UAB (13-7, 4-4 AAC) at WICHITA STATE (7-13, 1-6 AAC)
Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025 | 2:00 p.m.
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
TV: ESPN+ with Shane Dennis and Tracy Anderson
Radio: GoShockers.com/Listen with Pat Strathman 
Play4Kay Pink Game: Honoring and recognizing cancer fighters and survivors throughout the Wichita community.
Giveaway: Pink color-changing cups presented by the Shocker Store
 
OPENING TIPS
Wichita State and UAB face off for the second time in just three weeks as the Shockers look to snap a four-game losing streak.
Wichita State leads the all-time series 3-1 and have won the last two-straight against the Blazers.
Last time the two teams met in Charles Koch Arena, UAB came out on top in an overtime thriller.
Wichita State is in year two of the Terry Nooner era, and the Shockers return their leading scorer from conference play, sophomore guard Salese Blow. With nine newcomers on the team, the Shockers return just 37.6 percent of their scoring.
Blow and redshirt-junior forward Jayla Murray have been the 1-2 punch for the Shockers, leading the team with 12 points per game.
Blow has led the Shockers in scoring in eight games with three 20+ point performances, making eight career games over 20.
Murray led the Shockers in scoring during non-conference play, averaging 11.7 points per game with one double-double. She has finished in double figures 11 times and was named to the American Athletic Conference weekly honorable mention player of the week list after her performance in the win over LMU. She recorded her first 20-point game with a career high 24 in the road win over UAB.
Jasmine Peaks has proven to be a great facilitator for Wichita State, dishing out a career-high eight assists against Tulane, her third time leading the team in assists and second time this season with five or more assists. She got her first career start for the Shockers last time out at North Texas.
Junior Princess Anderson has been a spark plug off the bench for the Shockers in a handful of games, leading the team in scoring five times with a Division I career high 17 points in the win over Prairie View A&M.
Graduate transfer and Wichita native Taylor Jameson returned home for her final season of college basketball and has led the Shockers in scoring five times. In the conference opener against North Texas, she hit five threes on her way to 17 points and at UTSA she drained a career-high six threes, scoring a season-high 22 points. She missed the last game due to concussion protocols.
Wichita State is one of the deepest teams in the AAC, ranking second in the conference in bench points per game with 22.7.
Free throws have plagued the Shockers as they rank 12th in the AAC in free throw percentage (62.3), but they hit their most free throws of the season (20) in the road win over UAB, including a perfect 10-for-10 from Blow.
Murray ranks third in the AAC in field goal percentage (53 percent), making the sixth-most in the league with 107.
 
STREAKS & TRENDS
Blow has started 23-straight games for the Shockers.
Blow has been perfect from the charity stripe four times this season and 11 times in her career.
The Shockers have yet to lead at halftime during conference play.
All seven wins this season have come when the Shockers outrebounded their opponent.
The Shockers came back to beat UAB after being down at halftime, their first time this season overcoming a halftime deficit to win a game.
All but two wins in the Terry Nooner era have come when holding opponents to less than 70 points, including six of the seven wins this season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Without starting senior point guard Taylor Jameson, Wichita State dropped its fourth-straight game, falling 80-58 Saturday afternoon in The Super Pit.
 
Junior Princess Anderson led the Shockers with 13 points, hitting three of Wichita State's six threes. Senior Aicha Ndour tied her career high with 10 points and led the Shockers in rebounding with five.
 
Three North Texas players finished in double figures, led by AAC Preseason Co-Player of the Year, Tommisha Lampkin, and Desiree Wooten with 17 apiece.
 
North Texas held Wichita State's leading scorers, Jayla Murray and Salese Blow to a combined 13 points.
 
For the fourth-straight game, Wichita State lost the battle of the boards as the Mean Green outrebounded them 48-27. The Shockers recorded only seven offensive rebounds to UNT's 16, and North Texas scored 19 second-chance points.
 
North Texas showed why they're the conference leaders in free throw attempts per game, getting to the line 24 times to the Shockers' eight and hitting 20 free throws (83.3 percent). Both Ornella Niankan and Ndour fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter.
 
With Taylor Jameson unavailable due to concussion protocols, Jasmine Peaks got her first career start for the Shockers, scoring six points and dishing out two assists.
 
