Women's Basketball | 1/21/2015 3:51:00 PM

DETROIT -- The fifth-ranked Wayne State (13-1 overall, 9-1 GLIAC) women's basketball squad has started the year 13-1 for the third time in school history.  This week the Warriors begin their three-game away journey with a Thursday match-up at Lake Erie (5:30 p.m.) followed by a contest at Ashland on Saturday (1 p.m.).  All 12 remaining regular-season games will be against South Division opponents.  The top two starts to the year are 11-0 by the 1980-81 squad and a 13-1 beginning by the 1976-77 team.

IN THE POLLS
WSU was ranked fith in the Jan. 20th WBCA/USA Today National Poll, the highest ranking in program history.  The Warriors are ranked seventh by the Massey Rankings and 11th in the D2SIDA poll.  Wayne State was predicted to finish first in the South Division in the GLIAC Preseason Media Poll.

THE SERIES
The Warriors have won the last three meetings against the Storm to take a 4-2 edge in the all-time series.Wayne State is 2-1 at the Jerome T. Osborne Center scoring 66, 67 and 68 points, respectively.

WSU is 15-31 all-time versus Ashland with a 6-17 mark in away games against the Eagles.  The Warriors won the last series meeting, 87-78, at Kates Gymnasium on Dec. 18, 2013.

LAST TIME OUT
Wayne State won its ninth consecutive contest defeating Ohio Dominican 86-76 at the Matthaei.  The nine straight victories is tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history and marks the third consecutive year the Warriors have had at least a nine-game winning streak (9 games from Jan. 19-Feb. 21, 2013; and 10 games from Dec. 5, 2013-Jan. 11, 2014).

The 13-1 start is tied for the second-best in program history with the 1976-77 squad.  The 1980-81 GLIAC Championship squad began its season with 11 wins, and following a loss at Oakland rattled off nine more victories before a setback at Youngstown State.

WSU took a lead just seconds into the contest as Shareta Brown won the opening tip to Gabby Machado, who fed Brittany Streetman for an easy lay-up.  The Panthers knotted the game at two on the ensuing possession as Jakie Oestreich hit a jumper from the paint.  After Brown's conventional three-point play, Oestreich scored again to make it a one-point game.  The teams traded buckets before an 18-4 WSU run in just under seven minutes gave the hosts its largest lead of the first half at 15 points (25-10).

Wayne State led by 14 (36-22) following an offensive rebound and put-back by Machado with just over five minutes left before intermission.  The Panthers ended the opening stanza on a 14-2 run as Kayla Cook scored eight points for ODU.  The Warriors led 38-36 at the break as both teams shot 42 percent (WSU 15-of-35; ODU 14-of-33) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

Oestreich started the second half with a bucket and when Kacee Hockenberry connected on a jumper, the Panthers had their first lead of the contest at 40-38.  Brown tallied the game's next six points and Streetman followed with a fast-break hoop off a feed from Jackie Jones, who had a game-high seven assists.

Ohio Dominican pulled within four on a couple of occasions (46-42 and 48-44), prior to Wayne State responding with a 15-6 run.  Jones recorded WSU's first seven points during the spurt, while Streetman contributed a triple and a jumper and Destiny Lavita-Stephens chipped in with a long-range three-pointer.

The Warriors lead would remain between seven and 13 points for the next seven minutes until Streetman split a pair from the charity stripe for a 14-point margin (77-63) with 3:26 left.  A 13-5 Panther run over the next 2:50 cut the Wayne State advantage to six points (82-76) with 37 seconds remaining.  Lavita-Stephens sank a pair from the foul line in a one-and-one situation with 33.6 seconds left pushing the lead to eight (84-76).

Following a steal by guard Kristen Long, she made one of two free throws and on ODU's next possession, Machado grabbed the rebound and Brown finished the scoring by making the first of two foul shots.  Both teams made 16 field goals in the second half as the Warriors shot 52 percent (16-of-31) compared to 43 percent (16-of-37) for the Panthers.

