GAME STORYLINES
Wayne State will host D'Youville University for the first time in program history on Sunday, December 3 at 1 p.m. at the Wayne State Fieldhouse.  The Warriors will be looking to win their sixth game in a row after dropping the season opener at #1-Ashland.

D'Youville is a member of the East Coast Conference (ECC).  WSU and DYU are set to face each other for the second straight season.  Last year's contest in Buffalo, N.Y. was the first ever between the two squads.

This weekend's match-up is the final contest before the Green and Gold begin the GLIAC portion of its schedule, with games at Northern Michigan (December 7) and Michigan Tech (December 9) on the horizon next week.

SERIES HISTORY
In the lone all-time meeting between Wayne State and D'Youville, the Warriors notched a 78-40 win inside the College Center Gym on November 28, 2022.  Three Warriors scored in double figures, including Ashley Bower with 15 and Becca Fugate with 10.  Taylor Thompson nabbed a game-high six rebounds, while Kate McArthur and Alyssa Leister each recorded two steals.  Nine Wayne State players on the 2023-24 roster played in last season's match-up.

SCOUTING THE SAINTS
D'Youville won its conference opener on Wednesday by three (54-51) at Roberts Wesleyan.  The Saints will play at #2-Grand Valley State on Saturday before traveling to Detroit for Sunday's contest.  DYU averages 61.6 points per game on offense and allows 63.0 PPG on defense, both of which rank fifth in the ECC.

Anna Jankovic is the notable figure on the D'Youville squad, as the junior guard leads the Saints in points per game (14.2), field goals made (25), steals (12), and rebounding (43 for 8.6 RPG).  Junior guard Stella Mollica is the other D'Youville member to average in double figures.  She also paces the squad with 18 assists through five games.  Graduate student guard Brianne Moxley leads the team with seven three-pointers made on 19 attempts (.368).

D'Youville is coached by Ali Bouman, who is in her second season.  She has GLIAC ties after serving as an assistant coach at Davenport University (2021-22), and having played at Wayne State (2010-11) and Davenport (2011-14).

LAST WEEK RECAP
Wayne State pushed its win streak to five games with victories over Lawrence Tech and Edinboro in the past week.

The Green and Gold pulled away from visiting LTU in the second half to post an 80-52 triumph inside the Wayne State Fieldhouse.  After a 38-30 halftime advantage, WSU held the Blue Devils to 22 points over the final 20 minutes, including outpacing the guests 22-9 in the third quarter.  Becca Fugate earned the Warriors' first double-double of the season, and fifth of her career, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Shea Tripp led the team with 15 points, while collecting eight rebounds.  Kate McArthur posted game-bests in steals (5) and assists (5).

In the road contest at Edinboro, the Warriors tallied the first eight points of the second quarter to gain a 24-20 edge after EU led 20-16 following 10 minutes.  WSU went on an extended 16-4 run in the second quarter and never looked back, leading the entire second half on the road to a 78-67 victory in the Fighting Scots' home opener.  McKenna Ferguson scored a game-high and career-best 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including knocking down all three triple tries.  Fugate (13 points), Tripp (12), McArthur (10), and Gabi Lutchka (10) joined Ferguson in double figures.  Tripp also grabbed eight rebounds and added a game-best five steals.

NATIONAL ATTENTION
After six games played in the 2023-24 campaign, the Wayne State women's basketball program ranks highly in several team and individual categories.  Including action through November 29, the Warriors rank 33rd out of 291 programs nationally in steals per game (12.3), 42nd in scoring offense (76.2 PPG), 46th in turnover margin (4.83), 52nd in free throws made per game (15.67), 56th in field goal percentage (.441), 58th in free throw percentage (.758), 63rd in turnovers forced per game (20.17), and 66th in assists per game (15.2).

Individually, Shea Tripp and Kate McArthur are tied-for-15th in the nation and first in the GLIAC in steals (21 in six games for both).  They also rank tied-for-15th in steals per game (3.50).  McArthur is 37th in assists (28 in six games) and 47th in assists per game (4.7 APG), while Tripp ranks 68th in field goal percentage (.533).  McKenna Ferguson is 67th in free throw percentage (.882).

