.9 percent shooting. Sara Dickey, the fourth-leading scorer in the MVC with 16.5 points a game, was held to four points, and no Ace scored in double-figures.

-The Shockers are currently tied for seventh with a 4-11 record with Bradley and Illinois State. UNI leads with an 11-3 record with Drake and Missouri State tied for second at 11-4.

-Bessard leads WSU in overall scoring with 15.0 points a game and also on the boards with 7.7 a game in the 20 games she has played in 2015-16 since becoming eligible after sitting out after transferring from Minnesota. Another transfer, TaQuandra Mike, averages a team-second 12.2 points a game and also leads the team in steals with 52 in 26 games. Lockhart is third with 8.0 points a game overall while she leads the team in assists with 75 in the 26 games.

-Bessard also leads the Shockers in MVC-Only scoring at 15.5 points a game while Mike is second in loop games with 13.0 a game. Lockhart is third in MVC-only games with 7.4 points a game and leads the squad with 41 assists in 15 MVC games.

-WSU was led in scoring through the first six games by freshman Jyar Francis, who currently averages a team-fourth 5.6 points a game off the bench, before she missed four games with a concussion. She was cleared for the Tennessee Tech game Dec. 22.

-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 Bears. 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 returned Dec. 11 after missing three games with a concussion, while the Shockers added 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 Jan. 1. WSU at times suited six players in the non-conference season due to injury this season.

Winning Coaches... UNI's Tanya Warren and Wichita State's Jody Adams each recently earned their 154th career wins, ranking them T-11th all-time in MVC history (since the 1982-83 season).
    All-Time MVC Coaching Wins
    8. 170, Connie Yori, Creighton (1993-2002); 9. 167, Paula Buscher, Bradley (2001-11); 10. 155, Jim Wiedie, Indiana State (2001-10); 11. 154, Jody Adams     (WSU, 2009-Pres.) and Tanya Warren (UNI, 2008-Pres.)
 

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MSU Basketball... (18-9, 11-4 MVC) 
Head Coach Kellie Harper is in her third season at Missouri State with a record of 50-41. Overall, she is 217-170 with stints as a head coach at Western Carolina and North Carolina State before coming to MSU. She is a 1999 gradaute of Tennessee.

Series History...Missouri State leads the overall series, 46-35, including a 29-12 record in Springfield. The Shockers have won 20 of the last 25 meetings overall. Missouri State won earlier this year, 77-57, on Jan. 30 in Wichita. 

Missouri State Notes...Missouri State is 18-9 overall and 11-4 in MVC games... Senior guard Tyonna Snow averages 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.2 steals, ranking second at MSU and fifth in MVC history with 328 career thefts, while preseason all-MVC selection Kenzie Williams averages 13.6 points per game on 36.4 percent from beyond the arc, and sophomore Liza Fruendt averages 11.1 points... Hillary Chvatal leads the club in rebounding at 7.3 per game to go with a 9.4 scoring average... As a team, the Lady Bears average 70.4 points per game and allow 65.6 while shooting 39.1 percent overall, 30.8 percent from long distance and 70.5 percent from the charity stripe.

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Newcomer Trio... WSU's newcomer trio of sophomore Rangie Bessard, junior TaQuandra Mike and sophomore Diamond Lockhart continue to lead the Shockers in scoring, and have been the Shockers' top game scorers in the last 24-straight games. Mike has 13 of those, while Bessard has 10, and Lockhart has three.

Rebounding Improving... After only out-rebounding two of its first 15 opponents, the Shockers have won the glass six times and tied once in the last 11 games. Rangie Bessard's team-leading effort has contributed to winning the glass in those games, while she has led or tied for the lead in 13 of the 20 games she has played. 

Newbies... As a testament to WSU's inexperience, WSU's most experienced Shocker, Jaleesa Chapel, just reached only her 27th career start against SIU. In addition, the Shockers have won six Valley Newcomer of the Week honors. After a two-win weekend, sophomore transfer Rangie Bessard earned her third 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 24 blocked shots in the 15 games she's played for an average of 1.9 blocks per game. The 24 blocks have come in just 248 minutes played.

Mike Has Three Big Games... TaQuandra Mike has scored double-figures in 10-of-15 Valley games and 17-of-26 overall, including the last four games. Last weekend, she had her first double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds at Evansville.

Getting Minutes... Four Shockers average more than 30 minutes a game led by Jaleesa Chapel's 33.2 a game. In addition, 10 of the 11 Shockers average more than 12 minutes a game.

Sixth Shocker N-O-W... Rangie Bessard was named the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week for the third time this season the week ending Jan. 24. A sophomore forward, Bessard averaged 17.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in the Shockers' two wins, while shooting 51.9-percent (14-of-27) from the field. She had nine points and 11 boards against Southern Illinois and 26 points and seven rebounds against Evansville. Bessard also had three assists, one block and one steal for the week.

Sticky Fingers... TaQuandra Mike leads WSU with 52 steals in 26 games played. Alex Harden holds the WSU season steals record with 108 a year ago. 

Shockers Battled Adversity Early... 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 added depth to the bench. Pacar missed three games, Francis missed four games and Bessard (transfer) missed the first six games. Lozada-Cabbage (knee) missed the first 11 games and was released to play the exhibition game Dec. 29. Brittany Martin missed eight games. WSU had 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 20 games as a Shocker. She collected her fourth double-double at UNI (19 pts/11 reb), third double-double of the season at Bradley (27 pts/18 rebounds), 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 three 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 154-102 in her eighth season at WSU and 183-111 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 92-30 (.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 plays host to Illinois State on March 3, and Indiana State, March 5, to wrap up the regular-season.