WICHITA STATE (5-21, 2-11 American) vs. UTSA (12-12, 7-6 American)
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026 | 1:00 p.m.
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
TV: ESPN+ with Tracy Anderson and Mark Ewing
Radio: KEYN 103.7, GoShockers.com/Listen with Pat Strathman
 
OPENING TIPS
Wichita State takes on UTSA inside Charles Koch Arena as the teams Play4Kay in the fight against breast cancer on Saturday afternoon.
The Shockers and Roadrunners meet for the 11th time in program history with the series tied at 5-5. UTSA has won the last four straight with the Shockers' last win coming in 2012.
The Shockers concluded their non-conference slate with a 3-10 record, defeating Lincoln in the season opener and claiming back-to-back wins over Loyola Marymount and Oral Roberts in December. They picked up their first American Conference win against Memphis and took down the No. 2-ranked American Conference team on the road, defeating East Carolina, 63-54.
In the Jan. 20 win over Memphis, Abby Cater poured in 42 points, breaking Wichita State's single-game scoring record and tying for No. 7 in the nation this season for single-game points.
Cater and Jaila Harding are leading the Shockers in scoring, averaging 12.0 and 11.7 points per game, respectively. Cater and Harding each have recorded four 20-plus point performances this season.
Harding is one of the best three-point shooters in the nation, ranking 29^th in made threes with 71, leading the conference in three-point attempts and ranking second all-time in Wichita State history for single-season threes. She is averaging 2.7 threes per game.
Cater ranks third in the conference in steals per game with 2.4, recording a career-high eight at Florida Atlantic, good for No. 7 all-time in program history for single-game steals. She has recorded five or more steals in five games this season. She also ranks sixth in the conference in free throw percentage, shooting 78.3 percent from the charity stripe.
Taya Davis is No. 7 in the American in assists with 94 on the season, averaging 3.6 per game.
 
STREAKS & TRENDS
Harding has hit two or more threes in 18 of 26 games and at least one in all but two.
Harding is the only Shocker to have started every game this season. Wichita State has tested 14 different starting lineups, the third-most different starting lineups in the nation.
Taya Davis recorded five or more assists in the six-straight games before Rice, dishing a season-high 11 against Tulsa, the first Shocker to finish with double figure assists since 2022. She is six away from 100 assists this season.
Cater has been perfect from the free throw line 10 times this season.
All but two wins in the Terry Nooner era have come when holding opponents to less than 70 points, including nine of the 10 wins last season and the five wins this season.
Eighty-eight percent of Terry Nooner's wins have come when outrebounding the opponent.
 
THE SHOCKS, IN SHORT
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.
Wichita State returns Bre'Yon White, the Shockers' second leading rebounder from last season, who grabbed 154 boards, averaging 4.8 per game but lost its top four scorers.
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.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State women's basketball fell to American Conference leader Rice, 80-42, Friday evening in Tudor Fieldhouse. Rice (22-3, 12-0 American) led by as many as 41 in a wire-to-wire win, shooting 45.8 percent from three and scoring 21 second-chance points, while the Shockers (5-21, 2-11 American) shot just 25.4 percent from the floor, only hitting two threes, on their way to their fourth-straight conference loss. Abby Cater was the lone Shocker to finish in double figures, scoring 11 points, nine of which came in the third quarter, before fouling out early in the fourth. Houston area native, Bre'Yon White finished the game with eight points and four rebounds in front of her hometown crowd. The Owls opened the game on a 14-2 run and carried a 23-11 edge after the first quarter. Rice continued to extend the margin in the second, taking a 43-19 lead into halftime. Rice was led by Dominique Ennis' 18 points, while Aniah Alexis added 13 and Hailey Adams posted nine points and a game-high 17 rebounds. The Owls held a 48-30 advantage on the glass and turned 18 Wichita State turnovers into 17 points.
 
SERIES VS. UTSA
The teams meet for the 11^th time in program history with the series tied at 5-5. UTSA has won the last four straight with the last Shocker win coming in 2012 in Charles Koch Arena.
 
