Women's Basketball | 11/21/2016 7:38:00 PM

Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University Bulldog women's basketball team returns to the friendly confines of Cuddy Arena and Thomas Koontz Family Court for the 2016-17 home opener and South Atlantic Conference clash against long-time conference rival the Lenoir-Rhyne University Bears Tuesday afternoon. Tip-off is slated for a 4 p.m. start.

The Bulldogs currently sit at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the SAC. LRU is 1-0 overall with the upcoming match-up versus Wingate its first SAC contest of the season. Both teams enter the league encounter following recent victories.
 
Wingate Players to Watch
 
WU junior center Marta Miscenko (Riga, Latvia) continues a tremendous start to her third-year campaign as one of the top overall players in the conference. The Division I University of Texas El Paso transfer currently averages a double-double on the season with 20.3 points and 11.7 rebounds per contest. Miscenko has also posted a .560 field goal percentage along with 10 total blocks and two steals.
 
Sophomore guard/forward Danasia Witherspoon (Hickory, N.C.) is second on the Bulldog statistical charts with 10.7 points, six rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. The Hickory High School graduate is also shooting 42.1 percent from the field with two steals and one blocked shot.
 
Witherspoon's classmate Caroline Averette (Midlothian, Va.) ranks third for the Bulldogs in scoring with 10.3 points per contest, averaging six rebounds and one assist through the first three games. Senior guard and pre-season second team All-SAC performer Shelby Tricoli (Waynesville, N.C.) averages 10 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne Players to Watch
 
LRU sophomore forward Madi Suddreth (Taylorsville, N.C.) leads the Bears' scoring attack with 16 points, four rebounds and one assist after her performance against Warren Wilson. Suddreth also shot for a stellar 66.7 percent from the field.
 
Senior center Chelsey Romero (Hampton, Va.) is tied for second on the Bears scoring charts with senior forward Alecia Bell (Newport News, Va.) and junior guard Cassidy Joyner (Dobson, N.C.), scoring eight points each. Romero also posted an impressive 12 rebounds in the opening contest. Bell totaled seven rebounds with three steals in the contest and Joyner compiled three rebounds with two assists.
 
Bears senior forward Brooke Robinson (Vale, N.C.) had a monster performance on the boards with 10 total rebounds in LRU's season opener. She added to her worksheet with four points, one assist, one steal and three blocks.
 
Wingate Coaches
 
The Bulldogs are led by fifth-year head coach Ann Hancock ('92) who arrived on the Wingate campus for the 2012-13 season to coach for her alma mater. Hancock has compiled a 221-198 career record (UNC Wilmington and Wingate), including mentoring her WU team to a 24-6 overall record in 2013-14 and 21-9 mark a season ago during the 2015-16 campaign. Wingate won the SAC Tournament championship in both seasons. 
 
Prior to returning to her alma mater, Hancock spent two seasons as an assistant women's basketball coach at East Carolina University. Before her tenure with the Pirates, Hancock was head women's basketball coach at UNC Wilmington for 10 seasons and was an assistant coach for eight seasons at UNC Chapel Hill under legendary head coach Sylvia Hatchell. She helped the Tar Heels win the 1994 NCAA Division I National Championship. 
 
Coach Hancock is assisted by new full-time assistant women's basketball coach Celeste Stewart, who spent her previous two seasons as a graduate assistant on the WU coaching staff. Stewart was a basketball student-athlete at East Carolina University. As a point guard for the ECU Pirates, Stewart was named to the first team All-C-USA as a senior. She will use her impressive basketball resume to help lead the Bulldogs to another successful season in 2016-17 and beyond. 
 
Katelyn Grisillo joined the Bulldog coach staff in the summer of 2016 after spending the previous two seasons as the point guard for the University of South Carolina Aiken Pacers. She started in 28 games her senior season. Prior to her arrival at USC Aiken, Grisillo was a student-athlete for the Division I Presbyterian College Blue Hose. Grisillo works with assistant coach Celeste Stewart and the post players.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne Coaches
 
The LRU women's basketball program is mentored by second-year head coach Katie Pate, who returned to the Bears after spending time as an assistant coach at Division I Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga. Prior to her tenure with the GSU Panthers, Pate spent four seasons on the LRU coaching staff as both an assistant coach and associate head coach.
 
Pate led Lenoir-Rhyne to one of its best seasons in school history during the 2013-14 campaign.  The Bears finished with a 24-7 slate and won a share of the South Atlantic Conference regular season title. In addition, LRU hosted the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Tournament.
 
She began her coaching career as an assistant coach for her alma mater the Coker College Cobras from 1998-99, before moving up to Division I USC Upstate (1999-01). Pate has six years of head coaching experience at the Division II level, leading Coker (2001-05) and the Belmont Abbey College Crusaders (2005-07). She also served the 2009-10 season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Wingate Bulldogs.
 
Pate is assisted by first-year assistant coach Brad Mangum, who arrives at LRU after serving as the head coach for the Alexander Central High School women's basketball program in Taylorsville, N.C. for three seasons (2013-16). He also mentored the Fred T. Foard High School women's basketball team from 2011 to 2013.
 
