Quickly...  

-The winner advances to the Championship game at 2 p.m., Sunday on ESPN3. No. 6 seed Evansville defeated No. 3 seeded Missouri State, 65-59, on Friday to advance to face No. 2 seed UNI in the semifinal opposite WSU-DU.

-WSU lost both games to Drake during the regular season. WSU lost, 83-78 on Jan. 30 in Wichita, and then again, 105-89, in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 4 on the Bulldogs' senior day.

-The Shockers defeated No. 4 seed SIU, 73-60, on Friday, in the quarterfinals after losing to the Salukis twice during the regular season. Rangie Bessard had 30 points and 13 rebounds, her eighth double-double of the season and the 11th double-double by WSU in 2016-17.

-Wichita State was the No. 8 seed at the MVC Tournament a year ago, losing to No. 9 seed Bradley, 56-51.

-The Shockers won the MVC Tournament in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in St. Charles, Mo., at the Family Arena. WSU defeated Loyola, UNI and Missouri State in 2015 to win the title. In 2014, the Shockers defeated Missouri State, Illinois State and Drake to win and in 2013, WSU won its first MVC Tournament title with wins against Drake, UNI and Illinois State.

-Last year's loss to Bradley broke a string of six-straight postseason berths for the Shockers. WSU participated in the WBI in 2010, the NIT in 2011 and 2012, and the NCAA Tournament in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

-The Shockers are led by junior forward Rangie Bessard, who was named Wednesday to the All-MVC First Team after earning honorable mention honors a year ago. Bessard, from Rosharon, Texas, has played in 27 games for the Shockers, leading the team in scoring (16.9) and rebounding (7.4). 

-Senior guard TaQuandra Mike was named on Wednesday to the All-Defensive Team.

- On Tuesday, Rangie Bessard was named to the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete Second Team. Bessard carries a 3.3 in Biological Science. The honor is her second-straight.  

Valley Tournament History... Overall, Wichita State is 17-19 in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. WSU is 3-1 in Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship games, including a 78-59 loss to Drake in 1997, and wins in 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Shockers are 11-11 in quarterfinal games and 4-6 in semifinal games. Linda Hargrove is 4-6 in the tournament, reaching the tournament final in 1997 before losing to Drake, 78-59, in Springfield, Mo.

More on MVC Honors... Junior forward Rangie Bessard has been named to the All-Missouri Conference Women's Basketball First Team while senior guard TaQuandra Mike earned All-Defensive Team honors, it was announced Wednesday. Bessard, who led the Shockers in scoring all season, finished the regular season third in overall and MVC-only scoring average at 16.4 points and 16.9 points a game, respectively. She was also sixth in overall rebounding (7.2 rpg) and second in MVC-only rebounding (8.4). She also scored double-figures in 24 of the 26 games she played, including a career-high 32 points against Drake in Wichita. She also led WSU in rebounding most of the season and had seven double-doubles. Mike, WSU's third-leading scorer at 8.4 points a game, was fifth in the MVC in overall steals with 2.0 a game during the regular season while she was also fifth in Valley-only games with 2.3 a game. For the season she has 57 steals and 10 blocks. In 2016, Bessard was a honorable mention all-MVC selection and Newcomer of the Year.

Tompkins Earns Only WSU MVC AOW Honor... Angiee Tompkins earned the Shockers' only weekly honor of the year with her Newcomer of the Week honor on Monday, Feb. 27. Hargrove Named Coach... Former Shocker Head Coach Linda Hargrove was named Shocker Head Coach Jan. 22. She was the fourth head coach in Shocker history, and is now the eighth head coach. She was 113-136 at WSU in nine seasons, and had a collegiate coaching record of 429-248 in 26 seasons. Hargrove is now 119-141 at WSU in a 10th season and 435-253 overall. The Evansville win was her first in Charles Koch Arena since returning to the bench.

Crawford Acting Head Coach for Two Games... Assistant Coach Kirk Crawford was the acting head coach for WSU's wins against Bradley and Illinois State Jan. 20/22. WSU defeated Illinois State, 67-45, and Bradley, 65-54.

WSU in The Valley... The Shockers are 493-541 in conference play since 1982 in the Gateway (1982-91) and Missouri Valley Conferences (1992-Present).

On the Series... In the all-time series, WSU trails Drake, 52-29. The Bulldogs are 30-7 in Des Moines against the Shockers. Drake swept WSU a year ago and won both meetings this season.

In the First Meeting... Despite a career-high night from Rangie Bessard, the Shockers fell to Drake by a score of 83-78 on Dec. 30 in Charles Koch Arena.
     Bessard led the way for the Shockers, scoring a career-high 32 points and also grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds. Angiee Tompkins also added 12 points while Jeliah Preston and TaQuandra Mike both scored nine.
     Lizzy Wendell scored 32 points for the Bulldogs, shooting 13-of-18 from the field. Becca Hittner, Sammie Bachrodt and Caitlin Ingle also added double figures for the Bulldogs.

