University of Northern Iowa
Illinois State
Panthers to face Redbirds in Valley rematch
2/7/2024 3:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UNI women's basketball is set to face Illinois State inside the McLeod Center on Thursday.
UNI (7-12 / 6-4 MVC) vs. Drake (14-6 / 7-3 MVC)
- 6 p.m. CT | Feb. 8
- McLeod Center | Cedar Falls, Iowa
- ESPN+
- Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS --- UNI women's basketball welcomes Illinois State to town for a rematch inside the McLeod Center on February 8. This will be the 90th meeting of these two squads with the last coming just under two weeks ago from Normal, Illinois. In that matchup, the Redbirds took home an 88-77 victory.
UNI is coming off a 79-71 loss to Drake. In that matchup, Maya McDermott led the Panther offense with 19 points. Grace Boffeli was the other lone Panther in double figures with 17 points.Â
Forward Grace Boffeli recorded nine rebounds in the game against the Bulldogs. Her 751 passed Erin Brocka (2007-11), Lizzie Boeck (2007-11), and Amy Swisher (200-04) for the no. 6 spot on the all-time charts. She is now just seven short of Deb Drneth's (1979-83) no. five spot with 758 rebounds. Maya McDermott leads both the conference and the nation in free throw percentage. Her 95.8% (46-for-48) from the stripe has seen all 24 free throws go down inside the McLeod Center and all 25 in conference play. She also leads the conference with 3.28 assists per turnover. That mark is the fifth-best in the nation.
As a team, UNI leads the conference with a league-low 12.3 turnovers per game. That mark is the 13th-best in the nation. The Panthers continued their streak of matchups with a three-pointer against Drake with 10 three-pointers against the Bulldogs. They are now sitting with an active, 499-game streak which began in December of 2008. As a program, the Panther women's basketball team is eight conference wins away from 500.
Tanya Warren needs one MVC victory to break the 200-conference-win threshold and two Valley wins to tie Cheryl Burnett (Missouri State 1988-02) for the MVC's all-time conference coaching wins top spot.
Illinois State is coming off its third-straight win on Saturday with a 64-59 victory over Indiana State. Four Redbirds finished in double figures which included Maya Wong with 16 points, DeAnna Wilson with 13, and Kate Bullman and Shannon Dowell with 10 apiece. Â
This season, grad forward DeAnna Wilson leads the Redbirds offense, scoring 16.1 points per game. She is the team's second-best rebounder this season with 7.2 rebounds per game, just behind senior forward Kate Bullman at 8.6 boards per game. Redshirt senior guard Maya Wong is the other Redbird averaging double-figures this season with 12.4 points per game.
As a team, the Redbirds lead the Valley with 29.4 defensive rebounds per game. They are second in the conference with a 4.6 rebound margin. Kate Bullman leads the league with 7.6 defensive rebounds per game.
