Indiana State returns home to the Hulman Center Monday as the Sycamores will host Florida Atlantic in a 7 p.m. tipoff broadcast live on The Valley on ESPN and on 1230AM in the Wabash Valley. Both teams will be looking for their first victory of this young season, entering Monday's contest with identical 0-2 marks.
LOOKING AT FAU
The Owls travel to Terre Haute after dropping a pair of contests to Mercer (66-55) and Colorado (76-69), two teams that received WNIT bids a year ago. FAU is averaging 62.0 points per game and the Owls are 23rd in the nation in committing the fewest fouls so far this year. Danneal Ford leads the team with 16.5 points per game while Sasha Cedeno is adding 13.5 points per game and a team-leading 3.0 steals per game. Raven Doyle leads the Owls with 7.5 rebounds per game while Cedeno is contributing 6.0 boards per contest.
SERIES HISTORY
The series between the two teams is tied at 1-1 after Florida Atlantic claimed a close 70-67 win last season in Boca Raton, Florida. The Sycamores claimed the first meeting in the all-time series, a 74-57 victory in Mobile, Alabama as part of the South Alabama Classic back during the 1993-94 season. Monday's contest will mark the first time the two teams will play in Terre Haute.
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR SEASON
Sycamore senior
Wendi Bibbins earned the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year award for her play in 2016-17. The Harvey, Louisiana product averaged 10.2 points and 8.3 rebounds, leading the Sycamores in scoring in 10 games this season including a career high 23 points at Illinois State (2/3).
Along with her scoring output, the forward grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 10 games last season with a season best 14 rebounds coming against Florida Atlantic. She scored in double-figures in 13 games last season for the Sycamores.
Bibbins ranked second in the Missouri Valley Conference in rebounding and had a team high five double-doubles. Bibbins took home the Valley's Newcomer of the Week honor two times this season, en route to becoming the fourth Sycamore to win Newcomer of the Year honors, joining Amy Amstutz (1997), Ashley Clark (2005) and Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir (2014).
SCORING LEADER
Senior guard
Ashley Taia was named to the Missouri Valley Conference honorable mention team to close out 2016-17. Taia put together a stellar junior campaign, leading the Sycamores with 12.1 points per game to go along with 4.9 rebounds and a team-high 60 steals. She shot nearly 30 percent from 3-point range and scored her 500th point during conference play. Taia started in all 30 games last season, reaching double-figure scoring in 20 of those games while ranking 10th in the league in scoring. She scored 20 or more points in three games including career-high 26 in the win at Southern Illinois on New Year's Day.
Taia scored a game-high 22 points against the Billikens on 6-for-9 shooting from the field and 3-for-4 from downtown. The Brisbane, Australia native was aggressive throughout, getting to the free throw line eight times and converting seven for the Sycamores. She added two rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal to her stat line in 36 minutes of action.
THREE FOR 54
The trio of
Ashley Taia,
Wendi Bibbins and
Tierra Webb accounted for over half of the program's offensive production from a year ago. The three players combined for 30 point or 54.4 percent of the teams' offense.
Defense as Usual
Indiana State started where they left off as the team opened against SLU Friday night. ISU held the Billikens who were tabbed second in the A10 to just 37.7 percent from the field and just 4-for-16 from behind the arc. ISU also recorded a pair of blocks and six steals as they turned SLU over 16 times in the game.
LAST TIME OUT
Wendi Bibbins scored 16 points and Alexis Delgado tallied 11 on the back of a trio of threes but Indiana State could not overcome an early deficit and a hot-shooting host in an 86-57 loss at IUPUI Friday night.
The Jaguars (3-0) hosted their first game of the young season at The Jungle Friday night and unveiled their 2017 WNIT banner before the opening tipoff. They kept the celebrations on the court going as play began, shooting over 61 percent from the field in the first quarter and taking a 38-point lead into halftime.
Indiana State (0-2) did them no favors, shooting only 29.4 percent in the first frame and tallying only four points in the second quarter. While the Sycamores struggled to score IUPUI kept pushing forward, hitting eight shots from three-point land before halftime.
For ISU, most of the production came off the bench with 42 of the team's 57 coming from the non-starters. As the Sycamores searched for assistance to work their way back in the game, the hits kept coming.
Ashley Taia logged only nine minutes of action while
Tierra Webb logged her fourth foul only a minute into the second half, limiting her action.
To their credit, ISU never let up and even pressured IUPUI even harder in the second half.
Ashli O'Neal swiped four steals and added nine points while Kierra Isaiah added three steals. The Sycamores shot nearly 50 percent (15-for-32) from the field in the second half with nine of the teams 13 steals coming in the final 20 minutes.
IUPUI's Holly Hoopingarner led all scorers with 23 points, 15 of which came from beyond the arc.
SYCAMORES PICKED FIFTH
The Indiana State women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference's annual preseason poll. The Drake Bulldogs were picked to win the league after picking up 31 of the 40 total first-place votes followed by Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois to round out the top four. Bradley was selected sixth followed by the Illinois State, Evansville, Valparaiso and Loyola to round out the poll.
HALF OLD - HALF NEW
Fourth-year head coach
Joey Wells returns three starters from last year's squad, including MVC Newcomer of the Year
Wendi Bibbins (10.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg), Honorable Mention guard
Ashley Taia (12.1 ppg) and
Tierra Webb (7.7 ppg) who started all 30 games. In total, the Sycamores return seven letterwinners from last season's 12-18 squad including
Regan Wentland (3.9 ppg),
Maryam Wilcher (2.0 ppg),
Ashli O'Neal (4.5 ppg) and
Freja Christensen (0.8 ppg).
Indiana State added seven new faces to their roster, including three freshmen (Ty Battle, Krystal Rice and AJ Thomas), and four junior college transfers in Kendra Boone, Alexis Delgado, Kierra Isaiah and Maeva Kitantou.
Looking Forward
Following Monday's home contest against Florida Atlantic, Indiana State will hit the road for four of its next five games. That road trip begins with the Cancun Challenge where the Sycamores will face Montana on Thanksgiving Day and South Dakota on Friday before returning home to host Missouri S&T on Tuesday, Nov. 28.
