WICHITA STATE (0-0) vs. LINCOLN (0-0)
Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 | 6:00 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
Radio: GoShockers.com/Listen with Pat Strathman
TV: ESPN+ with Shane Dennis and Tracy Anderson
 
OPENING TIPS
Wichita State officially opens the 2025-26 women's basketball season with an exhibition game against Division II Lincoln.
The Shockers are coming off a 96-49 exhibition win over Newman on Wednesday in Charles Koch Arena, where Abby Cater led all scoring, Taya Davis led the game in assists and Jaila Harding led the game in made threes.
Wichita State is 28-23 all time in season openers and 34-17 in home openers dating back to the 1974-75 season.
Wichita State enters year three of the Terry Nooner era with four returners and 11 newcomers.
The Shockers return just 9.6 percent of their scoring from last season but bring an abundance of experience to the court with eight graduate students on the roster, tying ULM for the most graduate players on a Division I roster this season.
With only one underclassman on the roster, the Shockers are 93 percent upperclassmen, the second-highest percentage of upperclassmen in the NCAA (DI), and they bring 44 seasons of combined collegiate basketball experience.
For the third-straight season, Nooner has brought a Wichita native home for their final season of collegiate basketball – Tre'Zure Jobe in 2023-24, Taylor Jameson in 2024-25, and now Jaila Harding, who shot 35.7 percent from behind the arc both of her last two seasons at New Mexico State.
Wichita State returns Bre'Yon White, the Shockers' second leading rebounder from last season, who grabbed 154 boards, averaging 4.8 per game.
Taya Davis joins the Shockers after averaging 6.6 points and 4.7 assists per game in her senior year at Fordham, ranking second in the Atlantic-10 in assists per game.
 
C.A.R.E. PILLARS
Coach Nooner emphasizes the value of team culture, recruiting student-athletes who fit in with the team's core values of character, accountability, respect and effort.
 
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Wichita State's roster features four foreign players, two from France, Sophie Benharouga and Fiona Diomande, one from Mali, Maimouna Sissoko, and one from Cameroon, Bella Belong.
 
THEY HAVE HISTORY
Two newcomers reconnect with former coaches as Taya Davis played for current Wichita State assistant coach Antwain Scales from 2022-23 in his final season as head coach at Garden City CC, and Sophie Benharouga played for current director of operations and assistant coach Uyen Tran from 2022-23 while she was an assistant coach at Morehead State.
 
UP NEXT
The Shockers face Northwestern State in Charles Koch Arena on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.