TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State women's basketball will look to end a two-game skid Friday night as the team travels to Springfield, Mo. to take on Missouri State at 8 p.m. ET from JQH Arena. The game can be seen world-wide on The Valley On ESPN3 as well as heard on 97.7 FM/WIBQ 1230 AM in the Wabash Valley with Luke Martin on the call.
 
LOOKING AT MISSOURI STATE
The Bears come into Sunday with a 14-11 overall record, and a 10-4 mark in MVC play. MSU is coming off a 77-44 win over Illinois State and are led by Liza Fruendt who is leading the team with 15.2 points a contest. Missouri State's Aubrey Buckley leads the teams in rebounds with 5.5 a game while adding 9.5 points.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Sycamores trail the all-time series with Missouri State, 55-19. Indiana State has dropped seven-straight meetings to the Bears, including a 49-46 loss at the Hulman Center in late January of this year. The Sycamores fell to MSU to end last season during the MVC Tournament, 70-45.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Indiana State women's basketball came up just short Sunday afternoon at the Hulman Center, falling to the second-place Northern Iowa Panthers, 61-59 in overtime. The Sycamores were led by junior Wendi Bibbins who scored 18 points in the loss. Ashley Taia added 14 points and Tierra Webb scored 10 to round out the scoring for ISU. A season-high 32 turnovers by the Sycamores were costly as the Panthers turned those miscues into 32 points in the game. ISU won the rebound battle 42-35, but UNI corralled 16 offensive rebounds which they turned into 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The Sycamores shot a staggering 48 percent (24-of-50 from the field while holding UNI to just 28.5 percent (16-of-62) but the Panthers made their chances at the free throw line count as they connected on 22-of-29 at the charity stripe. All 29 attempts came after the first quarter.
 
 
LOKING TO END THE SKID
Indiana State will look to end a two-game skid this weekend when they travel to Missouri State and Wichita State for their final road games of the season. The Sycamores dropped their game to No. 25 Drake Friday night before falling to Northern Iowa in overtime Sunday.
 
PUTTING ON THE CLAMPS
The Sycamores lead the Missouri Valley Conference, holding opponents just 56.8 points per game this season. Indiana State is also leading the conference field goal percent defense, allowing the opposition to shoot just 34.8 percent from the floor. Indiana State is 9-6 when holding opponents under 60 points.
 
REBOUND AND WIN
The Sycamores are 8-4 when cleaning up on the glass this season and just 4-9 when getting outrebounded. As a team ISU sit at seventh place in the conference with 38.3 rebounds per contest while sitting second in the MVC with 27 defensive rebounds per game. Junior forward Wendi Bibbins leads the Sycamores with 8.4 rebounds per contest.
 
CONSISTENCY
Ashley Taia, the Sycamores' leading scorer has been the most consistent offense for ISU this season. Taia has scored in double-figures 16 times including a career high 26 points at Southern Illinois on New Year's Day. The Brisbane, Australia ranks ninth in the MVC in scoring at 12.4 points per game.
 
DOMINATE THE PAINT
Junior forward Wendi Bibbins continued her dominance of the paint for Indiana State against Illinois State (2/3) in Normal as she scored a career high 23 points and pulled down 13 rebounds; one shy of a career high. The Harvey, Louisiana native recorded her third double-double of the season in the game. In just 18 minutes of action in the first half, Bibbins had 15 points and nine boards to lead the Sycamores. For her efforts, Bibbins was awarded with MVC Newcomer of the Week honors for the second time this season.
 
BREAKOUT GAME
Regan Wentland picked up her first career start Sunday against Loyola (2/12) and made it count. The sophomore set career highs in rebounds, assists and blocks in the contest. In total she grabbed 13 rebounds with five on the offensive end. She assisted on seven of the teams' 15 assists and blocked three shots in the game.
 
DEFENSIVE INTENSITY
Indiana State played one of its most consistent defensive games of the season against the Ramblers (2/12), holding Loyola to just 32 points. The Sycamores did not allow LUC to score in double-digits for three quarters and allowed only 12 points in the second half of play. The Sycamores went for eight blocks in the game with Regan Wentland and Rhagen Smith picking up three each.
 
SWAT TEAM
Indiana State as a whole has recorded 93 blocks as a team this year to lead the Missouri Valley. Their 3.7 blocks per game third-best in the MVC behind Illinois State and Missouri State. The Sycamores top paint protector is Wendi Bibbins who has 22 blocks while her counterpart Rhagen Smith has swatted away 20 shots. A total of 11 players have recorded blocks this year for the Sycamores.
 
FREE BASKETBALL
The Sycamores fell to 26-24 all-time in overtime games and 9-10 in overtime games against Missouri Valley Conference opponents after falling to UNI (2/19) inside the Hulman Center. It was the fifth overtime in the last three seasons and the first overtime loss under head coach Joey Wells. As a team, Indiana State had not lost an overtime game since 2008 when ISU fell to Arkansas State.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
Thanks to the home-court advantage of Hulman Center, the Sycamores have been dominant in Terre Haute over the past 13 seasons. Since the 2002-03 season, Indiana State is 142-50 (.743) and finished 8-6 at home in 2015-16 which marked the 15th-straight winning season inside Hulman Center. 
 
SYCAMORES PICKED SEVENTH
The Indiana State women's basketball team has been picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference's annual preseason poll, the conference office announced Tuesday prior to the league's annual tip-off event. Drake was picked to win the league after picking up 34 of the 40 total first-place votes followed by Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Wichita State to round out the top five. Bradley was selected seventh followed by the Illinois State, Evansville and Loyola to round out the poll.
 
HOOPS IN THE HEARTLAND
The 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament will return to the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill., for the second of a three-year contract with the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau. Affectionately coined "Hoops in the Heartland," the four-day event (Mar. 9-12) will showcase all 10 Missouri Valley Conference schools as they compete for the Valley's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
 
RADIO SHOW
Head coach Joey Wells will join play-by-play voice Brian Fritz every Monday at 6:30 p.m. live from 7th & Elm Bar & Grill in Terre Haute. The show will air live on WIBQ 1230 in the Wabash Valley.
 
THE VALLEY ON ESPN3
Last year, ESPN and the Missouri Valley Conference announced a 10-year extension to their current media rights agreement that will provide increased coverage of conference events across ESPN platforms through the 2023-24 academic year. The co-branded The Valley on ESPN3 network will allow for all home women's basketball contests to be available for viewing on ESPN3.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Women's Basketball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.