The Mean Green gave Wichita State issues in the first half, outrebounding the Shockers 22-14 and holding them to just 30 percent from the field. The Shockers struggled to hit from behind the arc in the first half, shooting just 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) with Anderson hitting both. North Texas converted at the charity stripe, draining 12 of 13 attempts, and took a 13-point lead going into halftime after going on a 9-0 run in the second quarter.
 
The Mean Green poured it on in the third quarter as they hit five of their six threes in the period, and Wooten scored 10 points in a perfect shooting quarter.
 
North Texas led by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter and seemed to have an answer for everything, preventing the Shockers from gaining any sort of momentum.
 
Wichita State falls to 7-13 (1-6 AAC), and the Mean Green improve to 14-5 (6-1 AAC).

SCOUTING THE BLAZERS
Led by 12-year head coach Randy Norton, UAB is 4-4 in conference play coming off an overtime win over Rice on Wednesday. The Blazers opened conference play on a three-game losing streak before winning their next three-straight. Two players are averaging double figures with senior guard Maddie Walsh leading the way with 12.9 points per game and junior guard Journey Armstead averaging 10.9 per game. Sophomore forward Jade Weathersby is the AAC's leading rebounder, averaging 8.9 per game. UAB leads the conference in three pointers per game and rank 17^th in the NCAA with 9.1 per game, assists per game with 15.3 and field goal percentage (43.4). Sara Bershers and Walsh rank fifth and eighth in the AAC in three point percentage, and Armstead ranks fourth in assists per game with 4.6.
 
SERIES VS. UAB
The two teams meet for the fifth time in program history with Wichita State leading the all-time series 3-1. The Shockers are 2-1 since both teams have been in the American Athletic Conference.
 
LAST MEETING
The Shockers claimed their first American Athletic Conference victory, defeating UAB 82-70 on Jan. 4. Salese Blow and Jayla Murray led Wichita State with 24 points apiece, a career high for Murray and career high tying performance for Blow.  Murray also led the team in rebounding with nine, and Blow shot a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line, becoming the first Wichita State player since Seraphine Bastin in 2020 to shoot 100 percent from the line with at least 10 attempts. The Shockers out-rebounded the Blazers 45-41 and recorded 15 assists with just eight turnovers. Wichita State scored 38 points in the paint and shot 20-for-26 from the free throw line, its best free throw percentage since the Dec. 18 win over CSU Bakersfield. In similar fashion to the teams' last meeting, Wichita State had to battle back after getting down 12 in the first quarter. The Shockers got off to a slow start, shooting just 4-for-19 (21.1 percent) in the first quarter. The game was tied at 7-7 before UAB went on a 13-2 run, and the Blazers led by as many as 12 in the first quarter. The Shockers started to find their groove in the second quarter as Jayla Murray scored 13 of her points in the period to help cut the deficit to four going into halftime. Wichita State poured it on in the third quarter, outscoring UAB by 11, holding the Blazers scoreless through the last 2:51 to take a seven-point lead going into the final quarter. The Blazers came within three early in the fourth quarter, but Blow scored 10 points in the period to hold them off, hitting five free throws down the stretch to seal the deal.
 
LEADING LADIES
Through 20 games, Jayla Murray leads the Shockers in scoring with 12.1 points per game. Salese Blow is also averaging double figures with 11.7 points per game. Taylor Jameson has been the best three-point shooter for Wichita State, hitting 37 threes this season. Bre'Yon White is the team's leading rebounder, averaging 5.6 rebounds per game, and Murray is averaging 5.2.
 
In conference play, Murray leads the scoring with 12.9 points per game and rebounding with 4.4 per game. Ella Anciaux is averaging 3.8 rebounds per game in AAC play.
 
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Entering the season, no Shockers on the roster had ever recorded a Division I double-double. Jayla Murray, Bre'Yon White and Maimouna Sissoko have each logged their firsts, Murray's in the season opener, White's in the win over WKU, and Sissoko's on her birthday at Memphis.
 
NOT SO NEW-COMERS
Between the nine new additions to the 2024-25 Wichita State roster, they combine for 20 years of collegiate basketball experience. Nooner brought in three Division I transfers: Taylor Jameson from George Mason, Aicha Ndour from Illinois and Bre'Yon White from TCU.
 
