TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Indiana State women's basketball team will play host to No.25 Drake 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 1230 AM with play-by-play man Luke Martin on the call.
 
LOOKING AT DRAKE
Drake, the top offensive team in the MVC (83.8 ppg) comes into Friday's game with a 20-4 overall record, and a 13-0 mark in MVC play. DU is riding a 14-game winning streak and are led by MVC Preseason Player of the Year award winner Lizzy Wendell who is leading The Valley with 21.7 points a contest. The Bulldogs have the pieces around Wendell in Caitlin Ingle who is scoring 10.5 points a game while dishing out 7.8 assists per contest to lead the team. Becca Hittner (12.0) and Sara Rhine (11.6) also average double-digits for the Bulldogs.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Sycamores trail the all-time series against the Bulldogs, 52-22. Though the series has been dominated by DU, the matchups in the last five years have been contested by both sides at five wins apiece. The Sycamores won four straight in the series from in the 2012-2014 season.
 
LAST TIME AGAINST A RANKED OPPONENT
The Sycamores last win over a ranked opponent came in the 2014-15 season when Indiana State knocked off No. 25 St. John's 73-67 in double overtime on the road. Prior to the win against St. John's the Sycamores defeated Vanderbilt in 2007 when the Commadors where ranked 17th in the nation.
 
PUTTING ON THE CLAMPS
The Sycamores lead the Missouri Valley Conference, holding opponents just 56.3 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.
 
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.
 
REBOUND AND WIN
The Sycamores are 8-2 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 38.6 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 15 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 12.6 points per game.
 
BREAKOUT GAME
Sophomore 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 in the game. 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 87 blocks as a team this year to lead the Missouri Valley. Their 3.8 blocks per game second-best in the MVC behind Illinois 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.
 
MAKING AN IMPACT
Freshman guard Maryam Wilcher played one of her best games of the season against Missouri State (1/29). The Berywn, Illinois native tied a career high with eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers. She scored all eight of the Sycamores' points during the second quarter.
 
 
CAREER HIGH PERFORMANCES
In the teams last game out, sophomore Regan Wentland led the charge in career performances recording a career high 13 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks. Junior Brooklyn Artis also drained two 3-pointers while Wendi Bibbins swiped four steals in the game.  
 
CAREER NOTES
Junior Ashley Taia has recently surpassed 500 career points here at Indiana State. She is just nine assists away from 100. Senior Rhagen Smith is 12 rebounds shy of 400 for her career and Wendi Bibbins is just six rebounds away from 200 rebounds this season.
 
FREE BASKETBALL
The Sycamores improved to 26-23 all-time in overtime games and 9-9 in overtime games against Missouri Valley Conference opponents after completing the comeback against Bradley (1/6/17) inside the Hulman Center. It was the fourth overtime in the last three seasons. Head coach Joey Wells has not lost an overtime contest in his time with Indiana State. As a team, Indiana State has not lost an overtime game since 2008 when ISU fell to Arkansas State.
 
MAGIC NUMBER THREE
Sophomore guard Tierra Webb has started every game this season for the Sycamores. ISU is 4-0 in games that Webb has recorded three assists or more. Webb went for a career-high six dimes against EIU to go along with eight points. The other wins with three assists came against Northern Kentucky, Saint Louis and Illinois 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 142-49 (.743) and finished 8-6 at home in 2015-16 which marked the 15th-straight winning season inside Hulman Center. 
 
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.