UTSA (19-3, 10-1 AAC) at WICHITA STATE (8-16, 1-9 AAC)
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025 | 1:00 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
TV: ESPN+ with Denning Gerig and Shane Dennis
Radio: GoShockers.com/Listen with Pat Strathman
Ladies & Littles Day Celebrating Girls & Women in Sports: Take part in a special National Girls & Women in Sports Day celebration before the game in the Aetna Multi-Purpose Center with live music, food and fun!

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OPENING TIPS
Wichita State is set to take on American Athletic Conference leader, UTSA, Saturday afternoon in Charles Koch Arena.
The Shockers are coming off a 54-44 home win over Florida Atlantic on Wednesday.
Wichita State leads the all-time series 5-4, but the Roadrunners have won the last three straight against the Shockers since UTSA joined the AAC.
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.
Redshirt-junior forward Jayla Murray and Blow have been the 1-2 punch for the Shockers, leading the team with 13.2 and 11.0 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 15 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 and has led Wichita State in scoring 10 times, including the last four games.
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 three games due to injury but returned to the lineup two games ago at Tulsa.
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 stepped into the starting lineup while Jameson was out.
Wichita State is one of the deepest teams in the AAC, ranking second in the conference in bench points per game with 22.8
The Shockers have limited turnovers, averaging 15.8 per game, good for second-best in the conference.
Free throws have plagued the Shockers as they rank 12th in the AAC in free throw percentage (63.8), 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 (52.1 percent), making the fourth-most in the league with 136.
Aicha Ndour ranks ninth in the league in blocks per game with 1.05.
 
STREAKS & TRENDS
Blow, Murray and Niankan have started every game for the Shockers.
Blow has been perfect from the charity stripe seven times this season and 14 times in her career.
All eight wins this season have come when the Shockers outrebounded their opponent.
The Shockers came back to beat both UAB and Florida Atlantic after being down at halftime, their only times this season overcoming a halftime deficit to win a game.
The Shockers have only led at halftime once during conference play, at ECU.
All but two wins in the Terry Nooner era have come when holding opponents to less than 70 points, including seven of the eight 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
Wichita State snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 54-44 victory over Florida Atlantic Wednesday evening in Charles Koch Arena on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
 
The Shockers (8-16, 2-9 AAC) won their third-straight matchup with the Owls (10-13, 2-9 AAC), recording their first conference win since their Jan. 4 win at UAB.
 
Redshirt-junior forward Jayla Murray led the Shockers in scoring for the fourth-straight game and 10th time this season with 18 points, shooting 8-for-16 from the field. Junior Bre'Yon White also finished in double figures for the Shockers with 10 points and tied for a game-high eight rebounds.
 
Four other Shockers finished with five or more rebounds as Salese Blow (7), Taylor Jameson (7), Maimouna Sissoko (6) and Murray (5) all helped Wichita State win the battle of the boards, 46-44. All eight wins this season have come when the Shockers outrebounded their opponent.
 
Wichita State held the Owls to just 17-for-62 (.274) from the field, the second-lowest field goal percentage of a Shocker opponent this season.
 
Florida Atlantic also struggled from the charity stripe, shooting 3-for-12 (.250), while the Shockers hit 11-for-15 (.733) from the line.
 
Despite some offensive woes, shooting just 1-for-18 (.056) from three, the Shockers' defense, led by freshman KP Parr, applied pressure to shut down the Owls in the second half, holding them to 5-for-27 from the field (.185) and just 14 points.
 
After going into halftime down one, the Shockers went on a 16-4 run in the third quarter to take a 45-34 lead.
 
The Owls were led by Mya Perry, who put up a game-high 22 points, hitting six of FAU's seven threes, but Wichita State's defense stifled the rest of the Owl offense, holding them scoreless for seven minutes in the third quarter and the last three and a half minutes of the game.

SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
Led by 17^th-year head coach (fourth at UTSA) Karen Aston, UTSA is 10-1 in conference play, coming off back-to-back home wins over Temple and North Texas. Preseason All-Conference First Team selection Jordyn Jenkins leads the Roadrunners with 19.1 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game. She leads the AAC in scoring, free throw percentage and field goals. Nina De Leon Negron leads the conference in assists per game with 5.1 and averages double figures with 10.1 points per game. Sidney Love also averages double figures with 10.4 points per game. The Roadrunners were picked fifth of 13 teams in the AAC Preseason Poll.
 
SERIES VS. UTSA
The two teams meet for 10^th time in program history with Wichita State leading the all-time series 5-4. The Shockers are 3-1 against UTSA in Charles Koch Arena, but the Roadrunners have claimed the last three-straight games since they joined the AAC.
 
LAST MEETING
UTSA led wire-to-wire in a 69-51 win over Wichita State Saturday Jan. 11, 2025 in the Convocation Center. Preseason First Team All-Conference selection Jordyn Jenkins led the Roadrunners with 21 points, and Idara Udo recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Wichita State's Taylor Jameson led all scoring with 22 points, hitting a career-high six threes and shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. The Roadrunners scored 42 points in the paint, shooting 28-for-56 from the field, and dominated the battle of the boards 42-20 in the Shockers' worst rebounding game of the season. UTSA held Wichita State to a season-low 16 first-half points, outrebounding the Shockers 27-11 in the first half and scoring 15 points off 10 offensive rebounds to go up 18 before halftime. Despite the Roadrunners committing more first half turnovers, Wichita State was unable to capitalize on any of them, while UTSA scored nine points off seven Shocker turnovers. The Shockers didn't go to the line a single time in the half and shot just 7-for-28 from the field. The Shockers made a run in the third quarter, scoring 11-straight to cut the deficit to single digits and won the quarter 21-12. Jameson recorded a perfect quarter, shooting 3-for-3 from behind the arc and hitting both of her free throws. UTSA struck back in the fourth quarter, scoring the first 15 of the period to stretch its lead back to 24, and the Shockers couldn't overcome the deficit.
 
LEADING LADIES
Through 24 games, Jayla Murray leads the Shockers in scoring with 13.2 points per game. Salese Blow is also averaging double figures with 11.0 points per game. Taylor Jameson has been the best three-point shooter for Wichita State, hitting 39 threes this season, and is the Shockers' assists leader with 2.7 per game. Murray is also the team's leading rebounder with 5.4 per game and two double-doubles.
 
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 and then another against UAB, 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 three times 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 39.6 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 10 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.