Valparaiso (0-8, 0-0 MVC)
Game #9 - December 10, 2021 - 7 p.m.
at South Dakota (5-4, 0-0 Summit)
Sanford Coyote Sports Center (6,004) - Vermillion, S.D.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: Coming off of a strong performance against nationally-ranked Notre Dame on Wednesday night, the Valpo women’s basketball team faces a quick turnaround for a Friday night game against a South Dakota team which enjoys one of the best homecourt winning percentages in the nation.
Previously: Valpo stood toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s top teams Wednesday night at the ARC, leading #22/23 Notre Dame into the second half before the Fighting Irish pulled away late for a 73-56 victory. Shay Frederick led the Valpo offense with a season-best 19 points.
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Radio: WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso)
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Links for all live coverage: Available via ValpoAthletics.com
Head Coach Mary Evans: Mary Evans is in her fourth year at the helm of the program in 2021-22 and owns a record of 37-57. Evans has made an immediate impact on the program in her first three years, raising the team’s level of play to be competitive in a strong Missouri Valley Conference. Evans’ preferred style of play has been a big part of the program’s turnaround, as Valpo has led the MVC in 3-pointers made per game and in steals per game in each of the last two seasons.
Series Notes: Friday night will be the third meeting all-time between the two programs. The Coyotes have won both previous matchups, winning in Vermillion by an 81-62 final in December 2014 after earning a 81-70 win at the ARC on New Year’s Eve 2013.
@ValpoWBB...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo has been picked to finish in sixth place in the MVC preseason poll, totaling 208 points - just one point shy of fifth place.
- Valpo is in its fifth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in 2021-22.
- The Valley was ranked seventh nationally in conference NET in 2020-21 and was eighth nationally in conference RPI in 2019-20.
...looking back at last year
- Valpo posted a 12-13 overall record during the 2020-21 season and went 7-9 in Missouri Valley Conference play.
- Valpo finished the regular season in seventh place in the MVC standings.
- Included among Valpo’s 12 victories were wins at Illinois and at Purdue, the program’s first Power Five wins since 2012-13.
- Valpo closed the season with a NET of 122 - the program’s best final NET/RPI ranking since the 2003-04 campaign.
- Shay Frederick was a First Team All-MVC honoree as she led the Valley in assists and ranked sixth in scoring.
- Carie Weinman earned Honorable Mention All-MVC notice and repeated on the All-Defensive Team as she led the Valley in steals for a second straight season.
...versus #22/23 Notre Dame
- Back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minute of the first quarter from Shay Frederick gave Valpo a 19-14 lead at the end of the first.
- The Beacons extended their lead to eight points with the first basket of the second quarter, but Notre Dame out-scored Valpo 11-3 over the final eight minutes of the period to tie the game 25-25 at halftime.
- The second quarter’s defensive battle turned into an offensive explosion after the halftime break. Notre Dame shot 10-of-13 from the floor in the third quarter, while Valpo was 8-of-13 from the field in that period as well.
- It was the Beacons who scored the first two baskets of the second half, as a Frederick triple and a Morrison layup put Valpo ahead 30-25 just over a minute into the half.
- Notre Dame scored the next seven points to pull ahead 32-30 with 6:19 to play in the third quarter, and Valpo would never lead outright again. The Irish led 50-45 at the end of the third and scored nine of the first 11 points of the fourth.
- Wednesday marked Valpo’s 48th game in program history against a nationally-ranked team. It was also the program’s 28th game all-time against Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish have been nationally ranked for 16 of those — including eight visits to the ARC.
- Wednesday’s result was Valpo’s closest effort against a nationally-ranked Notre Dame team since the 2008-09 team fell 63-55 to the eighth-ranked Irish.
- Frederick’s 10-point opening period propelled her to a team-high 19 points on Wednesday, also a season best in the scoring column. She went 8-of-15 from the field, including three 3-pointers.
- Valpo forced 15 Notre Dame turnovers and converted those into 18 points, finishing the game with an 18-8 advantage in points off turnovers. The Beacons also out-scored the Fighting Irish in the paint, 32-24.
...at Bowling Green
- BGSU led 15-10 at the end of the first quarter and 31-24 at halftime.
