West Central Reporter

Games 28 & 29 Preview: Wrapping up the Regular Season

This weekend's games mark the end of the 2022-23 regular season for Western Illinois women's basketball, as North Dakota and North Dakota State will make the journey to Macomb for games on Thursday and Saturday. Both contests will be streamed on ESPN+ and there will be a small ceremony ahead of Saturday's game to recognize the team's two outgoing seniors. 

 

GAME 28 INFO:

Who: Western Illinois (10-17, 5-11) vs North Dakota (17-9, 10-6)

When: Thursday (Feb. 23) – 6 p.m.

Where: Western Hall – Macomb, Ill.

GAME 29 INFO:

Who: Western Illinois (10-17, 5-11) vs North Dakota State (16-10, 10-6)

When: Saturday (Feb. 25) – 2 p.m.

Where: Western Hall – Macomb, Ill.

SOCIAL MEDIA: @WIUWBB (Twitter + Instagram + Facebook)

Quick Hitters:

• The Leathernecks and Fighting Hawks have matched up 11 times in program history dating back to the first contest on Nov. 29, 2014, and UND won the previous contest in Grand Forks, played on Dec. 20, 2022. Jada Thorpe led the team with 15 points while Alissa Dins grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds.
• Against North Dakota State, WIU holds a 19-13 all-time record in a series that dates back to Jan. 12, 2008 – a 72-67 home victory. NDSU came out victorious earlier this season, with Anna Deets (16) and Jada Thorpe (15) both scoring in double-figures while Kennedy Flanagan grabbed a season-high seven boards.
• The 2023 Summit League Tournament is slated to be played next weekend, March 3-7, and Western is slated to open the tournament with a game on Friday (March 3).

Scouting the Fighting Hawks

North Dakota enters the final week of Summit League action as the No. 2 seed with a 10-6 record against league opponents while holding a 17-9 overall record. The team has started to find its groove in recent weeks, having won its last five-straight and six of the last seven. Guard Kacie Borowicz ranks second in the Summit League with an average of 19.7 points per game and just snapped a 25-game streak of scoring in double figures with six against Kansas City, and her efforts have helped UND be the third most potent offense in the league at an average of 73.9 points per game.

 

Scouting the Bison

Right behind UND in the standings is NDSU, who is 16-10 this season and also 10-6 in Summit League play. After falling at Omaha and Denver two weeks ago, the Bison swept Kansas City and Oral Roberts at home last weekend, scoring a season-high 103 points against the Golden Eagles. Led by Heaven Hamling's 16.4 points per game, NDSU ranks third in the Summit League for field goal percentage (42.4%) and three-point percentage (32.2%), also averaging 72.2 points per game which ranks fourth-best behind UND's 73.9. The Bison are set to face St. Thomas on Thursday before Saturday's game.

Senior Spotlight: Elizabeth Lutz

Entering this weekend, only four Leathernecks have played more minutes in a Western Illinois uniform, and Lutz is also the all-time leader in games played with 140 appearances across the past five seasons while also becoming the 21st player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points earlier this season.

 

Originally from California, Mo., Lutz is working towards her fourth degree at Western Illinois, having earned bachelor's degrees in Anthropology, Sociology and Communication with a minor in Economics, and she will graduate with her master's in Quantitative Economics this May. She's headed down to St. Louis for the next chapter of her career, as Lutz will be working attending law school at Washington University beginning in the fall.

 

"E is someone that's been here forever and knows Western Illinois, our coaching staff, program and the athletic department better than anyone out there, and she has represented us probably more so than any other player I've coached with the awards she's won both in athletics and academics," head coach JD Gravina said. "She's just had a really nice basketball career. She's a 1,000-point scorer which is a huge accomplishment at the college level and has just been a really solid contributor who brings a good mental balance to our team. She sees the big picture and she also is really witty and funny and so I really appreciate that out of her."