Princess Anderson (Pratt CC), Kyleigh Ortiz (Coffeyville CC), Jasmine Peaks (Indian River State), and Maimouna Sissoko (Cloud County CC) all transferred from junior colleges, joining Jayla Murray (Florida SouthWestern State) and Ornella Niankan (Odessa College) to make six Shockers who began their careers in the NJCAA.
 
WWW
The Shockers won three-straight games for the first time in the Terry Nooner era, beating Prairie View A&M, LMU and CSU Bakersfield.
 
 
#BREMODE
Junior Bre'Yon White recorded her first career double-double in the win over Western Kentucky and has led the Shockers in rebounding seven times. She has finished in double figures twice this season, her first time in double figures in her career.
 
T-TIME
Wichita native Taylor Jameson was named to the AAC weekly Honorable Mention list on Nov. 18 after averaging 17 points, 6.5 assists and 4 steals in two games. She has led the Shockers in scoring five times and assists six times and has finished in double figures 10 times. Jameson hit at least one three pointer in 12-straight games before the streak ended against Tulane and has hit multiple threes 10 times. She recorded her first 20-piece of the year with 22 at UTSA. She leads the Shockers in three pointers, shooting 40.7 percent from behind the arc.
 
BOBO DA SHOW
Salese Blow, nicknamed BoBo by her mom Stacie, who is an NCAA women's basketball and G-League official, when Salese couldn't pronounce the L in her last name as a kid, enters her sophomore season after claiming three American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week awards in 2023-24. As a freshman, she increased her scoring from non-conference to conference play, leading the Shockers in points per game against AAC opponents with 13.5. She recorded 21 double-figure scoring games with five 20+ point performances.
 
She has finished in double figures 11 times this season with three 20+ point games, leading the team in scoring eight times and being named to the AAC weekly honorable mention player of the week list once.
 
MURRAY ON THE RISE
Redshirt-junior Jayla Murray is back and better than ever after a summer spent in the gym and improving her nutrition. Further removed from her ACL injury, Murray, who averaged 7.1 points per game a season ago, is playing with more confidence. She has led the Shockers in scoring six times and recorded her first career double-double in the home opener against Oklahoma Christian. She put up a career-high 24 points in the road win over UAB.
 
P3
Princess Anderson had a breakout game in the win over Prairie View A&M, scoring a Division I career-high 17 points, recording four steals and grabbing five rebounds. She was also a spark plug for the Shockers against Belmont, hitting three three pointers and finishing with 12 points. She led the Shockers again at Kansas with 16 points, at Oral Roberts with 13, at Memphis with 11, and at North Texas with 13. She averaged 26.7 points per game as a sophomore at Pratt CC, leading the NJCAA in scoring.
 
OFF THE COURT SUCCESS
Wichita State women's basketball set a new program record with their fall semester GPA of 3.52 with four perfect 4.0s.
 
NEW HEIGHTS
Senior transfer from Illinois, Aicha Ndour, is the tallest player in Wichita State history at 6-6.
 
DESTINED DUO
Jayla Murray and Jasmine Peaks go way back. The duo played high school basketball together at Tampa Bay Tech, where they won the 2019-20 Florida Class 8A State Championship together. Both decided to transfer after that season and coincidentally ended up at the same school, Winter Haven. The duo played on the same AAU team as well before heading off to college. Murray went to play for Florida SouthWestern State and Peaks went to Indian River State College. Murray transferred to Wichita State in 2022-23. Nooner started recruiting Peaks during that season, and the pair realized they might have a chance to play together again. The duo has great on-court chemistry having played together for so long and know each other's tendencies.
 
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
The Shockers' roster features international athletes from five different countries, including Canada (Ornella Niankan), France (Fiona Diomande), Mali (Maimouna Sissoko), Mozambique (Carla Budane), and Senegal (Aicha Ndour).
 
SUMMER WELL SPENT
The Shockers embarked on a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands from July 28-August 2, where they played two games against Canadian team, Regina. The trip allowed the team to bond and experience a different culture, growing as a unit on and off the court. Wichita State won the first game 81-76 and the second game 69-60.