TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State kicks off the 2024-25 season Monday night inside Hulman Center when it welcomes Western Kentucky for a 7 p.m. tip
 
Monday's season opener will be carried on ESPN+, with Brendan King (play-by-play) and Adrian Madrid (analyst) on the call.
  

Indiana State Women's Basketball vs. Western Kentucky
Date	Monday, November 4 | 7 p.m. ET
Location // Venue	Terre Haute, Ind. // Hulman Center (9,000)
Game Notes	Indiana State Notes // Western Kentucky Notes
Live Stats	Live Stats Link
Watch	ESPN+
Tickets	Tickets Starting at $6
Social Media	@IndStWBB // @IndStAthletics

 
A New Era
Indiana State begins the 2024-25 season with a new leader at the helm, as Marc Mitchell begins his first season as the Sycamores' head coach. Mitchell spent the last two seasons as the head coach at UIndy and has previous head coaching experience at Saint Peter's and FDU-Florham, winning the 2014 NCAA Division III National Championship after leading FDU-Florham to a perfect 33-0 season.
 
Indiana State also brings in an entirely new coaching staff, with Jason Pruitt (Elmhurst), Krystle Evans (UC Santa Barbara) and Ashley Yu (UIndy) join Mitchell's staff in his first season in Terre Haute. Mitchell also brought over one of his former players in Jada Haines as a graduate assistant, with graduate assistant Donald Metoyer Jr. being the lone holdover from last year's staff.
 
Home Sweet Home
Monday's season opener is one of two non-conference home games for Indiana State this season, with the other one coming November 15 against Austin Peay.
 
Indiana State has had success in home openers in the past, as the Sycamores are 30-13 in home openers during the Division I era. Over the last 20 seasons, the Sycamores' winning percentage in home openers is even better, with the Trees going 16-4 in that stretch.
 
Untraditional
Indiana State added five new players for the 2024-25 season, all of which came via the transfer portal. Guards Semie Brar, Queen Ruffin and Mia Simpson, guard/forward Davina Smith and forward Zalissa Finley comprise the Sycamores' newcomer class this season.
 
The Sycamores' newcomer class is non-traditional in the fact that it features no freshmen, and all five transfers come from different levels of college basketball. Brar was a Division I transfer from Wagner, Ruffin joined from Division II school Johnson C. Smith, Finley came from Division III school Whitworth, Smith transferred from NAIA school IU East and Simpson was a junior college transfer from Morton College.
 
Indiana State was the only Division I school to sign a player from every level of collegiate basketball as part of its recruiting class, which is a reflection of the roots of the Sycamores' coaching staff. Every member of the Sycamores' coaching staff has coached multiple seasons at the Division II, Division III or NAIA level.
 
New-Look Lineup
Indiana State's lineup this season will have a different look than previous seasons, with four of the Sycamores' five starters from the 2023-24 season graduating.
 
The Sycamores do return the majority of their bench production from last season, though, and those players will be expected to have an increased role in the rotation during the upcoming season.
 
Despite losing nearly all of its starting lineup from last season, Indiana State has a plethora of players who have starting experience from previous seasons. Lily Niebuhr, Keslyn Secrist and Savannah White all started games last season for the Sycamores, while Semie Brar, Zalissa Finley, Mia Simpson and Davina Smith were all regulars in the starting lineup at their previous schools. Queen Ruffin also started a game last season at her previous school.
 
Long Haul
Including Monday night's home opener, Indiana State has just two non-conference home games this season, with the Sycamores enduring a lengthy road trip following its November 15 contest against Austin Peay.
 
The Trees play seven straight games away from home following their final non-conference home game, with six true road games and a neutral-site contest all coming before thei December 29 home conference opener against Northern Iowa.
 
Indiana State's 45-day stretch between non-conference home games is the second-longest in Division I this season, and the Sycamore also have a 19-day stretch between home games during the back half of the conference schedule.
 
The Gauntlet
Indiana State's 2024-25 non-conference schedule is not for the faint of heart. The Sycamores will play five teams who reached the postseason last year, with all five of those games coming on the road. Included in the non-conference schedule are four games against Big East, Big Ten or Big XII teams.
 
The Sycamores will be tested almost immediately, with their second game of the season being a trip to face an Iowa State team ranked in the top 10 in both the AP and Coaches Poll.
 
Western Kentucky at a Glance
Western Kentucky is coming off a season in which it went 15-17 overall and 6-10 in Conference USA. The Lady Toppers were eliminated by Liberty in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament.
 
WKU returns its three leading scorers from last season in Acacia Hayes (14.0), Destiny Salary (12.7) and Alexis Mead (11.0), with Mead earning all-conference and all-defensive team honors last season. Mead is also the team's leading returning rebounder with 4.1 per game last year, and averaged a team-high 4.1 assists per game. Mead (61) and Josie Gilvin (57) both had more than 50 steals last season.
 
Greg Collins enters his seventh season at the helm of the Lady Topper program and owns a career record of 101-81. Under Collins, Western Kentucky has earned a pair of WNIT appearances, with the most recent coming in 2023.
 
Series History Against Western Kentucky
Indiana State is 1-5 all-time against Western Kentucky, with the Lady Toppers winning each of the last five meetings.
 
The Sycamores and Lady Toppers are meeting for the third time in the last four seasons, with Western Kentucky earning wins in the 2021-22 (83-65, Bowling Green) and 2022-23 (58-51, Terre Haute) seasons.
 
Last Meeting Against Western Kentucky (Dec. 14, 2022)
Anna McKendree led Indiana State with 16 points and Chelsea Cain added 13, but visiting Western Kentucky used a fourth-quarter run to narrowly defeat the Sycamores, 58-51, inside Hulman Center.
 
» Cain added a season-high six rebounds, while McKendree had four rebounds and five steals for the Sycamores. Del'Janae Williams had six points, six assists and five rebounds for the Trees.
 
In what became a defensive slugfest where neither team led by more than two possessions in the opening half, Indiana State managed to take an eight-point lead late in the third quarter. Western Kentucky responded in the final minutes of the third and took control in the fourth, as the Sycamores made just two field goals in the final 10 minutes. Down by two with less than two minutes remaining, a layup by McKendree just missed and WKU iced the game with free throws down the stretch.
 
Up Next
Indiana State plays its first road game of the year when it travels to No. 8/9 Iowa State Thursday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
 
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.