- The Falcons out-scored Valpo 15-5 over the first five-plus minutes of the third quarter to extend their lead to 17 points at 46-29.
- Out of the media timeout, the Beacons looked like a new team, scoring on seven of their final nine possessions of the period as they out-scored the Falcons 16-3 the rest of the way to close to within 49-45 with 10 minutes remaining.
- Shay Frederick connected on a triple to open the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to one point, and after the Falcons had scored on back-to-back trips, Lauren Gunn knocked down a shot from deep to make it 53-51 with 7:29 to play.
- The Beacons never had an opportunity to tie or take the lead after that, however, as BGSU scored on six of its next seven trips to pull away.
- Carie Weinman paced Valpo in scoring for the third time this year, finishing with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. She also tied for team-high honors with three steals.
- Valpo shot 38.5% from the field. The Beacons did connect on 11-of-32 from deep, matching a season high for 3-pointers made.
- Eight different Valpo players connected on a 3-pointer Sunday.
- Meanwhile, BGSU shot 50% from the field and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, which the Falcons turned into 17 second-chance points.
...looking ahead
- Valpo will step away from competition during final exam week, returning to action Sunday, Dec. 19 at Morehead State.
- The Beacons’ last game before Christmas comes on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 21 at the ARC against Detroit Mercy.
...on the road
- Friday marks the sixth of seven non-conference road games and 16 road games in all for Valpo this season.
- Valpo has finished at or above .500 in each of the last two seasons in true road games, going 6-6 on the road last year and 9-5 in 2019-20.
@SDCoyotesWBB
- South Dakota enters Friday’s game at 5-4 this season against a strong schedule, most recently beating Bradley earlier this week, 62-39.
- The Coyotes checked in at #65 in the initial NCAA NET rankings release.
- South Dakota is 68-5 all-time inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center, which opened in 2016.
- Chloe Lamb leads the Coyotes offensively with 15.9 points/game, while Hannah Sjerven scores 15.2 points/game and paces the effort on the glass with 7.7 rebounds/game.
Frederick Approaches 1K; Climbs Assists Chart
- Junior guard Shay Frederick is nearing a scoring milestone.
- With her team-high 19 points last time out, Frederick now owns 995 career points, just five shy of 1,000 for her career.
- Frederick moved into 17th place in program history in career scoring on Wednesday as well, surpassing Cheryl Wilbrandt and Shari Toelke.
- When she hits 1,000 career points, Frederick will become the 17th player in program history to reach the milestone. She will also become just the second player all-time at Valpo with at least 1,000 points and 300 assists.
- After dishing out three assists last time out versus Notre Dame, Frederick now has 387 career assists, good for fifth in program history. Next up is Laura Richards in fourth position with 392 career assists.
Suiting Up Again and Again
- Sixth-year forward Caitlin Morrison cracked Valpo’s career top-10 for games played earlier this season at UIC.
- Morrison made her 120th appearance in the Valpo uniform last time out against Notre Dame, moving into a tie for sixth place in program history with Amber Schober, Lauren Bechtold and Tamra Braun.
- When she takes the court against South Dakota, Morrison will move into a tie for fifth in career games played with Dani Franklin.
- Morrison has started in 116 of her 120 appearances.
- She is just five games shy of reaching Kathryn Knoester’s program record of 125 career games played.
Coming Up With Steals
- Grace White matched a career high last time out against Notre Dame, racking up five steals which Valpo turned into seven points on the offensive end of the court.
- While that was White’s best performance of the season in the steals department, she has been tallying thefts all season long.
- White has registered three or more steals in six of Valpo’s eight games to date.
- She is averaging an even 3.0 steals/game so far this season, tops in the Valley and tied for 23rd nationally.
Notable Wins
- The last two seasons have featured a combined 29 wins for Valpo, including many notable victories.
- The 2020-21 squad counted some big wins among its 12 victories, including a pair of literal B1G wins, as the Brown and Gold beat multiple Big Ten teams in the same season for the first time in program history.
- Entering the season without a win over a Power Five program since 2012-13, Valpo won at Illinois for its first-ever win over the Illini, and followed four days later with a road win at Purdue - the second win in program history over the Boilermakers.
- Valpo became the first women’s basketball program with multiple nonconference road wins at Big Ten programs since 2017-18.