TRIPP EXTENDS STREAK
Shea Tripp extended her streak to 10 consecutive contests of 10 or more points with another pair of double-digit performances vs. Lawrence Tech and at Edinboro.  The junior forward scored 15 off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting in the win over the Blue Devils, while reaching 12 points in the most recent game at EU.  Her streak began with 17 points against Grand Valley State on February 18, 2023.

Tripp scored 10 or more points in 19 of her 27 games a season ago, with her career-best of 27 coming at Ferris State on February 9.  Last season, the forward set squad-best marks of .860 from the free throw line (104-of-121), 3.0 assists per game (81 in 27 games played), and 2.1 steals per game (57 in 27 GP).

THOMPSON MAKING THE MOST OF STARTING ROLE
Sophomore Taylor Thompson has started all six games to begin the 2023-24 season for head coach Carrie Lohr after starting in just one of her 20 contests as a true freshman last campaign.  The forward has made the most of her new starting role as she has averaged 6.5 rebounds per game, with at least five rebounds registered in each contest.  Thompson has also averaged 9.5 points per game after eight and six points, respectively, in the wins vs. Lawrence Tech and at Edinboro.  

She earned a career-best 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the season opener at Ashland, and 12 points in the home-opening triumph against Tiffin.

NEWCOMERS MAKING AN IMPACT
Freshmen McKenna Ferguson and Annabel Ayrault have already made large contributions to the Warriors just six games into their collegiate careers.

Ferguson tallied 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and draining all five attempts from the free throw line in the win at Malone.  Her 15 points were second on the team behind Shea Tripp's 23.  The guard went one step further in the triumph at Edinboro by leading all scorers with 17 points, including knocking down all three triple tries and all four free throw attempts.  The 17 points set a new career-best and ranks second for any single-game performance this season.

Ayrault was a key catalyst at Cedarville, collecting 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 3-PT) to help the Warriors to a win over the Yellow Jackets.  The guard has made seven of her 15 three-point attempts this year for a .467 percentage.  Ferguson's and Ayrault's success, along with Shea Tripp's streak of double figures, has led Wayne State to second behind Ferris State with 76.2 points per game, third behind Michigan Tech and Grand Valley State in three-point percentage (.325), and fifth in the league in field goal percentage (.441).

J'Ahni Walker and Emily Homan have been the other two Warrior freshmen to see playing time, while transfer ZaMaria Polk has entered all six contests for the Green and Gold.

THE LITTLE THINGS
The Warriors in 2023-24 rank highly within the conference in several non-scoring and non-shooting categories, proving that it's not always points scored and shooting percentages that tell the story of a basketball game.  WSU earned 15 steals in the victory at Edinboro and rank second in the GLIAC with 12.3 steals per game, behind Ferris State's 14.3.  

In the win over Lawrence Tech, the Warriors tied a season-high with four blocked shots and now sit fifth in the league with 2.8 BPG.  The Green and Gold's 23 assists vs. LTU set a season-best for the team by six, and the squad is third in the conference behind FSU and Parkside with 15.2 assists per game.  Lastly, Wayne State grabbed an even 50 rebounds against the Blue Devils, which propelled the team to 36.3 per game (fifth in the GLIAC) and put WSU at a plus-two rebounding margin for the campaign.

GLIAC PRESEASON POLL
1. Grand Valley State (79 points, 7 first-place votes)
2. Ferris State (73 points, 3 first-place votes)
3. Michigan Tech (66 points)
4. Northern Michigan (52 points)
5. Wayne State (46 points)
6. Parkside (40 points)
7. Saginaw Valley State (37 points)
8. Davenport (22 points)
9. Purdue Northwest (19 points)
10. Lake Superior State (16 points)

KEEP UP WITH THE ACTION
Every women's basketball GLIAC contest this season (with the exception of the road contest at Purdue Northwest) will be televised on FloSports (flohoops.com) per the conference's agreement with the streaming service.  All home non-conference games will also be available on FloSports for the 2023-24 campaign.  For the home game against D'Youville (1 p.m.), Joe Abramson will handle play-by-play duties for the women's basketball broadcast.  Abramson and Brady Beedon will share PBP responsibilities for home telecasts all season long, with veteran Tony Ortiz joining the team as sideline reporter for weekend contests.

In addition, the WSU Department of Athletics has partnered with The PreP for streaming home athletic events for the 2023-24 season.