TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State opens its 2023-24 season Monday night on the road when it faces Northern Kentucky. Tipoff from Truist Arena is set for 7 p.m. and will be carried on ESPN+.
 

Indiana State Women's Basketball at Northern Kentucky
Date	Monday, November 6 | 7 p.m. ET
Location // Venue	Highland Heights, Ky. // Truist Arena (8,427)
Game Notes	Indiana State Notes // Northern Kentucky Notes
Live Stats	Live Stat Feed
Watch	ESPN+
Tickets	Tickets Starting at $9
Media Info	Indiana State Women's Basketball Media Center
Social Media	@IndStWBB // @IndStAthletics

 
New Year, New Look
Indiana State features a roster with 10 newcomers joining five returners for the 2023-24 season. Three of Indiana State's five starters from last season are back, while six transfers and four freshmen round out the roster for the 2023-24 season.
 
Chelsea Cain, Bella Finnegan and Mya Glanton were mainstays in the starting lineup for the Sycamores last season. Cain was second on the team in scoring (11.6ppg) and led Indiana State in rebounding (5.7rpg) last season, while Finnegan was named to the MVC All-Freshman Team after averaging 8.2 points per game in her debut season with the Blue and White.
 
Six transfers join the Indiana State program ahead of the 2023-24 season, including a pair of former four-star prospects in Savannah White and Chloe Williams. Sharpshooter Kiley Bess and former UIC post player Leah Yarbrough round out the four-year college transfers for the Sycamores, while highly-rated junior college standouts Olivia Medford and Deja Jones join the fold with two years of eligibility for the Trees.
 
Head coach Chad Killinger's incoming class features four freshmen, including a pair of Indiana All-Stars in Saige Stahl and Asia Donald. The Hoosier State duo gave Indiana State multiple Indiana All-Stars in the same signing class for the first time in 40 years. Also joining the team this year are Jailah Pelly, a top-250 recruit and Illinois Class 4A State Champion in 2023, and Keslyn Secrist, who was an all-state selection in Virginia and led her team to a Virginia Class 4 runner-up finish.
 
Road Trippin'
Monday's season opener is the first of two straight games on the road in a four-day span for Indiana State. The Sycamores' second game of the season is Thursday night at Missouri. This season marks the first time in the Chad Killinger era that Indiana State opens the season with back-to-back road games.
 
Through Killinger's first two seasons, the Sycamores are 10-17 in road games. Indiana State was 4-8 on the road last season.
 
Opening Vibes
Indiana State is looking to improve to 3-0 all-time in season openers under head coach Chad Killinger. The Sycamores defeated Stephens College (Mo.) in Killinger's Indiana State debut to open the 2021-22 season, and rallied back in the fourth quarter to defeat Saint Louis in the 2022-23 season opener.
 
The Sycamores are still in search of their first win in a road opener under Killinger. Indiana State's first road game last year was a loss to Purdue, while the Sycamores were narrowly defeated by Saint Louis in their first game away from home during the 2021-22 season.
 
Sycamores in Season Openers
Indiana State has a 21-20 record in season openers during the Sycamores' Division I era, which dates back to the 1982-83 season and the first season of the Gateway Conference.
 
The Sycamores have opened their season with a true road game 19 times during that span, going 7-12 in those games.
 
Bucket Getter
Indiana State guard Bella Finnegan put together the best game of her young career in the Sycamores' road win over Murray State last February. Finnegan notched career-highs of 26 points and seven rebounds against the Racers, knocking down 11 of her 16 shots from the field and all three of her 3-point attempts.
 
Finnegan's 26 points were the most by an Indiana State freshman since Caitlin Anderson had 27 against Evansville on Feb. 28, 2020. She also had 21 points in a road game against Southern Illinois last February, knocking down eight shots against the Salukis. Three of her eight made baskets were 3-pointers.
 
Milestone Moment
Indiana State forward Chelsea Cain hit 1,000 points for her collegiate career with a layup in the first quarter of last season's game at Evansville.
 
Cain scored 857 points in three seasons at Nicholls State and scored 347 points in her first season at Indiana State, giving her 1,204 career points. She enters the season with 57 career games with double-digit points, 17 of which came last season at Indiana State.
 
Heating Up
Indiana State assistant coach Alexis Newbolt is in the midst of a full-circle moment in her first season on the sidelines in Terre Haute.
 
Newbolt played two seasons at Indiana State (2014-16), earning MVC Newcomer Week honors once during her playing career with the Blue and White. Her playing career coincided with the last time the Sycamores earned votes in the AP Top 25, which came during the 2014-15 season.
 
In addition to her playing career as a Sycamore, Newbolt also has a prior connection to head coach Chad Killinger. Newbolt played for two seasons under Killinger at Moberly Area CC (2012-14), earning NJCAA All-America honors during her time as a Greyhound.
 
Northern Kentucky at a Glance
Northern Kentucky is coming off a season in which it went 17-14 overall and 10-10 in Horizon League play. The Norse posted a winning record for the third time in the last four seasons and reached the semifinals of the Horizon Leauge Tournament.
 
Kailee Davis led the Norse returners in scoring at 13.3 points per game. Khamari Mitchell-Steen (7.7ppg, 4.9rpg) and Kennedy Igo (5.6ppg, 21 3-pointers) also return after playing sigificant roles in the NKU rotation a season ago, while eight new faces join the roster for the 2023-24 season. Two of those newcomers, Mya Meredith and Macey Blevins, faced the Sycamores last season while at Western Kentucky.
 
Now in her eighth season as the head coach, Camryn Volz owns a career record of 95-107. NKU has produced a pair of 20-win seasons in her tenure in Highland Heights.
 
Series History Against Northern Kentucky
Northern Kentucky has a 6-2 lead in the all-time series and won the most recent contest between the teams during the 2019-20 season. Indiana State's last win in the series came during the 2016-17 season.
 
Last Game Against Northern Kentucky (Dec. 16, 2019)
Indiana State dropped a heart-breaking 70-68 last-second decision to Northern Kentucky in a game that featured 15 lead changes and eight ties. Neither team led by more than seven in the game, while all four quarters were decided by three points or less.
 
Trailing 68-66 with 26 seconds to go in the contest, freshman Del'Janae Williams broke free for an open jumper and came up just short. Marie Hunter outhustled the opposition, as she did for most of the game, to come down with the offensive board, giving Williams a chance to redeem herself. The guard sliced through the defense for a layup, knotting the score at 68 with a layup at 13 seconds to go.
 
Ally Niece of Northern Kentucky would then take over for the Norse, handling the intense Sycamore defensive pressure to drain a jumper with three seconds left, giving NKU the 70-68 victory.
 
Up Next
Indiana State closes its two-game season-opening road trip Thursday night at Missouri, with tipoff from Columbia set for 8 p.m.
 
Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on Sycamore Women's Basketball, visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from the both the App Store and the Google Play Store.