University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
Illinois State
Panthers open road weekend at Illinois State
1/24/2024 3:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UNI women’s basketball looks to get back to its winning ways against the Illinois State Redbirds.
UNI (5-10 / 4-2 MVC) at Illinois State (11-6 / 4-3 MVC)
- 6:30 p.m. CT | Jan. 25
- CEFCU Arena | Normal, Illinois
- ESPN+
- Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS --- UNI women's basketball hits the road for the first game of a three-game road stand which opens on January 25 with a contest at Illinois State. The Panthers and the Redbirds have met on 88 other occasions with the last coming in a 72-70 score in favor of Illinois State. In that matchup, four Panthers recorded double figures with Maya McDermott leading UNI with 17 points, Grace Boffeli tallying 15, Emerson Green scoring 15, and Kam Finley finishing with 12 points.
The Panthers are coming off their first loss of 2024 in a 72-67 matchup against Belmont. In that matchup, Grace Boffeli led the Panther offense with 15 points. She recorded her third double-double of the season with 10 rebounds. Maya McDermott became the 28th Panther to cross the 1,000-point mark in the second quarter of the Belmont matchup. She is the 10th member to join in the Tanya Warren era. Forward Grace Boffeli recorded 10 rebounds in the game against the Bruins which passed Allison Starr (1996-00) who recorded 711 career rebounds. Boffeli's 715 career rebounds are just 28 short of Erin Brocka's (2007-11) No. eight spot with 743 rebounds.
Both forward Grace Boffeli and guard Emerson Green are nearing the 1,000-point mark in a UNI uniform. Boffeli is 18 points short of becoming the 29th member of the UNI 1,000-point club and Green is 41 points away from the 1,000-point mark.
Maya McDermott leads both the conference and the nation in free throw percentage. Her 95.1% from the stripe has seen all 21 free throws go down inside the McLeod Center and all 18 in conference play. She also leads the conference with 3.13 assists per turnover. That mark is eighth-best in the nation.
As a team, UNI leads the conference with a league-low 12.5 turnovers per game. The Panthers continued their streak of matchups with a three-pointer against Belmont with six three-pointers against the Bruins. They are now sitting with an active, 495-game streak which began in December of 2008.
As a program, the Panther women's basketball team is just one win away from crossing the 700-win mark. They are also 10 conference wins away from 500. Tanya Warren needs three MVC victories to break the 200-conference-win threshold and four Valley wins to claim the MVC's top spot for conference coaching wins.
Illinois State is coming off an overtime loss to the Flames of UIC. The 86-79 contest saw three Redbirds in double figures with redshirt senior guard Maya Wong leading the offense with 18 points, freshman guard Shannon Dowell recording 13 points, and sophomore guard Abbie Aalsma tallying 12 points. Dowel recorded her first double-double of the season with a career-high 13 points and career-high 12 rebounds in her fourth start of the season. The 12 rebounds are the most by a rookie for Illinois State in the Kristen Gillespie era and the second rookie to record a double-double in the same era.
This season, grad forward DeAnna Wilson leads the offense with 15.1 points per game. She averages 7.3 rebounds per game as well which is second on the Redbird squad behind senior forward Kate Bullman with 8.9 per game. Bullman is second in the MVC with 151 total rebounds and 8.9 per game. She is the top defensive rebounder in the Valley bringing in 7.7 boards on the defensive end of the court per game.