LAST MEETING
Then American Conference leader UTSA prevailed, 60-49, in a physical contest Saturday afternoon in Charles Koch Arena. The Roadrunners shot 26-for-33 from the free throw line and used a 22-9 fourth quarter to pull away in a game where the Shockers held the lead for 26 minutes. After shooting 23.7 percent from the field through the first three quarters, UTSA's shots started to fall in the fourth quarter, shooting 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) to close out the game. Wichita State only got to the line 11 times to UTSA's 3, but hit nine of 11, its fourth time shooting above 80 percent from the charity stripe. UTSA's Idara Udo recorded a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, helping the Roadrunners dominate the boards, 51-33. The Shockers forced 10 first-half turnovers, scoring eight points off those turnovers and had 14 points in the paint to UTSA's four. Salese Blow led all scoring in the first half, scoring 11 of her 15 points before halftime to give the Shockers a four-point lead. Defense, rebounding and free throw shooting kept UTSA in the game in the third quarter, going into the final quarter down two to the Shockers. Down the stretch, Wichita State shot just 3-for-14 (21.4 percent), and the Roadrunners took their first lead since 11-10 in the first quarter with 6:17 to play. UTSA out-scored the Shockers 22-9 in the fourth quarter, hitting nine of 12 free throws to help put the game away. Wichita State held UTSA to just 28.8 percent shooting on the game, but the Roadrunners had 17 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. Blow led the Shockers with 15 points, and Jayla Murray recorded her fifth-straight game in double figures with 14, also leading the team in rebounding with seven.
 
SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
Led by head coach Karen Aston, UTSA is 12-12, most recently winning back-to-back games over Tulsa and Temple before falling to South Florida. The Roadrunners lead the American Conference defensively, holding opponents to just 58.8 points per game. Two Roadrunners are averaging double figures, led by Cheyenne Rowe with 13.9 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Rowe ranks second in the conference in field goal percentage, shooting 46.3 percent from the floor. UTSA was picked second out of 13 teams in the American Conference Preseason Poll, receiving one first-place vote. Idara Udo was named to the Preseason All-Conference First Team.
 
TREY-LA HARDING
Jaila Harding is the best shooter on Wichita State's roster, shooting 34.1 percent from beyond the arc. The graduate transfer and Wichita native ranks second in the conference in threes per game with 2.7, hitting four or more threes in eight different games and tying her career high of six in both games against Tulsa. Her 71 total threes this season landed her on Wichita State's all-time top-10 list for single-season threes, currently sitting No. 2. The record was set by Courtney Sims at 73 during the 1999-2000 season.
 
SERVING POINTS ON A PLATTER
Abby Cater broke Wichita State's single-game scoring record in the win over Memphis, scoring 42 points to tie for No. 7 in the nation this season for single-game points. Cater shot 15-for-29 from the floor, hitting a career-high four threes and shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the line. The Shocker record was previously held by Kareema Williams, who set it at 41 points in 1992.
 
Cater poured in 47 points over two games, leading the Shockers to back-to-back wins over LMU and Oral Roberts. She shot 11-for-12 from the field against Oral Roberts and a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line against LMU. At Florida Atlantic, she put up 17 points and recorded a career-high eight steals, good for No. 7 all-time in program history for single-game steals.
 
Cater also ranks third in the conference in steals per game, averaging 2.4 and recording five or more five times this season with the goal of becoming the American Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
 
THE MAIN DISH
Taya Davis is described as a true pass-first point guard, leading the Shockers in assists with 3.6 per game. She has dished five or more assists in 10 games this season, including the last six-straight. She recorded a season-high 11 at home against Tulsa. She averaged 7.3 assists per game her sophomore season at Garden City CC.
 
DEPTH CHART
The Shockers rank fourth in the conference in bench points per game, averaging 22.4 with 11 players averaging at least 10 minutes per game.
 
NON-CONFERENCE IN REVIEW
The Shockers finished their non-conference slate 3-10, opening with a 96-49 win over Lincoln before hitting a nine-game slump. Wichita State got back on track with back-to-back wins over Loyola Marymount and Oral Roberts before falling to Middle Tennessee State in a 45-46 heartbreaker in the non-conference finale. Seven of the 10 losses were single digit games. Jaila Harding and Abby Cater led the team in scoring, averaging 12.6 and 11.2 points per game, respectively. Cater recorded back-to-back 20-plus point performances in the wins over LMU and ORU, and Harding put up 21 at UC Irvine. Jaida McDonald led the Shockers on the boards, averaging 5.1 rebounds 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 travel to Birmingham, Ala. to face UAB on Wednesday, Feb. 25 in Bartow Arena.