WICHITA STATE (7-15, 1-8 AAC) at TULSA (10-11, 4-5 AAC)
Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 | 2:00 p.m. CT
Tulsa, Okla. | Donald W. Reynolds Center
TV: ESPN+ with Josh Haley and Taleya Mayberry
Radio: Audacy.com/KFH with Pat Strathman
 
OPENING TIPS
Wichita State heads down the road to Tulsa looking to snap a six-game losing streak.
Wichita State leads the all-time series 23-9 and has won 10 of 15 in Tulsa.
Last season, the teams split 1-1 with each team winning in its home arena.
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 12.8 and 11.3 points per game, respectively.
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 two double-doubles. She has finished in double figures 13 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 both of her 20-point performances against UAB.
Junior Princess Anderson has been a spark plug off the bench for the Shockers, leading the team in scoring five times with a Division I career high 19 points against UAB.
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 three games due to injury.
Jasmine Peaks has proven to be a great facilitator for Wichita State, dishing out a career-high eight assists against Tulane, one of five times leading the team in assists and second time this season with five or more assists. She has started the last three games in place of Jameson.
Wichita State is one of the deepest teams in the AAC, ranking second in the conference in bench points per game with 23.7.
Free throws have plagued the Shockers as they rank 11th in the AAC in free throw percentage (62.9), 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.
Wichita State has been protecting the rock, ranking second in the conference in turnovers per game with 15.6.
Murray ranks third in the AAC in field goal percentage (52.4 percent), making the fifth-most in the league with 122.
 
STREAKS & TRENDS
Blow has started 25-straight games for the Shockers.
Blow has been perfect from the charity stripe six times this season and 13 times in her career.
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.
The Shockers have only led at halftime once during conference play, last time out at ECU.
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.
 
The Shockers have missed as many or more free throws than the final score margin in a loss six times this season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Shockers saw one slip away late in the fourth quarter as East Carolina came back from down seven to claim a 72-62 victory Wednesday evening in Minges Coliseum.
 
Wichita State led for 25:36, but a 27-point fourth quarter for the Pirates propelled them past the Shockers to win by 10 and end a three-game losing streak.
 
ECU's Amiya Joyner surpassed the 1,000 career points mark, leading the Pirates with a 17-point 13-rebound double-double.
 
Three Shockers finished in double figures with Jayla Murray scoring 19, Princess Anderson putting up 17, and Salese Blow finishing with 11. Maimouna Sissoko led the Shockers in rebounding with eight, and Jasmine Peaks dished out a team-high four assists.
 
ECU won the battle of the boards, 42-33, and scored 19 second-chance points. The Pirates forced 20 Shocker turnovers and scored 24 points off those errors.
 
After shooting 9-for-11 from the line in the first half, the Shockers struggled at the line after halftime, shooting just 7-for-13.
 
Anderson's speed helped the Shockers in the first half, scoring buckets in transition and hitting Wichita State's only three-point attempt of the half to go into halftime with 12 points. Murray also had a big first half, shooting 5-for-7 from the field for 11 points.
 
East Carolina grabbed eight offensive boards to Wichita State's one in the first half, scoring six second-chance points.
 
The Shockers claimed a six-point lead going into halftime, their first time leading at the half during AAC play.
 
The second half got off to a slow start for both teams with just eight points scored overall through the first four and a half minutes. The Shockers turned the ball over six times in the third quarter and the Pirates capitalized with six points off those turnovers. ECU went on a 9-0 run over three minutes to take its first lead since 7-5 and lead by two going into the final quarter.
 
The Pirates went up six in the fourth, but Wichita State came back and took the lead after an 8-0 run. ECU regained the lead and started to pull away, going up nine with under a minute remaining. The Pirates hit critical free throws down the stretch, making 10 of 12 in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
Led by fourth-year head coach Angie Nelp, Tulsa is 4-5 in conference play, coming off a 45-64 loss at Rice. Two players are averaging double figures with senior guard Delanie Crawford leading the way with 16.9 points per game and sophomore guard Elise Hill averaging 10.4 per game. Junior forward Hadley Periman leads the team in rebounding, ranking fifth in the AAC with 8.3 per game. She also leads the conference in blocks per game with 1.78. Crawford leads the conference in field goal attempts with 320 and ranks second in made field goals with 128. The Golden Hurricane were picked fourth of 13 teams in the AAC Preseason Poll, and Crawford was named to the AAC Preseason All-Conference First Team.
 
SERIES VS. TULSA
The two teams meet for the 33^rd time in program history with Wichita State leading the all-time series 23-9. The Shockers are 10-5 against the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa.
 
LAST MEETING
Wichita State senior DJ McCarty put up a career-high 26 points in the Shockers' 74-65 bounce-back victory over Tulsa Feb. 17, 2024 in Charles Koch Arena. McCarty shot 8-for-18, dished out a game-high five assists and recorded two steals in her highest scoring game since Nov. 2022. Her 36 minutes were the most she'd played all season as she had slowly built up her minutes since sitting for a four-game stretch in the middle of the season to focus on rehabbing her knee. After falling to Tulsa 93-70 on Jan. 20, the Shockers came into the game looking for revenge. The Shockers out-rebounded the Golden Hurricane 43-37, forced 22 turnovers and held the American Athletic Conference leading scorer, Temira Poindexter, who averages 20.4 points per game, to 5-for-17 and 14 points. The game saw nine lead changes and 15 ties before Wichita State pulled away at the end of the fourth quarter. The Shockers scored 30 points in the paint as Daniela Abies recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 19 points and 13 rebounds, leading the team in rebounds for the 20^th time this season. Sierra Morrow also finished in double figures for the second-straight game with 11 points, just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. Raissa Nsabua recorded a game-high four steals and scored seven points, while Jayla Murray put up eight points for the Shockers. Delanie Crawford led the Golden Hurricane with a game-high 29 points before fouling out in the last 20 seconds of the game.
 
LEADING LADIES
Through 22 games, Jayla Murray leads the Shockers in scoring with 12.8 points per game. Salese Blow is also averaging double figures with 11.3 points per game. Taylor Jameson has been the best three-point shooter for Wichita State, hitting 37 threes this season. Murray is also the team's leading rebounder with 5.3 per game and two double-doubles. Jasmine Peaks is leading the team in assists during conference play with 3.2 per game.
 
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 13 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 eight times with two double-doubles and two 20-point performances.
 
P3
Princess Anderson had a breakout game in the win over Prairie View A&M, scoring 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 sparked momentum for the Shockers in the second half against UAB, scoring 19 points and scored 17 at ECU. She averaged 26.7 points per game off the bench 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.