- The team picked up some big wins once the schedule flipped to Missouri Valley Conference play as well last season, as three of Valpo’s seven conference victories came over teams in the top-100 of the NET.
- The 2019-20 Valpo squad had one of the top turnarounds in program history from the previous year and one of the best turnarounds in the nation. It more than doubled the win total from the prior season, as the 2018-19 team went 8-24 overall, while the 2019-20 squad went 17-12.
- It was the second-largest improvement in the win column from one year to the next in program history, trailing only the 2001-02 team, which improved an astounding 19 wins from the previous season (7-22 -> 26-7).
- Valpo’s 10.5 game improvement ranked sixth nationally.
- Valpo’s 17 wins in 2019-20 made it the program’s winningest campaign since 2006-07.
- The wins in 2019-20 came in non-conference play, where Valpo posted an 8-3 record – the best pre-conference mark in program history.
- The wins came away from home, as Valpo went 9-5 in true road games – the most road wins since the 2001-02 team won nine true road games.
- The wins came when the schedule shifted to MVC action, as Valpo finished 2019-20 9-9 in MVC play – its first .500 or better record in league play since 2008-09.
Raining Threes
- In her time at the helm of the Valpo program, head coach Mary Evans’ teams have become known for their propensity to shoot 3-pointers.
- Evans’ first three seasons at the helm have seen Valpo’s top-3 single-season total 3-pointers made, including a program-record 276 in her first season in 2018-19 - a mark which ranks seventh in MVC history.
- Valpo has ranked among the top-25 in the nation in 3-pointers/game all three years, with the 2020-21 squad setting a program single-season record by averaging 9.0 triples/game.
- Prior to Evans’ arrival, Valpo had made 14 or more 3-pointers in a game just nine times in program history.
- In the three seasons with her at the helm, Valpo owns nine more games with 14+ triples, including twice matching the program single-game record of 17.
- The style of play isn’t a surprise if you follow the coaching tree. Evans coached under Bob Boldon at Ohio for five years before getting the head job at Valpo, and Boldon was a former assistant coach at FGCU under their legendary head coach, Karl Smesko, whose teams have ranked among the top-5 in the nation in 3-pointers made in each of the last 10 years.
Thievery Abounds
- As much as the offensive end has been highlighted by the 3-point numbers under Evans, the defensive side has seen prolific steal numbers over the last three seasons.
- Valpo has averaged at least 8.9 steals/game in each of Evans’ three seasons.
- Each of the last two years has seen Valpo rank among the top-40 teams nationally in steals/game.
- Carie Weinman has led the MVC in steals in each of the last two seasons. She ranked 16th nationally last year, averaging 2.9 steals/game.
- Valpo tallied double figures in steals 12 times in 25 games in 2020-21, after doing so 16 times the previous season.
- With 300 steals, the 2019-20 squad finished the campaign eighth in program history in the category. The 2001-02 team (330 steals) is the only Valpo team in the last quarter-century to have registered more steals.
A Look at the Non-Conference
- Head coach Mary Evans has put together a challenging non-conference schedule to help prepare Valpo for the grind of MVC play.
- The non-conference slate features five teams which finished within the top-100 of the NCAA NET ranking last season, including three teams which appeared in the NCAA Tournament.
- Valpo will take on four MAC opponents, including the reigning regular season (Bowling Green) and tournament (Central Michigan) champions.
- The Beacons will host Notre Dame at the ARC on Dec. 8.
- Valpo also has trips to two programs - Michigan State and South Dakota - which finished in the top-40 of the NET last year.
Starters, Assemble
- Four regular starters return for Valpo in 2021-22, including a trio who own extensive streaks of consecutive games started.
- Shay Frederick, Caitlin Morrison and Carie Weinman were three of the four players who started every game a season ago.
- Frederick has started 74 consecutive games dating back to the middle of her freshman year, while Morrison and Weinman have made 62 starts in a row.
- The three were members of a quintet which started every single game in the 2019-20 season - the first time in program history the same five players started every game.
- Grace White started all 22 games she was available for last season as well.
- Valpo had a shakeup in the starting lineup for the first time this season at WMU, inserting Cara VanKempen in place of Maya Dunson.
