TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Indiana State women's basketball team will play host to Southern Illinois at 7 p.m. inside the Hulman Center. The game can also be seen world-wide on The Valley On ESPN3 as well as on WIBQ 1440 AM with play-by-play man Luke Martin on the call.
 
LOOKING AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Southern Illinois comes into the game with a 14-13 overall record, and an 8-8 record in MVC play after a 69-63 win over Bradley. SIU is led by Rishonda Napier with 13.7 points a game while Kylie Giebelhausen adds 13.5. Kim Nebo joins the double-figure scoring club with 10.4 points a game and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds a game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Indiana State regained the lead in the all-time series New Year's Day this year when the Sycamores knocked off Southern Illinois in Carbondale, 68-53. The win in January ended a four-game losing streak to the Salukis. ISU leads the series 45-44 after the win and have now won six of the last 10 meetings between the two programs.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Indiana State dropped its fourth game in-a-row Sunday afternoon in Wichita, falling to the Shockers 67-43 inside Koch Arena. Junior Wendi Bibbins led the way for ISU with 12 points and 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the year. Wichita State jumped out to an early 13-8 lead midway through the first thanks in part to six points from Rangie Bessard. The Shockers continued to attack the paint and Bessard was the main contributor in the first. The Sycamores trailed WSU 23-8 after the home squad ended the quarter on a 15-2 run, including a buzzer beating 3-pointer from Jeliah Preston. Indiana State made it a game though late in the second with an 8-0 run and tough defense to close the gap thanks in part to a couple post scores from Smith as well as free throws from Brooklyn Artis. The Sycamores went into the locker room trailing 38-27. Wichita State came out on fire, scoring the first seven points of the third and kept piling in on. In the quarter WSU outscored Indiana State 20-11 for a 58-38 lead. The rest was academic.
 
PUTTING ON THE CLAMPS
The Sycamores lead the Missouri Valley Conference, holding opponents just 57.4 points per game this season. Indiana State is also leading the conference field goal percent defense, allowing the opposition to shoot just 35 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 4-10 when getting outrebounded. As a team ISU sit at fourth place in the conference with 38.7 rebounds per contest while sitting second in the MVC with 26.9 defensive rebounds per game. Junior forward Wendi Bibbins leads the Sycamores with 8.3 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 17 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 12.3 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.
 
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 97 blocks as a team this year to lead the Missouri Valley. Their 3.6 blocks per game third-best in the MVC behind Illinois State and Missouri State. The Sycamores top paint protector is Rhagen Smith with 24 blocks this year. Her counterpart in Wendi Bibbins adds 22 total blocks to the squad.  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 SIXTH
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.