Quickly
-Wichita State (5-10, 0-4) is on its second MVC road trip of the season but the first two-game trek and wraps up at Evansville on Sunday. The shockers lost, 77-54, at SIU Friday while Evansville (7-9, 2-3) lost to Missouri State, 77-41.

-Wichita State (5-10, 0-4) dropped a 77-54 loss at Southern Illinois (8-8, 2-3) as the Salukis converted on 13-of-24 three-pointers Friday night at SIU Arena.WSU had a hot shooting start and was down one, 19-18, after the first quarter, before SIU closed the door by winning the second quarter, 16-9, the third quarter, 23-16, and the fourth quarter, 19-11. WSU was led in scoring by TaQuandra Mike's 14 points. Rangie Bessard had 12 for WSU, but SIU's Kylie Giebelhausen had 22 points to lead all scorers, which included seven three pointers. SIU's Rishonda Napier added 18 points, including six treys.

-WSU last Friday played its first MVC road game of the season against its travel partner Missouri State, losing 73-62 in Springfield. Tamara Lee led WSU with 17 points. Leading scorers Rangie Bessard and TaQuandra Mike were held to seven points each in the loss. 

-Prior to that, WSU completed a five-game homestand against Drake and UNI to open Valley play 0-2 against the top two preseason picks.

-WSU dropped a 63-61 loss to preseason pick No. 2 UNI on Jan. 1 where TaQuandra Mike (20) and Rangie Bessard (15) combined for 35 points. Bessard had her second-straight double-double of the season.

-In the first MVC game of the homestand, WSU dropped an 83-78 loss to preseason favorite Drake. Rangie Bessard had a career-high 32 points and added 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.

-The two games marked the fourth and fifth games of the season where the Shockers lost by five points or less. A year ago, WSU dropped five games by five or less points and seven games by six points or less.

-The Shockers are 484-536 in conference play since 1982 in the Gateway (1982-91) and Missouri Valley Conferences (1992-Present).

-Jody Adams-Birch is 85-64 against the MVC since 2009. She also has the 11th-most overall wins in MVC history with 160, and the 13th-most league-only wins in MVC history with 85.

Lee Leads Last... Junior newcomer Tamara Lee had 17 points and shot 45.5 percent in the Shockers' lone game last week at Missouri State. She was 5-11 from the field (45.5 percent) which included a 4-of-6 effort from the arc (66.7 percent) all in 18 minutes of action.

Rangie Fills It Up... After 15 games, the Shockers are led in scoring by junior Rangie Bessard (15.8) and  senior TaQuandra Mike (9.7). Bessard also leads WSU on the boards with 6.6 a game. She had 17, 20, 16 and 12 points, respectively, in the first four games of the year, but was injured in the Stanford game and missed the Northeastern and Arkansas State games. In the seven games since returning from the injury she has averaged 18.4 points a game and is averaging 16.5 a game in Valley play. 

Tompkins Finds a Groove... Angiee Tompkins had her second double-figure scoring game in the first 10 games against Incarnate Word, and has added three more since then. Shes averaged 11.6 points the last five games after averaging 4.6 ppg the first 10. 

Martin Moves Up… With 10 blocks this season senior Brittany Martin has 623 for her career and is 28 from moving into the Shocker Top 10.  The Shocker record is 256 by Theresa Dreiling from 1979-83.

Newcomers Make an Impact… Four of the Shockers' top six scorers are newcomers to the program with the most recent impact coming from Tompkins Thompson and Lee. Tompkins is averaging a team-third 7.1 points a game, Thompson is next at 6.9 ppg, and Lee is fifth at 6.4 ppg. Preston rounds-out the top six at 5.9 ppg. 

Rangie's Opening Weekend... Junior Rangie Bessard averaged 23.5 points and 13.15 rebounds in WSU's first two MVC games of the year against the top two preseason picks. She also had her first two double-doubles of the year with a career high 32 points and 12 rebounds against Drake and 15 points and 15 rebounds against UNI. She shot 46.9 percent (15-32) from the field while being double and triple-teamed most of the games.

Post Presence... Junior Angiee Tompkins averaged 9.0 points and 3.5 rebounds in the Shockers' two games against the top two teams in the preseason poll in her first Valley action. She and Bessard combined for 44 points and 19 boards against Drake. Tompkins shot 53.8 percent from the field.

Scoring Balance...Ten Shockers average between 2.4 and 9.4 points a game. Rangie Bessard leads with 17.0 ppg, but the next 10 players average spread is 7.0 points.

Double-Digit Diva... Rangie Bessard has scored in double-figures in six of the last seven games since being out with injury. Those games plus four of the first five she played pushed her double-digit total to 10 for the year and 29 in her career. Only seven times has she not scored in double-figures in games she's seen time.

Preston's Light Shines... Winter Classic Tournament MVP Jeliah Preston shot 63.2 (12-19) from the field in the tournament and scored 21 points Friday, and 11 points Saturday, for a two-day average of 16.0 ppg to help the Shockers to  a 2-0 record in the event. She was also 6-of-9 from the arc in the two days. She had missed two games prior to the tournament with injury but had 17 points in WSU's game against Northeastern.

On Adams-Birch... Jody Adams-Birch (Tennessee, '94) is in her ninth 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 won three-straight MVC regular-season and MVC Tournament titles while making three-straight NCAA Tournaments from 2013-2015. 

She is 160-115 in nine seasons at WSU and 184-123 overall in 10 seasons as a head coach, which includes a 24-8 record as head coach at Murray State in 2007-08.

The 2014-15 team broke the school's season win record by three games at 29-5.

In addition, WSU is 94-29 overall at home under Adams-Birch, including 16-0 in 2014-15.

-Adams-Birch 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.

On the Web... Wichita State's home games this season will be broadcast on the internet at www.goshockers.com/watch/ with Steve Strain, who is in his third season calling the action for the Shockers. Steve, who is a veteran of radio and television, called women's basketball for the Texas Tech Lady Raiders from 2009-13. Strain will also call road games on KNSS 1330.

Quick Preview... WSU is in its 43rd modern season of women's basketball that started in 1974-75. WSU was 557-633 in  the 43 years heading into the season.

-The Shockers return all five starters from last year's squad, and 11 players overall. With five newcomers, but after the departure of Jyar Francis over semester break, the Shockers carry 15 players on the roster.

-Senior guard Jaleesa Chapel returned with the most experience, having played in 93 games with 31 starts the last three years, but a knee injury has ended her season.

-WSU welcomed five newcomers to the Shocker program in 2016-17, including four junior college transfers and one freshman.

-Led by the Juco All-American Tompkins, the bevy of newcomers started their WSU careers with backgrounds as proven winners: Junior Keke Thompson helped Shelton State CC to a 63-5 record in two seasons. Junior Jeliah Preston helped Blinn CC to  a 26-9 record and  a NJCAA Regional title. Junior Tamara Lee was a first-team All-Jayhawk Conference first-team honoree and helped Edmond Santa Fe to a 108-4 record as a prepster. Freshman Kayla Williams comes to WSU from Overton High in Memphis, Tenn., where she helped her team to a 102-16 high school record.