 

Senior Spotlight: Jayda Adams

Having scored a career-high 13 points against Pitt on March 6, 2019, Adams enters this week's games with over 70 career appearances. She played in 61 games across two seasons at Duke before missing two seasons due to injury, and has made 10 appearances in her lone season as a Leatherneck. She hit two triples and finished with six points, two rebounds and three steals in Western's previous game against St. Thomas, setting a new season-high for minutes played in the process.

 

Originally from Irvine, Calif., Adams earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a certificate in Marketing and Management from Duke and will graduate from Western with her master's degree in Sport Management. She plans to stay in the sport industry after graduation with hopes of working in marketing while also pursuing passions in modeling and fashion design.

 

"Jayda probably worked as hard as any kid I've ever seen. I think deep down she probably knew it might be a little too late to really have the type of season that she wanted but it didn't matter and I really respect her for that," Gravina said. "She was going to do everything she could to get back to a point where she could play competitively, more for herself and her love of basketball, and she did that.

 

"It was great to see her hit her first shot in the Quad Cities… One of the bright spots last weekend was her coming in and playing like you know she could play. Just for her to have that feeling again I thought was great and hopefully made the hard work pay off. She's one of the most vocal players at practice, always positive, always encouraging, and I think that goes a long way."

Career Years

As the season nears its conclusion, three Leathernecks will put a bow on career-best years. Anna Deets has nearly doubled her scoring output from 6.8 last season to 12.3 points per game this year, also grabbing twice as many rebounds while improving the quantity and efficiency of her free throw shooting; Deets finished 23-30 (76.7%) last season and enters this week's games shooting 107-129 (82.9%) this season.

 

Alissa Dins made her first career start on opening night of the 2022-23 season and has started every single game this season, tripling her scoring and rebounding averages from 2.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game last season to 6.4 points and 7.4 rebounds this year. She's also doubled her block total (14 total last year to 29 this year) and has seen a huge uptick in total minutes, playing more minutes this year (719) than she did the previous three seasons combined (573).

Mallory McDermott has also seen an increase in playing time during the 2022-23 season, averaging 16.6 minutes per game this season after playing 12.7 last year. Her scoring has improved from 4.9 per game to 7.7 while doubling her rebounding average (1.0 to 2.0) and more than doubling her steal totals (nine to 20 this year). Against St. Thomas on Saturday, McDermott led the team in scoring with 14 points, which was her eighth double-digit scoring game of the season and the 16th of her Western Illinois career.

 

Living at the Line

While Western's success at drawing fouls this season has put the team among the nation's elite for free throw makes and attempts, the team has also seen a noticeable improvement in overall efficiency. Last year, the team shot 351-533 (65.9%) from the line, whereas this year's team is 458-611 (75.0%). The 458 makes would rank seventh-most in a single season in the season ended today, while the overall conversion rate would sit at sixth-best. Assuming Western continues to make the team's average of 16.9 per game, the team is on track to finish with 508 makes – which would be the second-highest total in program history behind the 1996-97 season, when the Leathernecks made 532.

Season-High

Kennedy Flanagan scored a season-high nine points against St. Thomas, shooting 4-5 from the field and 1-2 from deep while also grabbing four rebounds. A redshirt junior from Canton, Mo., Flanagan has appeared in every game this season with one start while playing a career-high 11.6 minutes per game.

A Team Effort

Western Illinois' perimeter defense has continued to make plays this season, as the Leathernecks rank among the Summit League's best at forcing turnovers. Entering this week's games, no team has forced more opponent turnovers than WIU's 502 total / 18.6 per game which has helped the team to a 3.41 turnover margin – good for second-best in the league. Western's 9.3 steals per game is also the third-best while holding opponents to 40.5% from the field, which is also third-best among Summit League teams.

Road to the Summit

At 5-11 in Summit League play, Western Illinois enters this week's slate of games with a high probability of entering this year's Summit League tournament seeded somewhere between No. 7 and No. 9. The tournament opens on Friday, March 3, at 12:30 p.m. with a game between No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, and is followed at 3 p.m. by the No. 7 seed playing the No. 10 seed. Games will be played at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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