NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State women's basketball team (5-7, 1-0 MVC) continues its Missouri Valley Conference slate this weekend, facing off with Indiana State (6-6, 1-0 MVC) on Friday before taking on Evansville (6-6, 0-1 MVC) on Sunday. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
GAME INFORMATION
at Indiana State / at Evansville
When: Friday, Jan. 7 / Sunday, Jan. 9
Tip-off: 5 p.m. CT / 1 p.m. CT
Location: Terre Haute, Ind. / Evansville, Ind.
Facility: Hulman Center / Meeks Family Fieldhouse
Watch: ESPN+ / ESPN+
Listen: WJBC 1230 AM/102.1 FM
LAST TIME OUT
Playing with nine available players, ISU got the win over I-74 rival Bradley, 64-57, to open MVC play at Redbird Arena on Saturday.
Five Redbirds finished in double-digit scoring, led by redshirt junior Mary Crompton who had 15 points. Joining her in double figures was senior Kayel Newland (12), and sophomores Kate Bullman (12), Jasmine McGinnis-Taylor (12) and Maya Wong (11).
After sweeping the Braves in 2020-21, ISU has now won three-straight in the series to make it the program's longest winning streak over BU since a 15-game stretch from Feb. 2005 to Jan. 2013.
LIGHTS OUT SHOOTER
With her second three-pointer in Saturday's win over Bradley, redshirt junior Mary Crompton moved into the top-5 in ISU's career three-point field goal leaders. Crompton has made 171 threes and averages 2.4 triples per game in a Redbird uniform.
EFFICIENCY IS KEY
The Redbirds rank 32nd nationally and 2nd in the league in field goal percentage, converting on 45.6% of their shots. Individually, DeAnna Wilson (66th – 51.9%) and Juliunn Redmond (76th – 51.3%) rank top-100 in the country in the category and are 4th and 5th in the Valley, respectively.
SCOUTING THE SYCAMORES
Junior guard Del'Jane Williams currently leads Indiana State in scoring (12.6 ppg) and assists (2.5 apg) after the Sycamores' leading scorer junior Adrian Folks suffered a season-ending injury. Two starters from a year ago, Sommer Pitzer and Hattie Westerfeld have also yet to play this season due to injury.
Senior guard Natalia Lalic is coming off a career-high 20 points in Indiana state's 78-70 win over Drake in their MVC opener on Thursday. Williams (17), Marie Hunter (15) and Anna McKendree (10) joined Lalic in double figures en route to the team's sixth win of the year, already surpassing the program's win total from each of the last two seasons.
The Redbirds lead the all-time series with the Sycamores, 55-45, and enter Friday's game with a five-game winning streak in the series.
Head coach Chad Killinger is in his first year with the Sycamores program and brings 25 years of college coaching experience to the Indiana State staff, 18 of which came at the junior college level. Killinger comes to Terre Haute from Nicholls State, where he served as the recruiting coordinator.
SCOUTING THE PURPLE ACES
The junior duo of Je'Naiya Davis and Abby Feit lead the conference in scoring, averaging 19.2 and 18.2 points per game, respectively. A 2x All-MVC Honorable Mention selection, Feit also nearly averages a double-double, grabbing a team-high 9.9 boards.
Most recently, UE fell to No. 21 Iowa on the road in Iowa City, 93-56, on Sunday, in a game that was added after UNI had to postpone games last weekend.
The Redbirds lead the all-time series with the Purple Aces, 38-19, and enter Sunday's game on an eight-game winning streak in the series, also having won 11 of the last 13 contests.
Head coach Robyn Scherr-Wells was hired on April 20, 2021 and is in her first season with Evansville. Scherr-Wells has seven years of head coaching experience at the NAIA level. She comes to Evansville after spending the 2020-21 campaign as an assistant coach at FIU, where she helped lead the Panthers to their best record in nearly a decade.
For all latest on Illinois State women's basketball, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com and follow the team at @RedbirdWBB (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