In the Second Meeting... Wichita State fell in a high-scoring affair at No. 22 Drake last Saturday afternoon, 105-89, inside the Knapp Center. WSU was led in scoring by Rangie Bessard's 24 points. Angiee Tompkins backed her with 17, TaQuandra Mike had 16 and Keke Thompson had 14. Drake had three players with 20-plus points led by Lizzy Wendell's 25 points. Drake shot 55.4 percent from the field for the game (36-65) while WSU shot 46.8 percent (36-77).

Last Time Out... No. 5 seed Wichita State defeated No. 4 seed SIU, 73-60, Friday afternoon in a game much closer than the final score in Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal action at iWireless Arena. The Shockers improved to 15-15 overall while SIU fell to 16-14. Up just five with 1:29 remaining, WSU turned up the defensive heat, and rebounded three SIU missed shots, to extend the lead to its largest lead of the game over the last minute and a half. The Shockers were led in scoring by First-Team All-Valley Rangie Bessard's 30 points, while the junior had 13 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season. Angiee Tompkins had 12 points and TaQuandra Mike had eight. Mike, who was named to the MVC all-defensive team earlier in the week, showed her offensive side, dishing out seven assists. SIU was led in scoring by Kylie Giebelhausen's 16 points.

MVC Double-Doubles... Wichita State has 11 double-doubles this season with all of them coming against the Missouri Valley Conference. Bessard had the first seven, Lozada-Cabbage has had one, and Tompkins has the last two of the regular-season. Bessard had the 11th against SIU on Friday.

Wichita State Individual Double-Doubles 
BESSARD, Rangie- 32 pts, 12 reb; DRAKE, 12/30/16
BESSARD, Rangie- 15 pts, 15 reb; NORTHERN IOWA, 01/01/17
BESSARD, Rangie- 12 pts, 10 reb; at Southern Illinois, 1/13/17
BESSARD, Rangie- 21 pts, 10 reb; BRADLEY, 01/20/17
BESSARD, Rangie- 12 pts, 11 reb; at Indiana State, 01-27-17
BESSARD, Rangie- 15 pts, 13 reb; SO. ILLINOIS, 02/12/17
BESSARD, Rangie- 18 pts, 12 reb; at Illinois State, 02-17-17
LOZADA-CABBAGE,Sabrina-13 pts, 17 reb; at Brad., 02-19-17
TOMPKINS, Angiee- 18 pts, 10 reb; LOYOLA, 02/24/17
TOMPKINS, Angiee- 15 pts, 10 reb; INDIANA STATE, 02/26/17
BESSARD, Rangie- 30 pts, 13, reb; vs. SIU, 03/10/17

Tompkins Getting Comfortable... Angiee Tompkins averaged a double-double in the Shockers' wins against Loyola and Indiana State with 16.5 points and 10.0 rebounds a game. It was her 10th and 11th double-figure scoring games of the season. 

Shockers Get Largest Margin... Wichita State won by 22 and 24 points against Loyola and Indiana State, with the 24-point margin against Indiana State the largest of the year.

Lozada-Cabbage Breaks Out... Sophomore forward Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage collected her first double-double of the season with a career-high 13 points and career-high 17 rebounds to lead Wichita State to a 76-69 win at Bradley Feb. 19.

Shockers Faced Key Injuries... WSU's leading scorer Rangie Bessard missed the Bradley game with an injury she sustained in the game at Illinois State, while starting point guard Keke Thompson missed three-straight games with injury. Both played against Loyola and then started against Indiana State.

Bessard's Gets Game-Winner... Rangie Bessard averaged 20.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in the Shockers' two games against Evansville and SIU, and hit the game winning shot against the Aces. For the week, she shot 51.4 percent (18-35) from the field and averaged 2.5 blocks, 2.0 steals and 2.0 assists.  Against Evansville, she had 26 points and seven boards while making 11-of-19 shots. Against SIU, she had her sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 boards.

Hargrove Gets "First" Home win... Linda Hargrove got her first Charles Koch Arena win in the game against Evansville, her "first" in the building since returning to the sideline. Her previous home wins came in the building when it was named Levitt Arena prior to the renovation. Her previous home win came in her first stint in her last home game of the 1998 season, an 60-58 win against Indiana State.

Five-Straight... Wichita State's five-game winning streak, broken Feb. 5 against Missouri State, was its longest since the 2014-15 season when the Shockers won 12-straight to close out the regular-season and three-straight tournament games.

Bessard the Second... Rangie Bessard has scored in double-figures in 15-straight games and 25 of the 27 she has played in. She is the second-leading scorer in the Valley at 16.9 points a game. In Valley-only play, she has double-figures in the 16-of-17 games she has played and was also the third-leading scorer in MVC-only games at 16.9 a game.

Not Average... Junior Rangie Bessard's career scoring average of 16.2 points a game through 51 games is on pace to finish in the Shocker Top 5 in history. She averaged 15.5 points a game a year ago in 24 games, and this year is at 16.9 a game. Marguerite Keeley averaged 20.8 points a game from 1975-77, while Allison Daniel averaged 14.9 points a game from 1982-86 as the career leaders.

Martin Moves Up… With 23 blocks this season senior Brittany Martin has 76 for her career and is 17 from moving into the Shocker Top 10.  The Shocker record is 256 by Theresa Dreiling from 1979-83.

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 over the air. Senior Jaleesa Chapel, injured prior to the first regular-season game, is assisting on the radio as analyst. She is a communications major.