Brown earned her 13th double-double of the campaign with game-high totals of 22 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots to lead four Warriors in double figures.  Streetman finished one point and one triple made off her career highs of 20 points and five triples as she totaled 19 points and four three-pointers.  She has made 7-of-11 from beyond the arc over the last three contests.Lavita-Stephens totaled 13 points, while Jones added 11 points to go along with her aforementioned game-best seven assists.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
The Storm have lost six consecutive conference contests since starting the league slate with a 2-2 mark.  Freshman guard Kayla Gabor is lone Lake Erie player averaging in double figures at 14.4 points per game.  She also leads the squad in triples (17) and field goals made (95).  Junior center Kaeding Skelton is second in scoring (8.1 ppg), but leads LEC with 92 rebounds (6.1 rpg).  freshman center Christine Dawson is third in scoring (6.7 ppg), but leads the Storm in field goal percentage (52.9%) and blocked shots (13).  Junior guard Sami Narducci has team-high totals in both assists (36) and steals (30), while ranking fourth in scoring (6.2 ppg).

Ashland is 8-2 in its last 10 contests including a 82-54 home court win over Malone on Saturday, where the Eagles committed a season-low nine turnovers.  Senior guard Taylor Woods leads AU in scoring (13.8 ppg), assists (50) and triples made (47), while freshman center Laina Snyder is first on the team in steals (26), and second in both scoring (13.1 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg).  Sophomore forward Suzy Wollenhaupt is shooting a team-best 52 percent (69-of-133) from the floor and is third in scoring (11.1 ppg).  Freshman forward Andi Daugherty has team-high totals in both rebounding (8.7 rpg) and blocked shots (23).

NATIONAL STATISTICS
In the Jan. 18th NCAA stats report, Wayne State was seventh in all of Division II in team field goal percentage (47.4%).  The Warriors are ninth in scoring margin (+19.4), 13th in winning percentage (92.9%), 15th in both rebounding margin (+8.4), 17th in field goal percentage defense (35.4%) and 20th in fewest turnovers per game (13.7).  WSU is 14th in scoring offense (78.7 ppg), 35th in assist/turnover ratio (1.05) and 36th in scoring defense (59.3 ppg).

In terms of individual national statistics, Shareta Brown leads the nation  in field goal percentage (65.9), total rebounds per contest (15.6) and offensive rebounds per game (6.0).  She is second nationally in double-doubles (13), sixth in defensive rebounds per game (10.0) and eighth in scoring (22.1 ppg).

In terms of active Division II players, Brown is first in career points (2,206), scoring average (20.1 ppg), rebounds (1,176), field goals made (774), free throws made (656) and attempted (888) as well as double-doubles (60).  Her free throws made and attempted totals plus rebounding mark are first among all active NCAA players (Divisions I, II and III combined), while her double-doubles total leads all current Division I and Division II players.  Brown ranks second in field goal percentage (60.0%), third in games played (112 - 68 with Detroit and 44 at WSU), sixth in rebounding average (10.5 rpg) and eighth in field goals attempted (1,271).  Jackie Jones is ninth in total assists (394) and 11th in assists average (3.79).

Brown has 237 career assists, 80 blocked shots and 174 steals, while shooting 35.3 percent (36-of-102) from beyond the arc and 73.9 percent from the charity stripe.

NEXT UP
After concluding its second three-game road trip of 2015 on Thursday (Jan. 29) at Malone, the Warriors return home for a Jan. 31 game vs. Walsh.

COMCAST/XFINITY/ALL-ACCESS
Beginning on Jan. 31st every women's and men's basketball home game will be broadcast live throughout the state of Michigan on Comcast CN900.  Sean Baligian, Ryan Ermanni, Rod Beard and Joe Abramson will bring you the action.  Every home game will have a video webcast through WSUAthletics.com.

ALL-NEW MATTHAEI
The Matthaei has received a face lift over the course of the past decade. In January of 2014, a new scoreboard and video board were installed which features live action and replays. During the offseason, the Warriors added a new parquet floor and the sub-floor (circa 1965) was replaced. And finally a new basketball office expansion was completed in the fall on the northwest corner of the Matthaei. The new expansion includes six coaches offices, a theater-style film room and a reception area.