Two other first-year assistant coaches join the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears in 2016-17 with Brooklyn Cartwright and LaSashia Connelly. Cartwright is a 2016 graduate of Division I Georgia Southern University where she served as a student assistant coach all four years of her undergraduate career (2012-16). Connelly was an assistant coach for the varsity women's basketball at Jimmy C. Draughn High School in Valdese, N.C. prior to arriving at LRU. She was also a four-year women's basketball student-athlete at Salem College.
 
Wingate's Last Game
 
The Wingate Bulldogs opened up conference action on the road this past Saturday versus the Tusculum College Pioneers from Greeneville, Tenn. The 'Dogs avenged back-to-back losses to the Pioneers last season with a dominant 73-48 triumph in Pioneer Arena.
 
Marta Miscenko added another brilliant performance to her junior year resume, scoring 21 points with 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the season to lead Wingate. Shelby Tricoli and Danasia Witherspoon each added 11 points and five rebounds to finish second on the Bulldog scoring charts. Caroline Averette earned her first career collegiate start, scoring 10 points, while contributing four rebounds and an assist. Senior guard Alex Tomlinson (Raleigh, N.C.) posted five points, five rebounds and nine assists.
 
Wingate led by as many as 27 points with a commanding 67-40 advantage with 3:40 remaining in the fourth quarter of play. The Pioneers took the early 3-0 lead in the opening minutes of the contest with their last lead at 6-4 before a Tomlinson three-point jumper gave the Bulldogs a 7-6 advantage with 4:12 to go in the first quarter. The 'Dogs never trailed in the contest from this point forward.
 
Wingate dominated Tusculum on the boards 47-19 and led 19-10 in assists as well. The Bulldogs shot 48.1 percent from the field compared to the Pioneers' 33.3 percent. Tusculum was hot from beyond the arc, finishing nine-of-16 from three-point range (56.3 percent), while Wingate was five-of-12 (41.7 percent) on three-point tries. The 'Dogs outscored Tusculum 38-12 in the paint. Wingate also maintained a 26-3 advantage in second chance points and the Bulldog reserves outscored Tusculum's bench 15-8.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne's Last Game
 
The LRU Bears opened their 2016-17 campaign with a blow-out victory over the Warren Wilson College Owls by a dominant margin of 71-29. The Bears held a big-time advantage on the boards, out-rebounding the Owls 70-28.
 
The Bear defense put together an impressive all-around performance, holding Warren Wilson to only 19 percent shooting from the field (11-of-57) in the contest. LRU also held the Owls to three points in both the second and fourth quarters. Twelve LRU student-athletes scored for the Bears in their victory.
 
Last Season's Matchup
 
The Bulldogs and Bears split the season series in the 2015-16 campaign with Wingate dominating the first meeting on the road at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium in Hickory by a final score of 84-34. Alex Tomlinson posted a career-high 17 points to lead the Bulldogs to victory with WU point guard Courtney Robinson (Taylors, S.C.) adding 14 points in only her second career collegiate contest.
 
Wingate led 34-18 at the halftime intermission, thanks to a stellar 48.4 team shooting percentage in the first half. The WU offense then exploded in the second half of play, compiling 50 points and shooting a tremendous 57.6 percent from the field.
 
The 'Dogs won in all major statistics categories, outscoring the Bears 50-14 in the paint and holding a slim 14-10 margin in points off turnovers. Wingate's bench also outscored the LRU reserves 40-11 and outrebounded the Bears 59-30. The Bulldog defense held the Bears to only 16.7 percent shooting. Lenoir-Rhyne guard Justyce Swango (Virginia Beach, Va.) led the hosts with eight points in the first meeting.
 
In the second meeting from Cuddy Arena, LRU withstood a furious 17-point comeback attempt from the Wingate Bulldogs to win by a narrow margin of 66-63. Witherspoon led all WU scorers with 15 points. Tricoli and Wingate senior forward Kristina Rumplasch (Mount Airy, N.C.) contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively.
 
The Bears held their biggest advantage at 35-18 at the 7:51 mark in the third quarter. Wingate then used a 25-11 run to trim the deficit down to 46-43 with 18 seconds remaining in the quarter. LRU began the fourth stanza with six unanswered points to take a 52-43 at the eight-minute mark.
 
Wingate would get no closer than five points until less than a minute remained on the clock. Averette converted a fast-break layup with 59 seconds left in the contest to cut the margin down to 64-61. LRU then turned the ball over, but the Bulldogs could not capitalize as the Bears avoided the season series sweep.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY
 
Wingate University, consistently ranked as a top 10 "best value" in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 3,200 students on three campuses in Wingate, Charlotte and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 35 minors, 12 career concentrations, nine pre-professional programs, master's degrees in accounting, business, education, physician assistant studies and sport management and doctorates in education, pharmacy and physical therapy.
 
With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past 10 years. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing colleges in the 2000's with 88 selections. Among North Carolina's colleges and universities, Wingate is number one in this millennium with 88 Academic All-America® honorees. Wingate is tops among all SAC schools with 97 lifetime Academic All-America® picks. For more information on WU athletics, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.
 
(Wingate University athletic media relations/sports network student assistant Jackson Kaplan contributed this article. A sophomore from Raleigh, Kaplan is a Communication Studies major at Wingate. He is the son of Harrison and Dona Kaplan.)